VM Fusion 4 Upgrade (Simulated Graphics?)

[pmurph123]

Im currently running VM fusion 3 on a G5 Power Mac with OSX, I am interested in upgrading to fusion 4 due to the statement of up to 2.5x faster graphics.  However I am interested to know whether VMfusion 4 still simulates graphics using Ram instead of being able to access the graphics card on my Mac.  Can anyone advise on this?  Has anyone upgraded and seen a vast improvement in graphics?  I mainly use it for 3d modeling, Rhino and Solidworks

Cheers

[ShaddamIV]

Afaik there is no graphics card on the planet today that allows virtualisation, and again afaik the graphics adapters used in both Parallels and Fusion are emulations (they're quite quick about it). 

[pmurph123]

So if it is still using emulation for graphics will Fusion 4 make a vast difference on my graphics speed in solidworks?  Its all fine VMware saying "up to" 2.5 x faster but is that really true?

[ShaddamIV · Accepted solution]

The speed of the graphics "acceleration" will vary with your requirements; I assume that with some functions, it will be really quite a bit faster and with others it won't. I have no experience with Solidworks.

The best way to find out is to install the Fusion 4 trial - mind that you back up your VM prior to trying it out and that you keep your Fusion 3.1.3 images so that you can revert to Fusion 3 if you're not happy with Fusion 4.

[WoodyZ]

pmurph123 wrote: Im currently running VM fusion 3 on a G5 Power Mac

Considering VMware Fusion require an Intel based Mac and a G5 uses a PowerPC processor, I doubt you're running VMware Fusion on a G5.

[ShaddamIV]

Ah, I didn't catch that, good one

[pmurph123]

Sorry guys bad information im running a Mac Pro with an Intel Xeon Quad Core, thanks for your help im going to have a go with the trial and see how it reacts!

[TheLoneVM]

Looking forward to your feedback.  Solidworks should run pretty well, it's one of our test apps.  Solidworks 2011 with SP3 or later enables Vertex Buffer Object (VBO) support, so you should see improved performance when viewing/rotating complex objects.  However there is a know performance bug when you have complex objects selected/highlighted, it's not unusable, but it does lag down noticably, this has to do with the types of lines being drawn for the highlighting.   We also test Rhino 4, but in a pretty limited manner, I'm interested in how it performs in real-use situations.

[TheLoneVM]

>>Its all fine VMware saying "up to" 2.5 x faster but is that really true?

From my testing, this will depend on the application and the Mac graphics adapter, I don't have a lot of machines, but the one where I see the most improvement is in Futuremark 3dmark05 under Windows 7 x64 on my iMac with ATI 5670.

As noted in my previous post, Solidworks 2011 with SP3 or later should see some improvement for viewing complex objects, however, this change was made on the application side, so this should be a benefit to either Fusion 3 or Fusion 4. Note that my Solidworks knowledge is limited, basically I just run through a few benchmarks and load some samples, I am not familiar enough to do any complex modeling, so I'd be interested in how it performs in real world situations.

[pmurph123]

Apologies for the time taken to report back but I wanted to have a good go with VM4 before commenting.   Overall I would say that the graphics are slightly quicker on VM4 but the difference is marginal on both Rhino and solidworks which are at the end of the day fairly graphics heavy.   According to the windows rating they have improved (this was the only componant bringing my score down) but I would not say it was revolutional. 

I will prob stick with 4 over 3 however - every little helps at the end of the day!

Cheers Pete