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tah2
Contributor
Contributor

Switched from Parallels to VMWare, but Autodesk inventor is super slow

I've been using Parallels for 10 years, but trying to switch over due to their crazy subscription model.

I've been using parallels for Autodesk inventor, and it is close to native speed. But on VMWare is it too slow to use. and the vmware-vmx process sucks 44% with inventor open and no activity (windows task manager shows 2%)

I've got plenty of RAM, CPU allocated. 3D acceleration is on.

Help!

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

I've got plenty of RAM, CPU allocated.

Sometimes that causes the opposite of what you want to achieve.

If you assign too much RAM or CPU to the guest you might end up starving the host or make it difficult for the CPU scheduler to get enough cores available at the same time.

A rule of thumb: Don't assign more as half of available RAM and CPU that you have.

For CPU that means physical cores, not threads.

Depending on the hardware used and what you use at the host you might be able to assign more.

Also did you uninstall the Parallels tools?

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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tah2
Contributor
Contributor

I'm not over-allocated,

I've given VMWare 8GB out of 24GB, and 2 Cores.

Parallels is the same. But VMWare is super slow. Parallels is native speed

Almost like there VMWare has no GPU acceleration. (On the other-hand undo is super slow too, so maybe CPU)

And why 42% CPU consumption while idle?

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

You didn't mention if you uninstall Parallels tools.


In addition to that question, did you install VMware Tools?

Most likely both are answered by yes, but it is hard to troubleshoot anything if you have to make assumptions.

There's still not much info that has been shared for being able to deduce why you are seeing this.

What kind of apple hardware are you using?

What guest OS are you running (I understand it is windows, but which one?)

Can you attach a vmware.log file? The vmware.log file can be found within the virtual machine bundle. (Please do not copy&paste log contents into a post here as it makes the thread very difficult to navigate and read. You can find an attach link at the bottom right area when posting a reply. Note that this is only available in the discussion thread, not in the inbox)

Are you running an antivirus product? If so which one?

Finally, no it isn't normal for a VM to use 42% CPU when idle.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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tah2
Contributor
Contributor

So I'm trying this again.

I bought Fusion 14. Installed a fresh Windows 7 from scratch. Upgraded to Mojave. Tried on an iMac and MacBook pro.

Nothing works. It is 10-100 times slower than parallels. Rotating even a simple cube is jerky. On Parallels an assembly with 1000s of parts is smooth.

Anything that can be done? Or is VMware a lost cause for CAD?

Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

CAD is a primary use case, and our vGPU driver is under active development.

Is Autodesk using D3D or OpenGL?

Did you allocate 3GB (max) of vRAM to the GPU?

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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trpote
Contributor
Contributor

Mikero​ is there a timeline for the vGPU driver update? I realize it's difficult to comment on updates; however, even a rough horizon like one month, more than three months, or no sooner than next version of VMware Fusion would be helpful. Not trying to be divisive, but having an estimate would give us an idea if we need to look at alternate products for a working solution for the time being.

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

We can’t provide release date info like that, I apologize.

vGPU has 2 components... the virtual hardware and the Drivers.

We update them independently, and the ’standalone’ download for VMware Tools tends to be a bit newer than what ships with Fusion (depending on the time). The Virtual Hardware gets updated within Fusion, Workstation and ESXi.

Even if I said we were releasing an update in a month, there isn’t a guarantee that the situation for you will improve because we don’t know enough about your setup and the code paths involved here. I.e. OpenGL vs. DirectX have very different code paths in the Hypervisor stack.

Were you able to answer questions raised about OpenGL vs. D3D?

In addition, it would be helpful for us to know your Mac Model. (I.e. “MacBookPro15,1” or “MacBook Pro “Core i9” 2.9 15” Touch/Mid-2018”)

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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tah2
Contributor
Contributor

Continuing problems, tried everything. Moved other team members back to Parallels. Keep trying VMWare on my Macbook.

Inventor is DirectX, they no longer support OpenGL. They support DirectX 10 and 11.

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tah2
Contributor
Contributor

A year later. This is still really really poor performance. It is near unusable, incredibly laggy. Whereas parallels seems native.

Any Solution?

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jeremyjo
Contributor
Contributor

Just wanted to bump this thread to say that the situation hasn't changed. Parallels is still significantly faster and allows Inventor (2020 and 2019) to use "hardware graphics". This thread keeps coming up in my search for info so hopefully others can benefit.

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