XP 2D video choppy on multiple displays

[derfee]

Hello,

I've been using VMWare Fusion 2.0.1 (Version 2.0.1 (128865)) since it's release, Windows XP Pro with 2 displays (One at 1920x1200 and one at 1680x1050 powered by an ATI Radeon X1900 XT) in Full Screen and "Use All displays In Full Screen" with no specific problems to speak of.

Today, I added a second graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT) and a third display running at 1680x1050. Now, running XP in full screen with "Use All Displays..." produces an extremely choppy, almost unusable experience when even just dragging a window across the screen.

I've enabled and disabled 3d acceleration, tried adding mks.vsync = "1" to the config. All to no avail...

I came across this thread: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/149178?tstart=0 and tried running Fusion out of full screen, but setting the primary display resolution in XP to the highest available resolution (5280x3200). With this setting, there is still some "choppiness", but greatly reduced! Since 5280 is a multiple of 8, I'm wondering if this might be related to the bug referenced in the aforementioned thread (Even though I'm running on ATI hardware and not NVIDIA).

Further Information:

My configuration is a Mac Pro (2 x 3Ghz Quad-Core Xeon) with 9GB RAM.

OS 10.5.5 w/ All updates

Thank you.

[admin]

We think you're running into a texture size limitation - the problem is that the way Fusion is currently written, it basically uses one video card to manage all guest monitors. The x1900's limit is 4096x4096, so with two monitors you're under this, but the third pushes you over and into software rendering. The best workaround for now (which admittedly isn't that good) is to arrange your monitors in an L so all the displays are within 4096x4096 or get a better graphics card (the Quadro 5600 and GeForce 8600/8800 have a 8192x8192 texture size limit).

I'm not sure why single window would work better than fullscreen, but I don't think it's related to that thread - Ben specifically mentioned nVidia and that it should be fixed in the final release of 2.0.

[AikidoJAPAN]

Thank you for this explanation.

I have been looking for a reason for this ever since Fusion 2.0 came out and now finally I have one.

I run 3 cinema displays side by side (3x) 2560x1600 so it appears I may be over the limits you specified. I am using 2 x ATI Radeon HD2600XT graphic cards so would they be under the GeForce's 8192x8192 limit do you know? What is the limit for the ATI Radeon HD2600XT?

Also could you please comment why this problem started with 2.0 because I was able to run in full-screen mode across all three screens on the same hardware quite fine before 2.0.

I note also that it is possible to run 3 VMs all in single screen mode (one for each screen) simultaneously without poor graphics performance.

So it is possible with the hardware - I'd also like to know if VMWare intend to rewrite to enable smooth full screen mode across all screens or would I need to upgrade to the GeForce to get around the limitation?

With thanks.

[admin]

I run 3 cinema displays side by side (3x) 2560x1600 so it appears I may be over the limits you specified. I am using 2 x ATI Radeon HD2600XT graphic cards so would they be under the GeForce's 8192x8192 limit do you know?

Yes - 3 side-by-side 2560x1600 = 7680x1600, which is smaller than 8192x8192

What is the limit for the ATI Radeon HD2600XT?

4096x4096

Also could you please comment why this problem started with 2.0 because I was able to run in full-screen mode across all three screens on the same hardware quite fine before 2.0.

Fusion 1.x did not support fullscreen multimon, not sure what you're talking about.

I note also that it is possible to run 3 VMs all in single screen mode (one for each screen) simultaneously without poor graphics performance.

Fullscreen (single monitor per virtual machine) should also work well, it's only fullscreen multimonitor (and maybe Unity?) that should be slow.

So it is possible with the hardware - I'd also like to know if VMWare intend to rewrite to enable smooth full screen mode across all screens or would I need to upgrade to the GeForce to get around the limitation?

Sorry, I'm not allowed to say - VMware policy is to not comment on unannounced features/timelines/products/etc.

[AikidoJAPAN]

Thank you for the reply.

Sorry - I did not make myself clear. This problem started with Fusion 2 Beta 2 however Fusion 2 Beta 1 did not have this problem and I was able to run on the same hardware in Multi-Screen mode very happily on Beta 1 but was forced to move to the release version. I would have happily remained at Beta 1 because of this if it were possible - so maybe someone could explain why after getting this to work in Beta 1 it should take a step backwards moving to Beta 2 and release versions.

Also, because it looks like a move to the GeForce card is called for, will it be fine to run 2 displays off of that with the third using the existing ATI card (and maybe fourth if arranged above to keep under 8192 limit).

Presumably Fusion will utilise the 8192x8192 limit of the GeForce card? How do I tell Fusion to make sure it uses the new card and not the existing ATI card?

Thanks

[AikidoJAPAN]

Hello and thank you again for your previous reply.

Could you please help me out here because I have gone to a lot of trouble and expense to create the setup in line with previous posts hoping to find a solution but still VMWare Fusion runs slow:

I purchased the GeForce 880 GT to run my 3 30" displays side by side due to its 8192x8192 limit as you advised below (3 x 2560 width = 7680).

I run 3 smaller monitors ( 1280 x 1024 ) above these for total overall dimensions of ( 7680 (3x2560) by 2624 (1600+1024) )

But still slow performance. Do you have any explanation for this?

I would appreciate your response please.

[admin]

Are you mixing graphics cards or only using GeForce 880 GTs? I don't know off the top of my head how OS X (or we) decide to use which card, but if you're using a mixed set, it's possible that the old card is still the bottleneck.

[AikidoJAPAN]

I have the GeForce in primary slot 1 with two other ATIs in the next two slots