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CSL5000
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion 7 graphics performance - Windows Experience Index drops

I re-ran the Windows Experience Index following the upgrade to Fusion 7.

My CPU and Hard Drive results remained the same, and my memory result (operations per second) increased from 5.5 to 7.4 which is great.

I saw my graphics performance drop however :-

* Desktop performance for Windows Aero went from 5.4 to 4.4

* 3D business and gaming graphics went from 4.7 to 4.5

Anyone else seeing similar results? I am running on an early 2011 MacBook Pro with a 2.3GHz Core i5, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 3000 512MB, and my VM is running with 2 cores and 4GB of memory assigned.

62 Replies
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

I believe that processor only has two cores.  If that's the case, you're starving the host for resources - drop back to 1 core in the guest and see if that helps.

Likewise, make sure you upgraded both the virtual hardware and VMWare tools in the guest.

CSL5000
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the input dlhotka.  The CPU is a quad core - split 2 for Mac, 2 for Windows.  I had upgraded the virtual hardware to the latest (v11 I believe) prior to first boot, and checked the vmware tools were up to date (de-installed & re-installed to make sure).  So unfortunately it is something else. 

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Hmm, it's possible that the Experience score is just flaxy (it's not exact) because of differences in what else is running on the host.  Do you perceive any slowdown?

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resonanttoe
Contributor
Contributor

I'm seeing the same in scores.

In so far as performance, Thief 2 (as an older game) is struggling under Fusion 7 but ran perfectly in 6.

VM has 16GB ram allocated (of 32 Physical)

2 Cores. (of four physical)

2048 Graphics memory (Of 4GB Physical).

6.0 had half as much resources and ran fine.

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Rohland
Contributor
Contributor

I'm seeing the same issue. I upgraded to VMWare Fusion 7 yesterday (from 6) and have picked up a noticeable drop in performance when rendering graphics. Getting checkerboard effect in Chrome when scrolling amongst other things.

I've tried various GPU memory settings.

Running late 2013 Macbook Pro 15" (Retina).

VM: Windows 8.1

Cores: 4

Memory: 7GB

GPU Memory: Tried 256MB, 1024MB and 2046MB

Smiley Sad

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Rohland
Contributor
Contributor

I just downgraded to 6.0 and restored a snapshot of my VM before the upgrade.

Back to normal, graphics performance is sorted (no checkerboard when scrolling in Chrome etc.).

Seems like VMWare Fusion 7 is a no go until this is sorted.

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resonanttoe
Contributor
Contributor

I ended up downgrading as well, the performance hit wasn't worth it. I'll look in to 7 another day when it looks like patches have happened.

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olivergttc
Contributor
Contributor

I was running v6 as a trial. v7 I purchased. I take it the new key wouldn't work if I were to downgrade? Also - would the "upgraded" virtual machine be ok in v6?

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PeteRasmo
Contributor
Contributor

I ran into the same performance issue:  mine manifest itself mostly within Visual Studio 2012:  the code editor was *very* slow to use (scrolling, selecting, copy, paste).  I tried both full-screen and Unity modes with the same results.  I live and breath VS2012 all day, so this was a deal-breaker to me, so I uninstalled, reinstalled v6, restored my saved vm files, and all is working fine again.  I'll try again once I see some indicator of progress.

krd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

After installing Fusion 7, did you keep the VM hardware version the same or did you upgrade?  If you upgraded, did you also upgrade VMware tools?

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Rohland
Contributor
Contributor

I did upgrade the VMWare tools (I also uninstalled and reinstalled them after noticing the huge degrade in graphics performance).

Initially I kept the VM specs the same, but started tweaking them after noticing issues. I increased GPU memory to the max, added CPU cores and memory.

Nothing I did seemed to help (after rebooting the VM and host several times). In the end I gave up and reverted to 6 Smiley Sad

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krd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Ok, thanks for confirming you updated VMware tools too.  Sorry, you experienced this performance issue.  We will investigate further.

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bajx
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am also having this same exact issue. My Windows 7 64bit development virtual machine ran Visual Studio 2013 okay in VMware Fusion 6. In VMware Fusion 7, it is unusable. I have tried setting it to 'always use high performance graphics' and it is still awful. I upgraded the virtual machine and I installed the VMWare tools.

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geckonz
Contributor
Contributor

I am also having slow Windows graphics performance compared with Fusion 6. I now frequently get messages from Windows that it has detect my computer is running slow and then it drops the Aero theme to Basic.

I am running a late 2013 Macbook Pro 13" (Retina) with 16GB RAM.

VM: Windows 7 Ent

Cores: 2

Memory: 5GB

GPU Memory: 1024MB

I am using Fusion 7 Pro and I have installed McAfee in the VM. I have also upgraded the hardware and the VM Tools.

I do run the VM in full screen on a Thunderbolt display at 2560 x 1440 x 32bit though, but Fusion 6 handled this fine.

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bitslap
Contributor
Contributor

You would think when one of the features of a release is "Even Better Performance" and "Near Native Performance",  that they would test and certify performance.

Version 6.0.x (up to the latest) has such severe graphics issues it is ridiculous (not repainting portions of the screen), but performance was tolerable. Very annoying when coding in the Windows Environment and you do a refactor, and to see the changes you have to move the mouse over things so they repaint.

Now 7 adds a performance penalty when it is being sold as "Even Better Performance" and "Near Native Performance".

Really unhappy with VMWare. This shows a dangerous lack of disciplined process in their SDLC, or just blatant and deliberate oversight. It's not like it is due to some super rare hardware/software combination.

It's as simple as buying a standard Retina MacBook Pro configuration, run Windows 7 64 bit on VMWare Fusion, and observe.

And even more... when the test is as simple as comparing benchmarks between versions... that's a big stumble.

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odaveygttc
Contributor
Contributor

After the 4th reinstallation of vmware tools it's finally stable again. 5 phones calls with vmware tech reps and 5 different logs sent to them which they requested and they couldn't figure it out. Glad I resolved it - too bad their support sucks a fat one.

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PeteRasmo
Contributor
Contributor

odaveygttc:  What do you mean by 'stable again'?  Performance is better?  What was the resolution?

-  Pete.

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odaveygttc
Contributor
Contributor

Reinstalling vmware tools over and over. It's stable now and no more graphic related alerts. Device manager all cleaned up too.

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bajx
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can we get some kind of comment on this from VMWare?

My graphics performance dropped from a 6.0 to a 5.8 in the Windows experience index. But, worse than that, the graphics seems to be 'hiccuping' when dragging windows, watching a video, or just generally using the computer when Aero is turned on. Also, the fan on my Macbook Pro pretty much stays on while running the VM. But, in 6.0, the fan was almost never on (unless I was compiling or doing something intensive) and the graphics performed well.

This seems like a big waste of $80 for a headache - where it's not very easy to go right back to 6.0.