graphic speed in fusion with vista ultimate

[sbess]

Dear Community,

probably someone has an quick answer to my question, but I've been searching the web for this issue but didn't found something useful.

I use Windows Vista Ultimate Edition on Bootcamp and with vmware fusion 1.1 (newest available build). When I run the experience index while booted wih bootcamp i get an overall 5.4 and especially on graphics an 5.2. it's very nice to work in vista. as soon as I use vista with vmware fusion 1.1 I get an 1.0 overall experience index because I get an 1.0 by graphics (both of them). the rest is pretty ok and only a very bit less as under bootcamp (impressive!).

yes I installed the vmware fusion tools. is there a solution for this? i'ts ok to work.. but of course not as much as if I boot directly.

thanks for help,

stefan

[admin]

The virtual hardware is different from the physcial hardware, so it's no surprise that you get different Vista experience scores. If I recall correctly, enabling 3D acceleration (under Virtual Machine > Settings while the VM is powered off) improves the rating of one of the graphics scores to something like 1.9.

Of course, the important question is how well Vista works for you, not how good a score it's reporting. If you look at the rating report, it looks like part of the reason the graphics score is low is because Vista can't figure out various parameters of the virtual video card, like how much VRAM it has. We also get a lower score than native because we currently only support DirectX 9.0 without shaders. If you're not using programs which use the extra effects, you probably don't care what the rating is.

[noetus]

No surprise at all - I'm waiting for the day when the graphics hardware will be virtualized, rather than emulated (BIG difference!), that will be sweet.

I think this is in the pipeline, but a fair ways off yet - it requires work from the graphics cards makers, not just the good people at VMWare.

I would recommend some other OS than Vista in your Fusion setup. I tried it, and Vista is really slow. XP is not much better, but Windows 2000 is superfast. So fast, it feels "native" and it's still a perfectly current OS, so should run everything you need. If you can afford it, or don't mind the limitation of a 180 day trial from MS, try Windows 2003 server converted to a Workstation - it is almost as fast as Windows 2000 in Fusion, but with almost all the features of XP. Perfect compromise, in my book (I tried VMs with all 4 of these OSes) and you can convert 2003 server into a Workstation without violating MS's EULA.

[rcardona2k]

A lot of the 3D acceleration is delegated to the hardware so I would say Fusion is already at a hybrid of emulation and pass-through virtualization. Obviously not everything is there, e.g. shaders or OpenGL support but 3D capabilities is not "all software" today. This is an exciting area, including advances in remote 3D graphics that will see a lot of change in the next two years.