Windows 7 64-bit 3d graphics acceleration

[radiodavefm]

One thing I noticed when I enabled, 3d graphics acceleration in Windows 7 is that the video performance is kind of sluggish. Videos on youtube and screensavers are jerky. With 3d graphics off, I have no problems but would prefer to keep the 3d graphics acceleration on. Is there a setting I need to tweak in order to boost the performance for my virtual machine.

My computer is an AMD x4 core

2 1-Terabyte hard drive

8GB Memory

1 GB video card

Right now I'm running my virtual system with 6gb memory.

Thank you.

[Scissor]

- What OS is your Host running?

- Check to see if you are running the latest driver for your Host's video card.

- Try configuring your Guest with a single vCPU.

[Scissor]

Also,

- What version of VMware Workstation are you running? Workstation 7.1 is the latest and has some 3D improvements.

- Did you install the VMware Tools inside your Guest? If you did, try uninstalling them, rebooting the Guest, and reinstalling the Tools.

[radiodavefm]

Yeah...it might help if you know my software specs.

My host is the 64-bit version of Linux Ubuntu Lucid 10.04, and I do have the current up to date NVIDIA drivers installed through the hardware drivers. My computer is also capable of hardware virtualization.

As for the later part of your post, I did uninstall the vmware tools and re-installed it. I did notice a slight performance boost as it had been much more jerky before.

Two things I will try when I get home from your post:

1) I will try just the 1 vCPU to see if that makes a difference

2) I also alternate between both VMWare player and Workstation. I believe I tried it out with VMWare player, but I will try it with VM Workstation 7.1 and see how much of a difference it makes.

[Scissor]

My host is the 64-bit version of Linux Ubuntu Lucid 10.04,

Looks like official support for Ubuntu 10.04 as a Host was just added in the latest release of Player (3.1 Build 261024) and Workstation ( 7.1 Build 261024) released on May 25th.

http://www.vmware.com/support/player31/doc/releasenotes_player31.html

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws71/doc/releasenotes_ws71.html

Two things I will try when I get home from your post:

1) I will try just the 1 vCPU to see if that makes a difference

I think this will help.

2) I also alternate between both VMWare player and Workstation. I believe I tried it out with VMWare player, but I will try it with VM Workstation 7.1 and see how much of a difference it makes.

Player vs Workstation performance should be similar.

Keep us posted on your results!

[radiodavefm]

Okay...I made the modifications by going to 1 vCPU and I alternated between workstation and player. The results were exactly the same. It starts up decently fast, but when Windows 7 calls up the drivers and the 3d acceleration enabled in VMWare, it's still sluggish and choppy. Only when I turn off 3d acceleration, will the videos on youtube look normal instead of choppy and, of course, aero and extras like screensavers won't work without 3d support. So, I'm still back at square 1 with 3d acceleration.

[Scissor]

Can you attach the vmware.log file from the directory containing your Guest?

Can you try (temporarily) reducing the amount of RAM allocated to your Guest to see if it makes a difference (try 1 or 2 GB to see if it makes a difference)?

Are you running any CPU-intensive processes on your Host while you are running these tests (SETI@Home, etc?)

[radiodavefm]

I've run it with basic behind the scenes Ubuntu Linux programs running. I haven't been running any resource hungry programs that have slowed the system down.

I'll have to give you my vmware log file tomorrow night as I'm working tonight and have a tight schedule, and I won't be near my computer tonight.

As far as the memory resource goes, I've adjusted it many times back and forth and even increased it to 6gb at one time before backing it down to 4gb where it is right now. Couldn't see any performance differences. Even backing the virtual machine down to 1 vCPU didn't make a difference.

Is there a way to adjust the virtual video memory settings of my graphics card and finding away to allocating it more memory? I know in Virtualbox you could do that. My video card is 1gb, and I have plenty of memory to spare since I don't run any intense 3d programs on the host.

[labviewguru73]

I am having similar issues, either in Workstation 9 or in Player 7.0.1. Sluggish performance when running with 3D acceleration turned on, and after a while the guest blue screens with a notification about being caught in an infinite loop. It also freezes the host up and reboots everything.

[labviewguru73]

Sorry the specs are Dell M4800

32GB or RAM

AMD Firepro M5100 2GB Video board

Windows 7 SP1 on host and guest machine