MBA M1 high temp, number of vCPU, QEMU (UTM) VM best setting

[nifik101]

I need to use Power Bi, and as it's only available in Windows I’ve created a VM using QEMU with the UTM.app.
With Windows 11, Windows on ARM from Insider program.

Have 4 topics with some questions related to this.

Thanks in advance for any answers, to some or all of the questions.
Or suggestions to some resources that address the same.


1. Is it bad that my CPU runs at 80-90 celsius for a longer time?

1. I usually run around 35-40. But direct when starting the VM it jumps up to around 80, doing some tasks it increases to 85-90. With VM open and idle sets back to around 50.​

2. Is it expected to use 2-400% of CPU in the Activity monitor running UTM? Any issues or problems with this?
(Seems strange to me but I guess it has to do with the creation of vCPU, as when I use 2 cores in UTM it cap at 200%, and when 4 cap at 400%?)

3. How many Cores (vCPU) can I assign to the VM?

1. Can or should I change the socket and threads, both have = 1​

2. -smp cpus=2,sockets=1,cores=2,threads=1​

4. What would be any other best settings to run in UTM? Or for QEMU?

1. Any particular setting I should change or make sure has a certain value? I have attached the current settings, the “main” ones in pic and a “full” in text.​

I also get an ERROR from the .log, about “raw image” (see below) anything to be concerned about?

WARNING: Image format was not specified for '/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows11.utm/Images/efi_vars.fd' and probing guessed raw. Automatically detecting the format is dangerous for raw images, write operations on block 0 will be restricted. Specify the 'raw' format explicitly to remove the restrictions.

qemu-aarch64-softmmu: warning: Spice: playback:0 (0x15c8d6940): setsockopt failed, Operation not supported on socket
qemu-aarch64-softmmu: warning: Spice: record:0 (0x15c8d69e0): setsockopt failed, Operation not supported on socket

Info on system and settings ​

MacOS, (host)​

Hardware Overview:​

Model Name: MacBook Air
Model Identifier: MacBookAir10,1
Chip: Apple M1
Memory: 8 GB
Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
System Firmware Version: 7459.141.1
OS Loader Version: 7459.141.1

System Software Overview:​

System Version: macOS 12.5.1 (21G83)
Kernel Version: Darwin 21.6.0

QEMU Arguments (Command)

qemu-system-aarch64
-L /Applications/UTM.app/Contents/Resources/qemu
-S
-qmp tcp:127.0.0.1:4444,server,nowait
-nodefaults
-vga none
-spice "unix=on,addr=/Users/executive/Library/Group Containers/WDNLXAD4W8.com.utmapp.UTM/68A863C7-FE76-49F9-AC77-36D87894C157.spice,disable-ticketing=on,image-compression=off,playback-compression=off,streaming-video=off,gl=off"
-device virtio-ramfb
-cpu cortex-a72
-smp cpus=4,sockets=1,cores=4,threads=1
-machine virt-6.2,highmem=off,virtualization=on
-accel tcg,tb-size=1024
-drive if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,file=/Applications/UTM.app/Contents/Resources/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd,readonly=on
-drive "if=pflash,unit=1,file=/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows 11.utm/Images/efi_vars.fd"
-boot menu=on
-m 4096
-device intel
-hda
-device hda-duplex
-name "Windows 11"
-device nec-usb-xhci,id=usb-bus
-device usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0
-device usb-mouse,bus=usb-bus.0
-device usb-kbd,bus=usb-bus.0
-device qemu-xhci,id=usb-controller-0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev0
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev0,id=usbredirdev0,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev1
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev1,id=usbredirdev1,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev2
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev2,id=usbredirdev2,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-device nvme,drive=drive0,serial=drive0,bootindex=0
-drive "if=none,media=disk,id=drive0,file=/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows 11.utm/Images/Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_22533.qcow2,discard=unmap,detect-zeroes=unmap"
-device usb-storage,drive=drive1,removable=true,bootindex=1,bus=usb-bus.0
-drive if=none,media=cdrom,id=drive1
-device virtio-net-pci,mac=92:C1:68:1D:C6:42,netdev=net0
-netdev vmnet-shared,id=net0
-device virtio-serial
-device virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0
-chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,debug=0,name=vdagent
-device virtserialport,chardev=charchannel1,id=channel1,name=org.spice-space.webdav.0
-chardev spiceport,name=org.spice-space.webdav.0,id=charchannel1
-uuid #######-####-####-####-############
-device virtio-rng-pci

Debug.log (exported after last run of the VM)

Running:
-L /Applications/UTM.app/Contents/Resources/qemu
-S
-qmp tcp:127.0.0.1:4000,server,nowait
-nodefaults
-vga none
-spice "unix=on,addr=/Users/executive/Library/Group Containers/WDNLXAD4W8.com.utmapp.UTM/68A863C7-FE76-49F9-AC77-36D87894C157.spice,disable-ticketing=on,image -compression=off,playback-compression=off,streaming-video=off,gl=off"
-device virtio-ramfb
-cpu host
-smp cpus=2,sockets=1,cores=2,threads=1
-machine virt-6.2,highmem=off -accel hvf
-accel tcg,thread=multi,tb-size24
-drive if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,file=/Applications/UTM.app/Contents/Resources/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd,readonly=on
-drive "if=pflash,unit=1,file=/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows11.utm/Images/efi_vars.fd"
-boot menu=on
-m 4096
-device intel-hda
-device hda-duplex
-name "Windows 11"
-device nec-usb-xhci,id=usb-bus
-device usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0
-device usb-mouse,bus=usb-bus.0
-device usb-kbd,bus=usb-bus.0
-device qemu-xhci,id=usb-controller-0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev0
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev0,id=usbredirdev0,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev1
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev1,id=usbredirdev1,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-chardev spicevmc,name=usbredir,id=usbredirchardev2
-device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev2,id=usbredirdev2,bus=usb-controller-0.0
-device nvme,drive=drive0,serial=drive0,bootindex=0
-drive "if=none,media=disk,id=drive0,file=/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows11.utm/Images/Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_22533.qcow2,discard=unmap,detect-zeroes=unmap"
-device usb-storage,drive=drive1,removable=true,bootindex=1,bus=usb-bus.0
-drive if=none,mediaÍrom,id=drive1
-device virtio-net-pci,mac:C1:68:1D:C6:42,netdev=net0
-netdev vmnet-shared,id=net0
-device virtio-serial
-device virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0
-chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,debug=0,name=vdagent
-device virtserialport,chardev=charchannel1,id=channel1,name=org.spice-space.webdav.0
-chardev spiceport,name=org.spice-space.webdav.0,id=charchannel1 -uuid 68A863C7-FE76-49F9-AC77-36D87894C157 -device virtio-rng-pci

WARNING: Image format was not specified for '/Users/executive/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents/Windows11.utm/Images/efi_vars.fd' and probing guessed raw. Automatically detecting the format is dangerous for raw images, write operations on block 0 will be restricted. Specify the 'raw' format explicitly to remove the restrictions.
qemu-aarch64-softmmu: warning: Spice: playback:0 (0x15c8d6940): setsockopt failed, Operation not supported on socket
qemu-aarch64-softmmu: warning: Spice: record:0 (0x15c8d69e0): setsockopt failed, Operation not supported on socket

 

[evertjr]

You don't need to worry about temperatures, the processor will throttle itself to prevent damages from heat.

I suggest using Parallels to run Windows on M1 since its the only one with proper GPU acceleration, other solutions still rely too much on CPU for rendering and its probably why its overheating your Mac.