MickeyGP1378
Contributor
Contributor

Slow Aero on high-end machine (Win7)

Hey guys, you might remember my "Aero won't work" post from 2016.

Well, I recently got a gaming machine! Specs here:

CPU: AMD FX-8300 Eight Core CPU 3.3GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5
Board: GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P AM3+ Socket
OS: Windows 10 Pro Creators Update x64

Ok, this computer is very good and never lags. I installed Windows 7 on VMware Workstation Pro 12.5 and the performance is good, but when I enable aero it just lags down

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64
RAM: 4 GB
Cores: 1 processor, 4 cores. Total = 4 cores
Video memory: 2GB
Virtualization settings: CPU counters and AMD-V/RVI are enabled

bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

You don't need AMD-V/RVI enabled unless you want to run a VM within the VM.

Make sure of the following:

  1. Nvidia drivers are up-to-date.
  2. Hardware compatibility of your VM is set to version 12 (so that the Windows VM can support DX10)
  3. VMware Tools of the VM is updated. SVGA 3D driver current version is 8.15.1.50

If that still doesn't give you good Aero, you may want to post your vmx, vmware.log, dxdiag results of both host and VM (EDIT: attaching text files will do instead of screenshots).

EDIT: Technically, Aero requires DX9 but the hardware compatibility set to 12 just makes sure everything is in sync with versions amongst software, drivers, and VM version.

MickeyGP1378
Contributor
Contributor

The VM is incredibly slow and, yes, aero is slow too.

FUN FACT: One day I ran the virtual machine and it just crashed my host PC with a beautiful BSOD

VMX https://pastebin.com/raw/z264iV1r

vmware.log https://pastebin.com/raw/s15APv4F

dxdiag Host https://pastebin.com/raw/rJENCiT5

dxdiag VM https://pastebin.com/raw/90RKa5GH

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bluefirestorm
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Today's graphic card are much more powerful compared to the time when Windows 7 launched. Looks like almost all requirements for good Aero in Windows 7 VM is there: HW12, DX10 support in VM, VM uses GTX 1050 as render device.

I did find some strange settings in your VMX file.

video memory - set it back to recommended 1GB. Setting to 2GB doesn't get you any better performance in Aero; plus the video memory in VM doesn't work the way discrete graphics cards such as Nvidia do.

6096 VM RAM - If you want 6 Gigabytes memory for the VM, this number should be 6144 in the VM Memory Settings

Virtualize CPU Performance Counters - unless you have software to monitor your VM performance, you don't need this setting to be checked in the VM Processor settings.

smBIOS.reflectHost = "TRUE" - don't understand why this would be needed unless you want to install software that checks BIOS/EFI vendor signature. This would have been added manually as this parameter isn't there when a VM is created. Suggest you remove this.

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MickeyGP1378
Contributor
Contributor

I added that "smBIOS.reflectHost = "TRUE"" line by myself because I don't want Indian tech support scammers know that my VM.... is a VM

And yeah 2GB is a little bit exagerated...

Aero is a little bit better but it still lags

2017-05-10 12_24_02-Windows 7 Home Premium x64 - VMware Workstation.png

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MickeyGP1378
Contributor
Contributor

Waiting for response.....

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bluefirestorm
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I do not know of what other input/advice/suggestions to make.

As you can see yourself, the Aero and graphics score from the WEI of your VM is already at the maximum of 7.9.

As I have said previously, it doesn't take much with today's graphics hardware to get good Aero performance. Aero technology is around 8 years old now. The difference with today's and more recent graphics hardware is that these can deliver the Aero without running the fans constantly.

I used to have a laptop with Nvidia GT 330M and it already had an Aero/graphics score of 6.3. I have converted it into a VM and upgraded to Windows 10 Professional running in VMware Fusion. Its WinSAT graphics score is 8.1 with Dx9, Dx10 subscores of 9.9; and it just has an Iris Pro 5200 as the graphics hardware.

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MickeyGP1378
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Contributor

I asked a person on a chat group that had a FX 6300 processor paired with a GTX 1050

He said that the performance was great.....

I don't know what is happening here

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scotland1
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same problem with HUGE lags when aero is active on Dell 7510 (1575 xeon, 64gb RAM, 2gb of m2.ssd) that I bought over $5000 (jan 2017). I have two video cards on board - Nvidia Quadro M2000M and Intell. I guess Dell have problem with laptops that contain two video cards and vmware doesn't support it properly.

Solution that helped me is very simple and fast - just downgrade from 12.x to 10.x hardware compatibility (VM->Manage->Change Hardware Compatibility).

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