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Mac Pro, VMWare and 4 monitors

B

blurobot

macrumors member
Original poster
May 28, 2009
67
2
Anyone here runs VM Ware Fusion 3 with more than 3 or 4 monitors? How's performance?

I'm waiting for Holy Steve to upgrade his Mac Pro offerings and I'm thinking of going with a 12 core MP with 2 x 30 inch monitors and 2 x 20 inch

Much like this guy:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2456/3777798797_9cc532bf7a_o.jpg

but with "only" 4 monitors. My concern is that VMWare might not be able to run properly all these monitors. I've searched all over the place but all I can find is the vmware press release saying it's"improved" over fusion 2.

anyone running such a system here? I need it to run absolutely top notch...
 
I run it with Windows XP, and ended up turning off multi-monitor support and only running one 30". The multi-screen performance was not responsive enough for my needs. YMMV. The single panel runs beautifully.

I do wish you could assign whole graphics cards to virtualized OSes, but I am sure that feature will come at some point.
 
Im actually waiting for an updated mac pro for the same exact reason, except for now Im going to run 2x22" vertically stacked, 30" (middle) and 24" on the side. I think Im just going to use unity feature in fusion, and have dedicated windows per win7 application that I use. Also expose might help in this case if you have a lot of windows applications, quickly switching work spaces between win/osx.
 
Glad to see I'm not the only one with eyes toward this insane setup, skiffx. btw vertical 20incher seem to be the way to go as opposed to the 24 as they would be the exact same res. I intend to do 3x 30 inch and 2 x 20 inch vertical (as per the pic)

However, the main question remain: will it work? I can't see myself buying all this stuff for it to not work right. It seems as it won't run well according to the above post. I'm running 2 x 20 inch via my imac and it works fine but I'm scared of all these monitors.

anyone knows if I can just ask to try it at an apple store if no one can say it works flawlessly on their setup?
 
blurobot said:
anyone knows if I can just ask to try it at an apple store if no one can say it works flawlessly on their setup?
Click to expand...

I can say that.
Got a single 30" flanked by two 20" HP screens (the same you see on the picture you linked) and it works flawless with VMWare and Parallels. The center screen is driven by an ATI 4870, the side panels by a single GT120 (going to replace it with the new low end card though)
I don't see why it shouldn't work with even more displays.

BTW: The image you linked belongs to the forum member bwa.
 
The current macpro would have been fine for me, if they adjusted the price a little bit and offered current gen video cards.
Maybe they are cooking an excellent update for a macpro line, who knows ... :rolleyes:
 
I just got home and tried it again. It does not really work any worse on all three panels than it does on one. It is much improved from the last time I gave it a try. Awesome!
 
Good stuff! I was concerned about the different reports...

Now here's hoping uncle steve update his mac pros before 2014...

Kind of ridiculous that we have to wait more than a year to an upgrade on a computer.

Good to see the pic came from a forum member I love his office and I'm trying to model mine like his, only cheaper :)
 
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