Best performance out of Windows XP on a PowerMacG5

[WalnutSpice]

Sorry I've got so many questions here, but I was wondering how I can get the best performance out of Windows XP on a Dual 1.8 G5. I've tried Virtual PC 2007 but it only allows 16MB VRAM and emulates a very slow CPU that doesn't allow pretty much any programs to run on it. I've heard of emulators like Q but I can't find a working download link for it anywhere.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Sorry I've got so many questions here, but I was wondering how I can get the best performance out of Windows XP on a Dual 1.8 G5. I've tried Virtual PC 2007 but it only allows 16MB VRAM and emulates a very slow CPU that doesn't allow pretty much any programs to run on it. I've heard of emulators like Q but I can't find a working download link for it anywhere.

For emulating XP on the G5, VPC 7 is as good as it gets.
You're better off lowering the VRAM enough to match your display output and don't use all of the 512MB RAM - it actually decreases performance.
Turn off all options you won't be using (networking/USB etc) and slim down XP to the bare bones - this will give you a fractional performance gain but not much.
If you can go to an earlier Windows version you will see an increase in UI response - Windows 2000 offers good compatibility with XP but 98 and 95 are much faster.
My personal experience is that VPC can sometimes run software designed for faster machines - painfully slow to the point of being useless - but is generally comfortable emulating a PC around the 200Mhz mark - it all depends on the type of software you're trying to run too.

There's a thread about it here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/has-anyone-played-with-virtual-pc-2007-lately.1898836/

 

[eyoungren]

And turn off all of XP's eye candy.

You'll want to be looking for the visual effects section in the following link, but the rest might be useful too.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/308417

 

[Altemose]

Also ensure that you are on the latest version of Virtual PC 7 which was 7.0.2 as I recall. If I remember correctly, it corrected some memory issues.

 

[RedCroissant]

Basically, I wouldn't recommend it. I've tried it and it was really slow and underperformed. XP works better on different hardware and if you really want to run XP on a Mac, get a Core Solo Mac Mini and that should do it for you.

 

[MagicBoy]

Virtual PC is interesting technically, but I wouldn't want to use it every day. As above, either get an early Intel Mac or a 10 year old PC/laptop for running Windows.

 

[WalnutSpice]

Virtual PC is interesting technically, but I wouldn't want to use it every day. As above, either get an early Intel Mac or a 10 year old PC/laptop for running Windows.

I just got a Core 2 Duo build up and running with Windows 8, so I don't need VM as badly anymore.

 

[eyoungren]

Virtual PC is interesting technically, but I wouldn't want to use it every day.

^^^This.

We got VPC 7 with our copy of Office way back when. I have never been able to find any use for it with so many PCs at work within an arm's distance from where I am sitting.

It's frustrating because I've always wanted to find some solid reason for needing to have it installed, but there is just nothing it can do better than the two, three, or four PCs sitting right next to me.

 

[bunnspecial]

I have it on my work G5 to run Sigmaplot, but ultimately just threw in the towel and started using one of multitude of Windows boxes to do the same work. It's not worth the hassle, IMO.

 

[happyfrappy]

It's frustrating because I've always wanted to find some solid reason for needing to have it installed, but there is just nothing it can do better than the two, three, or four PCs sitting right next to me.

Wait until you need to dust off a Zip or floppy for data transfer, since I've been mostly in notebook environments finding a desktop PC with either built-in hasn't been seen since 2002/PowerMac G4 Quicksilver era(oddly in the server market, plenty of 3M/Imation SuperDisk LS120/240MB floppy drives were installed until 2008).