Fusion optimal memory setting?

[AuroraProject]

My MBP has 2gb ram, and I'm considering installing Fusion and XP Pro. I understand by default Fusion allocates 256mb of ram, I'd like to bump that to 512mb or 1gb. What do you guys use? Would I have any adverse effects on the OS X side if i allocate 1gb to Fusion? Also what format do you use for the hard drive when you install XP? (ie FAT32 or NTFS)

Thanks!

 

[micsaund]

I use 512MB as my standard XP allocation in Fusion. I had 2GB of RAM but recently upped to 3GB considering the dirt-cheap cost of DDR2 RAM right now.

Don't over-commit the RAM or OS X does the swapping and it won't know the needs of the VM as well as its OS, and you'll get worse performance on both the host and guest.

You can do 1024 if you need it, but on a 2GB host, I'd go with 512MB or 768MB on the guest.

As for disk format, I never, ever use FAT32 any longer now that I found MacFUSE and the NTFS-3g driver. Regardless, to get files in and out of a VM in Fusion, you can use the drag-and-drop or shared-folders, so format isn't really an issue. Use NTFS for better support and features.

Mike

 

[AuroraProject]

Thanks! One more question, do you recommend setting it to 1 processor or 2?

 

[Neil321]

Thanks! One more question, do you recommend setting it to 1 processor or 2?

Two

 

[micsaund]

Two

Not always - it depends on the app you're trying to run.

Throwing 2 vCPUs at the VM will potentially cause unnecessary load on your host.

If you have an app that will utilize two CPUs in the VM and you need the performance, then by all means, sure - use it.

But don't just enable it because it's there -- if you have a dual-core host, leaving one CPU in the VM always leaves one core available for the host, which is best for both. If you enable 2 vCPUs in the VM, there will be times when Fusion has both cores of your host processing VM ticks (when they're not needed) and your host may have to wait.

EDIT: Oh, and don't forget to install the VMW Tools in the guest. That gives you an optimized graphics driver, mouse driver, balloon memory driver, and other goodies which are really required to get decent performance.

Mike

 

[Neil321]

Not always - it depends on the app you're trying to run.

Throwing 2 vCPUs at the VM will potentially cause unnecessary load on your host.

If you have an app that will utilize two CPUs in the VM and you need the performance, then by all means, sure - use it.

But don't just enable it because it's there -- if you have a dual-core host, leaving one CPU in the VM always leaves one core available for the host, which is best for both. If you enable 2 vCPUs in the VM, there will be times when Fusion has both cores of your host processing VM ticks (when they're not needed) and your host may have to wait.

EDIT: Oh, and don't forget to install the VMW Tools in the guest. That gives you an optimized graphics driver, mouse driver, balloon memory driver, and other goodies which are really required to get decent performance.

Mike

Thanks for input,the reason i answered two is for the kind of apps & progs i use under fusion it's necessary,that was selfish view i know & maybe i should have given a bit more detail to my answer