Fusion/Parallels and Mac Pro..

[Lurgen]

I'm running VMWare Fusion 100% of the time, with dual-core enabled and 3GB of RAM allocated to it. I'm using it to access my Boot Camp partition, which has my productivity applications installed on it, as well as my games.

Games run under it, but performance isn't suitable for serious gaming. It supports DX9, but not DX10, and has some experimental hardware acceleration support.

Basically though, it isn't there for gaming. If you want to play a game, boot into Boot Camp. You will not get full performance out of a VM, ever, simply because of the overhead associated with virtualising the hardware layers. This isn't something that I'd expect to be "solved" this year. Or any time in the near future.

Still, if you use it for what it was intended for Fusion and Parallels are unbelievably good. Application performance is excellent, and being able to load my Boot Camp partition means I only have to maintain one XP instance at home.

If you're thinking about heading down the VM path, here are a couple of tips...
- lots of RAM. 2GB won't cut it, you need to assume 2GB minimum for OSX and 2GB minimum for your guest machine, so plan on buying at least 4GB in total (I have 10GB)
- a dedicated hard drive for Boot Camp will significantly improve performance - disk I/O is one of the first bottlenecks that you will hit (after RAM)
- work out in advance whether you need x64 guest support or not (Parallels doesn't support x64 yet)
- use it for what it was designed for and you'll love it

 

[jb60606]

My VMware Fusion suddenly doesn't work in UNITY mode anymore, and I'm pissed. It'll open program windows, though I can't move them, type in them (except for Notepad), or utilize them in any manner.

I uninstalled all apps I installed before it stopped working (Cisco VPN, McAfee Security Center AV/Firewall/Spam & Phish filter, Logitech SetPoint mouse software) and it still doesn't work. The only thing installed on the Mac OS was the Leopard Graphics update which I am not willing to remove.

I updated Fusion to the latest update, and that didn't help either. Has anyone else come across this problem? Any recommendations?

works now. If anyone cares, I had to reinstall vmwre tools in windows. I believe it was the Logitech SetPoint software for my wireless MX Revolution mouse that caused the issue.

 

[kittiyut]

Anybody running Vista 64 in a Fusion VM? Just wondering what the Windows Experience Index was in that case...

You get only 1 despite 2 procs, 8GB RAM allocated. Reason? Graphics!
Even though I have the FX5600, Vista does not recognize it as the FX
because of the drivers VM uses.

 

[shokunin]

Anybody running Vista 64 in a Fusion VM? Just wondering what the Windows Experience Index was in that case...

I run both VM Vista x64 one off of bootcamp and another in a vmware session. I had to modify the vdk file to change vista to vista-64 as VMware recognized bootcamp as a 32bit version and not x64.

The experience index is a 1.0, I think since VMware still does not support Aero and other advance graphics for vista. This is even with 8 core 16GB Mac Pro.

I run Newsbin Pro in one vista x64 session. Works great, speedy too..

 

[hayduke]

What about 64-bit Linux in Parallels? Is this possible yet? Any flavor of install work better than another?

 

[IC3D]

I run parallels and bootcamp on my pro. It works great!

 

[617arg]

Glad to hear so many people have gotten Vista working so well with Fusion.

I had my hopes set on doing the same, and this ability was ultimately what convinced me to switch to a Mac Pro, but unfortunately I've come across a bit of a problem.

I need to use Autocad for work (I'm on it about 10 hours a day), and it seems to work well in Fusion, but my license keeps on breaking. This seems to happen mostly when I let the machine go to sleep, but it has happened without the machine going to sleep as well.

Have any of you come across this issue with the programs you use in Fusion or Parallels?

Is there some way to work around this? My only option now is to just use Bootcamp, but I'd much prefer to use OS X on this new machine. Running Windows in Bootcamp for 10 hours a day seems to defeat the purpose..........

 

[IscariotJ]

What about 64-bit Linux in Parallels? Is this possible yet? Any flavor of install work better than another?

According to Lurgen ( several posts up ), no.

Fusion does, though.

I used to run Parallels on a CD MacBook, but found their *nix support ( and their customer support ) sadly lacking. I switched to Fusion when the beta became public. Apparently Parallels has improved....

FWIW, I have an OpenSolaris VM constantly running, headless ( Force Quit Fusion once the VM is up and running; not very Mac, but it's the unofficial solution until they release a proper WorkStation ). The only time the VM gets restarted, is when Apple release a update....

 

[dgdosen]

You get only 1 despite 2 procs, 8GB RAM allocated. Reason? Graphics!
Even though I have the FX5600, Vista does not recognize it as the FX
because of the drivers VM uses.

Aww hamburgers...

Are the numbers high on everything but the two graphic grades? Would you all say VMWare Fusion is as fast as say, VMWare Workstation (Windows) on a multiproc box? That performance is fine by me - and I'd be happy with that.

My MP should be delivered on Thursday, and I was planning on setting up RAID 01 and just run a VM for Windows. I wanted avoid Bootcamp in order to use the bays for RAID.

I'll probably just go with Fusion and Windows Server 2008 then, don't really have a need for Vista Aero and it will be better for development work with in my mind. Now I feel like I've wasted money on the 8800 GT, as I'm not a gamer, and it will probably just eat up more power in the long run. I should have went with two 2600s as I've got three monitors and am not upgrading to a 30" screen until they all go LED.

Anybody in Seattle want to trade an 8800 GT for two 20600 XTs?

