Best CPU configuration for my new Windows 2022 Server VM

[oochiewallie]

Hi, I'm at the point of creating a new VMware environment based on Windows 2022 Server Standard (x64), to be used as a development machine (with Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise as IDE).

My host is a Windows 11 notebook with an i7-1165G7 processor with 4 cores (8 threads). Is it then best to configure my guest to have 1 processor and 4 cores (so a total of 1 x 4 = 4 cores), so it matches my host? Or is it better (performance-wise) to choose a higher number here? I'm a little confused here. Hope anyone is willing to  help.

Thanks in advance!

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Best is 2 vCPU's.

Threads don't count and you need to leave some cores free for your host.

--
Wil

[oochiewallie]

Thanks Wil, but I don't quite follow you.

I found this link, saying that I can calculate the total number of available vCPUs as follows: (Threads x Cores) x Physical CPU = Number vCPU.

That would mean that I have (8 x 4) x 1 = 32 vCPUs available. But you said that threads don't count, so why are they being taken into account anyway?

Let's say I'll have a maximum of 3 of the same VMs (all linked clones of that same Windows 2022 Server machine) running at the same time and I'm running a Windows 11 Pro host machine. What would be the best settings for that VM?

Shall I set a 2 x 2 over there? Or is it better to set it to 1 x 4? Or maybe even more?

[wila]

Hi,

The referenced link is for data centers... and thus hypervisors running on metal.
They are not running VMware Workstation -on a laptop- on top of a desktop OS.

You can't really apply 1 on 1 what you read about servers running in a data center to your scenario.

You can try whatever CPU config you want. Some might work better than others, it might even work well for a higher core setting than I told you.

I already gave my advice and I am sticking with that advice 🙂

--
Wil

[oochiewallie]

Aah, I see. Thanks for explaing that. I'm kind of a noob in setting up new VMs, so that's why I was asking.

So you recommended 2 vCPUs. But is that in a 2 x 1 (2 processors with both 1 core), or 1 x 2 (1 processor with 2 cores) configuration (see my screenshot above)?

[wila]

Hi,

No worries, I take no offense either way. Life's too short for that.

Both options are comparable. Each will give your VM 2 vCPU's and normally there is no difference from a performance point of view.

The difference is in how the CPU's are presented to the guest OS. As a single CPU with 2 cores or as 2 separate CPU's with one core each. For the latter each CPU has its own socket on the motherboard (at least it does in the physical world), so it is sometimes also referred to as a dual socket config.

The main reason for this option is how sometimes software is restricted by CPU count and not by core count. For example Windows 10 itself.
See: https://superuser.com/questions/959888/how-many-cpu-sockets-does-windows-10-support

You can have 20 cores, but only 2 sockets...

All of the above takes into account that you're running on a laptop with a single CPU package.

--
Wil