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VMWare Releases 3.1 Fusion Update - 35% Faster App Performance, 5X Faster 3D Graphics

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224202-More Power - 8 Virtual Cores_500.png

New in 3.1: Support up to 8-cores (up from 4)

VMWare has just launched the latest update to their popular virtualization program for the Mac. VMWare Fusion allows users to run Windows applications alongside Mac OS X applications on their Intel Macs. Version 3.1 represents a major update with a focus on performance. According to VMWare, the new version is 35% faster overall than the previous 3.0 release with 3D graphics seeing up to 5X speed boosts.
Take advantage of faster than ever end-to-end performance and improved 3D graphics. Greatly improved Windows Aero performance and OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 delivers up to 5X better 3D graphics performance. Experience faster application launching, more seamless scrolling, quicker resume from suspend, and better overall disk performance. Additional improvements to make your experience more simple and “Mac-like” include support for overlapping Unity windows in Exposé and Dock Exposé, as well as the new “USB EasyConnect” feature to easily assign USB devices to your PC or Mac.
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A full list of new features can be found VMWare's site. The 3.1 update is free for existing 3.0 customers. Customers with an earlier version of VMWare Fusion can upgrade for $39.99 while the price for brand new customers is $79.99. A free demo is also available.



Article Link: VMWare Releases 3.1 Fusion Update - 35% Faster App Performance, 5X Faster 3D Graphics
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/25/vmware-releases-3-1-fusion-update-35-faster-app-performance-5x-faster-3d-graphics/
Based on the picture I would assume that assigning more virtual cores is something new in VMWare fusion. Just like to point out that Parallels has had this for a while. In fact I have two Win7 parallels machines running right now with 3D graphics and its amazingly fast for virtualization.
 
jared_kipe said:
Based on the picture I would assume that assigning more virtual cores is something new in VMWare fusion. Just like to point out that Parallels has had this for a while. In fact I have two Win7 parallels machines running right now with 3D graphics and its amazingly fast for virtualization.
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It's 8, up from 4 in Fusion 3.0. Looks like Parallels can do 8 as of their 4.0.

arn
 
Really hope this helps me successfully import my parallels VM. Have been trying (with the help of VMWare tech support) for over a week now. Sigh!
 
I really hope it's faster… I was just complaining today that it was just hogging every resource my machine had, 2.66 MBP 4GB/Ram. I have very menial tasks for VM Ware and my experience with the older version of parallels was MUCH better than VM Ware.
 
Which one to choose???

Looks like VMWare has improve it such much, but im using right now parallels 5.0.93 and it's blazing fast and user friendly. Which one is better? :confused:
 
I'll be downloading it right away. I was already though very pleased running Win 7 and MS Office 2007/2010 through VMware 3. Even in unity mode (given enough RAM) it is pretty much like running a dedicated Win box.
 
So how is gaming performance compared to bootcamp? Is it still something to avoid?
 
sticking with Parallels

I've used both Parallels and VMware and just recently switched back to Parallels due to the following:

a: it seems to use less memory
b: it's faster than the vmware I had

and the biggest reason:

c: I can take the image from my macbook pro to my imac and windows doesn't require me to re-input the serial number, Office also required me to input the serial when moving the VM.

My workflow is to use the vm on my iMac when at home and then on the macbook when on the road.

Parallels works great for this.
 
David Ormesher said:
I really hope it's faster… I was just complaining today that it was just hogging every resource my machine had, 2.66 MBP 4GB/Ram. I have very menial tasks for VM Ware and my experience with the older version of parallels was MUCH better than VM Ware.
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So far, VMWare is the only app I've found that could slow my MacPro down during multi-tasking. That is until I installed 16GB of ram. Now the VM gets 4GB, and two processor cores and the Mac is still happily chugging along, virtually unawares of the evil lurking in its memory.
 
I just updated to 3.1 on my MacBook (2.4 Ghz Black, 4GB RAM). No issues so far. I had to manually update the VMWare drivers in Ubuntu 10.04, but in Windows 7 x64 (Boot Camp partition), the drivers/tools were updated automatically and the performance is much better than before.

I was having some Windows licensing issues in 3.0, they seem to be fixed now in 3.1.
 
Jaro65 said:
I'll be downloading it right away. I was already though very pleased running Win 7 and MS Office 2007/2010 through VMware 3. Even in unity mode (given enough RAM) it is pretty much like running a dedicated Win box.
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That's funny, because for both my girlfriend and I it takes 5 minutes to boot, and then it runs so slowly it is basically unusable.

I'm starting to think that anyone who says it's fast is just a shill for VMware.
 
NeshyD said:
I just updated to 3.1 on my MacBook (2.4 Ghz Black, 4GB RAM). No issues so far. I had to manually update the VMWare drivers in Ubuntu 10.04, but in Windows 7 x64 (Boot Camp partition), the drivers/tools were updated automatically and the performance is much better than before.

I was having some Windows licensing issues in 3.0, they seem to be fixed now in 3.1.
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Is that where every time you reboot it wants you to re-enter your CD key?

I spent an hour on the phone with microsoft trying to re-enter my CD key, finally we got it working, and then when I re-booted it wanted me to enter it again.
 
Late 08' MBP impressions w/ Team Fortress 2 as a test:

It's indeed a big performance upgrade (playable, even - and that's a first!), but it's still not a very enjoyable experience. Something's really iffy with the mouse tracking in games, even when you configure it to optimize for games. Jumpy, laggy, shaky, unstable. The framerate's still pretty bad even on Low settings.

Bottom line:
It's still not going to replace Boot camp for games anytime soon.
 
thesmoth said:
That's funny, because for both my girlfriend and I it takes 5 minutes to boot, and then it runs so slowly it is basically unusable.

I'm starting to think that anyone who says it's fast is just a shill for VMware.
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I've used vmware since the first version. It was fast for awhile, but the last couple versions had been horribly slow for me (like you said - 5 minutes to boot, then nearly unusable).

Installing today's update makes it run very fast again. Boots xp in around a minute (and that's with me having a lot of junk that runs at start-up). Very useable once it comes up.
 
I'm pretty happy with VirtualBox running an XP VM in 512 MB of RAM. But more competition is always good. And I think I am I/O bound anyway. So I'd likely do better by buying an SSD or one of those new hybrid Momentus XTs.
 
thesmoth said:
That's funny, because for both my girlfriend and I it takes 5 minutes to boot, and then it runs so slowly it is basically unusable.

I'm starting to think that anyone who says it's fast is just a shill for VMware.
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Well I'm no VMware shill, but on my 2008 MacPro it runs like lightening. Faster than any other Windows PCs that I have at the office or for other family members. Of course I'm running a SSD, but it was already very fast before I upgraded the drive.
 
cmaier said:
I've used vmware since the first version. It was fast for awhile, but the last couple versions had been horribly slow for me (like you said - 5 minutes to boot, then nearly unusable).

Installing today's update makes it run very fast again. Boots xp in around a minute (and that's with me having a lot of junk that runs at start-up). Very useable once it comes up.
Click to expand...

As another poster mentioned, increasing the RAM on your system will make a world of difference. With RAM so cheap these days, it's a no-brained upgrade.
 
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