How well does VMWare Fusion run on base model?

[Callum]

Thinking of buying a Macbook Pro. I'm wanting to run Windows XP via VMWare Fusion on it. I have a black Macbook at the moment (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram) and it runs it pretty sluggishly, especially switching between the XP window and OSX. Would the base model Macbook Pro run it very well? Or should I get the one up from that (i7, 2.7GHz)? Or even the next one with quad-core - would the 'quad' make any difference in this case?

Thanks,
-Callum.

 

[snaky69]

Thinking of buying a Macbook Pro. I'm wanting to run Windows XP via VMWare Fusion on it. I have a black Macbook at the moment (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram) and it runs it pretty sluggishly, especially switching between the XP window and OSX. Would the base model Macbook Pro run it very well? Or should I get the one up from that (i7, 2.7GHz)? Or even the next one with quad-core - would the 'quad' make any difference in this case?

Thanks,
-Callum.

You need more RAM, that's why it's running sluggish.

Yes, your new computer will greatly outperform your blackbook just because it has twice the RAM.

If you intend on using Vmware a lot, I suggest you bump that up to 8Gb(not from apple they are easily twice as expensive for RAM).

 

[iStudentUK]

Listen to Snaky69, spot on there.

 

[maflynn]

I have a 2010 MBP and it runs fine, except I have 4gb of ram. You will need 4gb.

 

[Mac-key]

I run WIN7 using Fusion on my 2009 machine. Runs like a champ. However, the key - as others have said - is RAM. I got 8

 

[maflynn]

I have four and I need to increase my ram.

 

[jdelgado]

Thinking of buying a Macbook Pro. I'm wanting to run Windows XP via VMWare Fusion on it. I have a black Macbook at the moment (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram) and it runs it pretty sluggishly, especially switching between the XP window and OSX. Would the base model Macbook Pro run it very well? Or should I get the one up from that (i7, 2.7GHz)? Or even the next one with quad-core - would the 'quad' make any difference in this case?

Thanks,
-Callum.

As all the other above said, you will be better off with at least 8GB of RAM, and assign 4GB to the VM.

 

[PaulyD]

I bought my mid 2010 macbook 2nd hand with 8gb of RAM and run VM fusion with 1 cpu core and 4gb of RAM and it runs like a champ, barely notice its a VM to be honest. Would definitely say RAM is the problem here as well (just like everyone else!)

 

[aznguyen316]

My brother is running VMWare Fusion 3.x I think it is, on his 2011 i5 base MBP 13". He has 8GB though and running Windows 7 on it. He says it's running fine, hasn't complained to me yet, so yeah. Not sure if he's assigned 2 or 4GB to it.