Virtual PC slowness

[FredAkbar]

I've seen a variety of things on these forums about Virtual PC--some say it's quite speedy, but others (even those with fast computers and lots of memory) say it's horribly slow. For me, with VPC 6 running Win2k Pro , it's the latter (I have a 1 GHz iMac with 768 MB DDR RAM). My virtual Windows system runs like a 200 MHz Pentium 2 or somethin. What's up with that? Is there anything I can do to make it faster? I have looked in the VPC settings, and have given the virtual machine various amounts of memory.

--Fred

[Pedro Estarque]

if you are running OSX you could use thye unix command "nice" to increase processor priority.
It made a huge diference in my iMac G3 500

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Originally posted by Pedro Estarque
if you are running OSX you could use thye unix command "nice" to increase processor priority.
It made a huge diference in my iMac G3 500
Wow. I don't know much about Unix commands, so how could you do this?

[FredAkbar]

Thanks, I forgot about that...though it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. Do I have to quit and relaunch VPC (or at least the Windows system) or anything in order for renice to really take effect? I don't want to do that right now, because I'm installing something in Windows, but I'll check that later.

--Fred

[Catfish_Man]

ok, open terminal (in the utilities folder) when you have Virtual PC open. Type "top -au" without the quotes and look for Virtual PC (if you can't find it do something processor intensive in VPC and it should pop to the top of the list). Note the number next to VPC in the PID column. Then type "q". Next type "sudo renice -20 the number you noted", and enter your administrator password when asked for it. This will set VPC to the maximum priority, making everything else slower, and VPC faster. I haven't seen much of a difference in most apps unless I'm doing something in the background.

[Pedro Estarque]

Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
Wow. I don't know much about Unix commands, so how could you do this?

You don't need to use the terminal. There are freeware and sharewares that do this kind of stuff through GUI.
I know one named Nicer. Check versiontracker and you should find it.

Maybe the difference isn't as noticible in faster macs, but in mine, specially screen redraw is much faster, which doesn't mean it is satisfatory in anyway, only that it is better then it was before.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Originally posted by Pedro Estarque
You don't need to use the terminal. There are freeware and sharewares that do this kind of stuff through GUI.
I know one named Nicer. Check versiontracker and you should find it.

Maybe the difference isn't as noticible in faster macs, but in mine, specially screen redraw is much faster, which doesn't mean it is satisfatory in anyway, only that it is better then it was before.
Would it make much difference in a Dual 867 G4?

[Pedro Estarque]

Also notice that (at least in my mac ) VPC is actually a set of 3 processes that run whenn you launch that app. you should raise the priority of all 3 to get the speed boost

[Pedro Estarque]

Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
Would it make much difference in a Dual 867 G4?

Don't know, couldn't heart trying. I heard VPC doesn't benefit much from the second proc in your mac due to badly written code. THAT would be a nice speed boost. Maybe RealPC's or MS's next version can help you lucky ones with dual PM.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Originally posted by Pedro Estarque
Don't know, couldn't heart trying. I heard VPC doesn't benefit much from the second proc in your mac due to badly written code. THAT would be a nice speed boost. Maybe RealPC's or MS's next version can help you lucky ones with dual PM.
Speaking of RealPC, is that out for OS X yet, or still just OS 9?

[jimthorn]

Originally posted by Catfish_Man
ok, open terminal (in the utilities folder) when you have Virtual PC open. Type "top -au" without the quotes and look for Virtual PC (if you can't find it do something processor intensive in VPC and it should pop to the top of the list). Note the number next to VPC in the PID column. Then type "q". Next type "sudo renice -20 the number you noted", and enter your administrator password when asked for it. This will set VPC to the maximum priority, making everything else slower, and VPC faster. I haven't seen much of a difference in most apps unless I'm doing something in the background.

Can I assume that this only works until you quit the app or shut down? On restart, you'd need to do these steps again, or write a script to do it again?

[Huked on Fonick]

VPC runs at about 5 mhz on my computer (800meg ibook 640 ram) so whoever said 200mhz thats really fast......

[FredAkbar]

Originally posted by Huked on Fonick
VPC runs at about 5 mhz on my computer (800meg ibook 640 ram) so whoever said 200mhz thats really fast......

Actually, I was underestimating--it was really around 530 MHz. And after I defragmented my PC's drive (I think that's all I did) it is now at around 725 MHz. It still seems to run like a snail, though.

--Fred

[bradz_id]

Install the Virtual PC Additions from the extension looking icon on the bottom of a windowed VPC.

[actripxl]

diable the virtual memory in windows to make it run faster.