RAM Setting for XP on Fusion

[gwihannom]

I ditched the Boot Camp because it was overheating my new MacBook Pro. I haven't used it that extensively, but Fusion seems to run cooler.

Anyway, I had 2GB Memory on my MacBook Pro and when I was installing XP on Fusion, I dedicated 512MB of memory onto XP.

It was probably because I installed an Antivirus program McAfee, but it was slowing down the Fusion. So I uninstalled it and boosted up the RAM to 1GB, which would be half the RAM on the MacBook Pro.

This wasn't a smart move, because it was dragging down the entire computer.

So I searched online on Cyber Monday and purchased 2X2GB memory. When they arrive, I'll have 4GB of memory on my computer.

What is the ideal/recommended RAM setting for running Fusion? I can't really say how I'll be using XP, since sometimes I use Photoshop. Sometimes I use it for Word. Sometimes I use it for just internet explorer or some Windows only internet-based programs. Very irregular.

I want my Fusion to run "reasonably" if that makes any sense. If I were to buy a low-end PC computer today, that's the performance I'm expecting from Fusion.

What are some of the settings I could play with?

 

[kalex]

why don't you run Photoshop on your macbook instead of fusion. Fusion is not designed for heavy utilization tasks such as photoshop. I have been using windows xp via fusion with 1GB of ram given to it with no issues for past year. I don't use it for anything that requires alot of power. I mainly use it to VPN to my work, use IE7, Office 2007. I haven't noticed any slowdowns

 

[Tomorrow]

How is Boot Camp causing your MBP to overheat, but Fusion isn't?

If you use Boot Camp to run Windows, then the only thing running is Windows. If you use Fusion to run Windows, you're running Windows, OS X, and Fusion all at once - if you're overheating in Boot Camp but not in Fusion, and everything else is exactly the same, the Boot Camp setup is less taxing on the hardware.

I suspect either McAfee or your initial RAM settings was the culprit in the overheating - I've run McAfee on PC's and it's a definite resource hog; that, and running vista on 512 Mb RAM could have caused a lot of paging.

 

[gwihannom]

Well, part of the reason why I "have" to use photoshop in Windows is because that's the only version of the software I have. I've been a lifetime PC user and recently made a switch to Mac. Over the long term, I would probably opt for Mac version softwares, but at the moment that's not the case.

Boot Camp overheats new unibody MacBook Pro because in Boot Camp mode, it uses higher dedicated graphics card with 9600. On everyday use, I use just the integrated graphic card 9400 on Mac. When running Fusion, it's "dependent" on OSX, so settings can be optimal.

But you're definitely right about McAfee. I uninstalled it to see how it would run. Even with just 512 MB, the performance was good. When I upgrade to 4GB Ram, I'll try out 1GB for Fusion then.

 

[dubhe]

Let us know how the upgrade goes, I'm looking to buy 2x2GB myself for the same reason. May as well let you be the guinea pig!

 

[gwihannom]

I ordered from OWC 4GB of Ram and installed it onto my new MacBook Pro, primarily to allow VMWare Fusion to have 1GB of Ram.

My previous post was regarding installing McAfee and running on 512GB of Ram.

Running on 4GB of Ram and giving Fusion 1GB of Ram, doesn't boost the performance too much, at least not noticeably. Uninstalling and re-installing light virus protection programs should help. McAfee was running too many processes on Fusion.

With 1GB of Ram and no virus protection, Fusion is running at the quality that I expected. Able to run Photoshop program with no problem. Having a bigger RAM also runs the machine a lot cooler.

Now for the purchase. OWC probably sells it for the lowest price you can find. At this harsh time in the economy, I won't write a bad review about this independent company. When I ordered, I received a confirmation email on the same day that the item was shipped. It took longer than I expected for it to arrive, but I blame that on USPS. The volume in mail probably got larger towards the end of the year.

I'll keep you updated on the performance.