Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Alternative Operating Systems > Optimal RAM and Core Settings for VMWare Fusion and Leopard

Optimal RAM and Core Settings for VMWare Fusion and Leopard
Thread Tools
lfe2211
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 29, 2007, 02:10 PM
 
I did some searching on the forum but could not find specific answers to my questions.

I have a Macbook, 1.83Ghz, dual core processor, 2 Ghz of RAM, 200 MB 7400 RPM HD.

A trial version of VMWare Fusion 1.1 (VMWF) is running well with XP Pro//SP 2 in a virtual machine (VM).

Here are my questions.

1--Is there an optimal allocation of RAM for VMWF and Leopard?

2--Should I assign 2 cores to the XP Pro//SP2 VM?

Are the answers to the above 2 questions dependent on what I'm running in the VM? Is the answer just "Trial and Error"?

I run Office 2007 (lots of complex Excel and Access usage), JMP (SAS Stat program), Safari, Firefox, Roboform and Clipmate in the VM. No games. I do lots of charting, graphing and complex math calculations in Excel, Access and JMP.

Given these Apps, will VMWF, which can use 2 cores, be better suited to my needs than Parallells which uses only 1 core?

Thanks for any help.
     
64stang06
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 29, 2007, 10:03 PM
 
I have 2GB of RAM in my MacBook and allocate 768MB for XP, with both cores activated in Fusion. Seems to work for me, but again, it's more of a trial and error type thing as results may vary
MacBook Pro 13" 2.8GHz Core i7/8GB RAM/750GB Hard Drive - Mac OS X 10.7.3
     
lfe2211  (op)
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 31, 2007, 05:35 PM
 
In the MacTech article "Virtualization Benchmarking", the following statement was made:

VMware Fusion has the capability of creating a virtual machine with two virtual processors. Parallels does not have that capability. For most tasks, two virtual processors had no significant impact, and sometimes ran even slower than the single processor configuration. And, even though we didn't test it here, we would expect those applications that can take advantage of multiple processors to run more quickly in a two virtual processor environment.

Can anyone explain this part of the quote to me,

"For most tasks, two virtual processors had no significant impact, and sometimes ran even slower than the single processor configuration"

How can this be correct?

Thanks for any help.
     
cgc
Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Down by the river
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 31, 2007, 09:33 PM
 
Why would you allocate two cores when you only have two cores? What's left to run OS X? I allocate two cores on my MacPro and sometimes (rarely) see the OS (XP or a Linux distro) use more than one core. Stick to one core unless you know the application is optimized for multiple cores.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:54 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,