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jcgerm · Dec 6, 2003, 03:17 AM

I'm running VPC on my Powerbook, plugged in, with the processor speed on highest, but the VPC cpu clock registers as 293 MHz. Isn't that a little low? How fast does anyone elses run, and why might I be having this problem?

hadocon · Dec 6, 2003, 03:56 AM

VPC is designed to emulate a ~300mhz Pentium. You are in no danger.

ddma · Dec 6, 2003, 04:09 AM

Make sure to set your Processor Performance to "Highest" in your Energy Saver preference > Option.

anaphora68 · Dec 6, 2003, 10:01 AM

Virtual PC is not designed to run at the full clock speed of your mac. If you need something that will run windows fast, the only way to do it is a PC.

jcgerm · Dec 6, 2003, 11:32 AM

Originally posted by anaphora68:
Virtual PC is not designed to run at the full clock speed of your mac. If you need something that will run windows fast, the only way to do it is a PC.

Well yea. I was just expecting a little more than 300 MHz.

jcgerm · Dec 6, 2003, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by anaphora68:
Virtual PC is not designed to run at the full clock speed of your mac. If you need something that will run windows fast, the only way to do it is a PC.

Well yea. I was just expecting a little more than 300 MHz.

hldan · Dec 6, 2003, 01:56 PM

The newer Powerbooks seem to have a different reaction to VPC 6. I had Rev A 17" and VPC 6 running Windows XP registered at 600+Mhz. Most of the Macs that I have use VPC and roughly half of the processor speed of the Mac is what VPC 6 w/XP will register as.

I now have Rev B 17" which is much faster but I am getting the same clock speed as the original poster @ 293 Mhz. I have suffered no loss in speed but actually a gain due to the faster cache and faster processor so if you are getting acceptable performance then don't be concerned about the numbers.
VPC does emulate a Pentium II but the Mhz it emulates depends on your Mac. The 15" 1.25 Ghz should run VPC 6 really well but it will run even faster using Windows 2000.

DrDre · Dec 6, 2003, 02:30 PM

For whatever it's worth...I have VPC 6 (upgraded from 5) running Win 98 SE on my dual 1.25 Ghz G4 Desktop (1.5 GB memory) I can play Half-Life fairly decently.

I'm not sure if Win 98 is any better in terms of speed than Win 2000 or XP, but it runs fairly well on my desktop.

I mainly use it to sign into a VPN at work which requires windows.

I also have it running on my TiBook 667, which runs, understandably much slower. I have dedicated 384 Meg of memory to VPC.
Also, I noticed that if you turn off IP sharing while in Windows then it runs quite a bit faster.

urrl78 · Dec 6, 2003, 11:01 PM

My 17" Rev A runs 667 emulated Mhz with Windows 2000. Check photo:

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum34.html

jcgerm · Dec 7, 2003, 12:15 AM

So then what's the deal? Why are the newer revisions running so slow?

bmhome1 · Dec 7, 2003, 02:46 AM

The emulation process makes the Windows OS CPU hardware reports useless.

My 400mz Powerbook reported as 406mz in 98SE and XP with VPC. With an upgraded 900mz processor, the CPU in VPC still is 406mz, even though timed VPC tasks have more than doubled in speed.

Running Windows Whetstone CPU tests will give more useful results being based on standardized timed tasks.

VPC emulates a Pentium II processor with a Trios 64 video card no matter what speed Mac is running it. Its part of the design. The clock speed can only be some fraction of the Mac's speed running it.

The real key for VPC speed is to have enough RAM for both VPC and the Mac to never have to revert to virtual memory for either while running. Such as 256MB free for VPC and double that for OSX.

Still, it will always only be a PII with an ancient video card being emulated until MS updates that (right).