Enabling 4 cores in Fusion

[KD7IWP]

I just switched from a Macbook Pro to a Quad core nehalem Mac Pro and would like to upgrade my existing Windows VM in Fusion to have 4 virtual cores. However, the latest version of Fusion is still only giving me the option of 1 or 2 cpu's. Anyone know how I can get it to allow me to use 4? (ps, I did some searching already and haven't found any answers, sorry)

 

[fishkorp]

Do you only have a single quad-core chip? If so, you can't enable 4 virtual cores in the VM. That option is only available for dual quad-core machines (8-core machiens). At least that's the impression I get from reading the info on VMware's page.

 

[KD7IWP]

Thank you so much for the info. That does however surprise me, because with my dual core Macbook Pro I was able to select 2 virtual CPU's... And since my Mac Pro has hyperthreading, the system does think I have 8 CPU's. But I'll definitely read VMWare's data more closely on it now.

 

[KD7IWP]

Answer

Looks like Microsoft licenses Windows XP Pro for only 2 physical CPU's. Fusion tells Windows that each processor core is a physical CPU, and therefore you can only select 2 virtual CPU's. If I want to select 4, I would need Windows server which is licensed for multiple CPU's. Alternatively, VMWare may come out with an update later that tells Windows each of my cores is actually a core and not a physical CPU.

 

[fishkorp]

That actually makes a lot more sense, the licensing thing. I must've just been interpreting what I read wrong (I do that quite frequently, lol).