 

[krye]

I have in-turn bought both Parallels and Fusion when they were both on $39.99 pre-order special. I like to keep a Windows VM handy just in case I need access to a PC. Although, I can count on one hand the times I've actually needed it over the past year+. At least I know it's there in case I come across something that only runs on a PC, rare, but it does happen. The more and more I use the Mac, the less and less useful I find Windows. But I keep a Virtual Machine on my drive just in case.

 

[mkrad]

I have both Parallels and Fusion.

Both will run stripped-down OS's without problems.

But start adding apps that require more processing or memory resources, and Parallels will eventually not start.

Fusion support of multi-core machines, 64 bit and ability to recruit much more RAM than Parallels make it much more useful in my opinion.

Have tried both with XP and Vista32.

 

[ajn946]

For those of you running fusion "all the time", how long can you run it for non stop running say 1 app (not terribly intensive app) before you experience problems (i.i have to restart), if at all?

 

[Lurgen]

For those of you running fusion "all the time", how long can you run it for non stop running say 1 app (not terribly intensive app) before you experience problems (i.i have to restart), if at all?

I have my WinXP SP2 BootCamp VM running full-time under Fusion, with Office 2007, a very resource hungry news reader, sometimes a Torrent client, a few IE sessions for those Firefox-unfriendly sites, sometimes a copy of Office Communicator or MSN, and other assorted items.

I had 4 days of uptime on it recently without incident.

Of coures, my Mac Pro won't sleep properly (reboots on wakeup) so I tend to shut my machine down at night lately. Sudden reboots weren't making XP very happy with me, which is to be expected. But the important message here is that you can run them for days on end without trouble.

Just make sure to run the latest patches, AV software, etc.

 

[ajn946]

Thanks Lurgen.

Thats great. I just want to run 1 program from XP continiously and do a restart so often.

 

[dgdosen]

fusion and sleep

I'm not sure how Fusion handles this -

Can your host Mac system go to sleep while a VM is running? Or will the VM need to reboot?

 

[pastrychef]

For those of you running fusion "all the time", how long can you run it for non stop running say 1 app (not terribly intensive app) before you experience problems (i.i have to restart), if at all?

I think the longest I've ever gone keeping it running 24/7 is about 2 weeks but, usually, it craps out after a few days. When it craps out I need to restart the machine. For me, Parallels is much more stable and keeps running until I choose to do a restart.

This is from a Bootcamp drive running Windows XP.

 

[Flowero4ka]

Are there many Mac Pro Fusion/Parallels users?

I use Parallels on my MBP - but usually stick with Bootcamp because the juice gets eaten up to quickly running Windows in a VM (at least for my tastes)

But now, with a MacPro with plenty of processor capacity and plenty of memory - are there any users who keep VM's up and running for whenever necessary? I may start to do this in the new setup... That might make me one step closer to switching.

I use parallels - no problems! Two OS work in the same time! By the way, they made a special offer. You may save your money!

 

[330toSRT8]

I'm not sure how Fusion handles this -

Can your host Mac system go to sleep while a VM is running? Or will the VM need to reboot?

My PC laptops sleeps just fine with VMs running in VMWare Server so I hope the Mac can do it.
BTW, I've had VMs running for weeks with no problems with Server 2003 as the host. I'm curious to everyone else's answer.

 

[Siron]

Is a Mac Pro powerful enough that I can play games in a VM? And if so, also with higher resolutions (1920x1200)? And is DX9 with shader model 3 thinkable in the near future??

I tried running HalfLife2 Episode 2 under Parallels and it completely locked up my machine. I run all of my games under Boot Camp which is faster and more stable.
Alan

 

[Volante]

I just installed vmware fusion and xp pro sp2. Before I test-install (an old game) I would like to know if there's some graphic drivers I should install. I have 8800GT Mac pro.

 

[krye]

My Mac Pro should be here tomorrow. I'll throw Fusion on there just in case I need it. I've had PAarallels and then Fusion on my MacBook since the day they were released. But I think I've only needed Windows once or twice in the year I've had it. It's nice to know that it's there in case I need it for something.

 

[dgdosen]

Vista's Windows Experience Index on an Early 2008 MP

FYI, in case anyone is wondering - I was until I installed it:

Processor: 4.5
Memory: 5.6
Graphics: 1.0
Gaming Graphics: 1.0
Hard Disk: 5.9

I'm keeping a Vista VM and Windows Server 2008 VM up and running all the time with 3GB each of RAM, and keep the rest for Leopard.

The VMs are pretty fast - boot up is a scream. You just can't do things like play games on them...

This also works a bit like a BT KVM. I like the BT accessories, but when working with two or more real computers at a time, your desk gets cluttered with peripherals as there's no BT KVM... With VMs (or Remote Desktop) I'm back down to one keyboard and one mouse... (and three monitors)

 

[gdieter]

i use parallels. i'm a 3day os x user
run it on 2x2,8 4gb 8800gt.
but i HAVE to say, i mean, i'm an audio user, and i'm in the middle of setting up my system, but, why the hell do you even use windows anymore? leave very special apps that you URGENTLY need and cant use on os x.
god, the only thing that crashes on this computer is things with "Microsoft" on it

I have Fusion with an XP installation running all the time. My MP is a 2.88 octo, 10GB RAM, 8800GT. The XP installation is for a few odd programs I need to run (MS Access, for one), but I agree with Ploki - the only thing that's locked this machine up twice is Excel in Mac Office 2008. The Office 2003 installation in the VM runs fine. The Unity mode in Fusion works very well - so well that it's still disorienting to me having both Windows and Mac apps running on same desktop!