VMWare - Processors and RAM for Win XP

[Michael73]

I'm running Win XP Pro SP3 on my MP using VMWare 2.0.3. Program-wise I'm running MS Office 2007, some SEO related software and Quickbooks Pro. It seems like VMWare defaulted to using 1 processor and 512MB of RAM. My system seems ungodly slow. Since I'm running on an 8 core machine with 4GB of RAM would things speed up significantly by changing the settings to 2 processors and 2GB of RAM or is this overkill?

I also have an identical setup on my new MBP 15" but it's obviously a dual core machine and has 4GB of RAM. What VMWare settings would you recommend for it to run more smoothly?

Related or not, I've noticed recently that my activity monitor on the MP is showing lots of "page ins" and "page outs" so I'm seriously considering getting a bunch of RAM to help things along.

 

[r.j.s]

Since you have the Procs and RAM to spare, go for it. You'll notice the improvement.

I noticed a decent improvement when I increased the RAM to 1GB.

 

[Josh396]

On my MBP (2.4 Ghz, 4 GB of RAM), I currently run Windows 7 with VMWare. I initially ran it with only 512 of RAM, but after adding RAM to the computer I increased it to 1.5 GB of RAM and it runs MUCH better than before. I would recommend similar settings for your MBP and whatever you're willing to increase it to on your Mac Pro.

 

[ChrisA]

I'd say set it to 2 processors and 2GB of RAM on both computers.

I have a 2.16Ghz iMac with 3GB running Leopard and VMware Fusion and I have an HP, dual xeon PC with 4GB RAM running Linux and VMware Workation. I use the 2 proc. and 2GB RAM setting on both.

 

[Michael73]

I bumped it up to 2 procs and 2GB on the MP and I'm going to grab another 8GB of RAM today for the beast. But, on the MBP side, that's another story...

I tend to have a lot of programs open and running at once including Photoshop, Dreamweaver and sometimes Illustrator along with the usual suspects like Mail, Safari, iCal, Address Book and Word. I guess I'm wondering how everything works if the MBP *only* has 2 processors and I'm allocating them to Windows (and half the RAM), is there enough horsepower left to run the other stuff?

 

[r.j.s]

I guess I'm wondering how everything works if the MBP *only* has 2 processors and I'm allocating them to Windows (and half the RAM), is there enough horsepower left to run the other stuff?

It shares, and giving Fusion 2 procs will really slow down everything on the Mac side. Stick to one there.

 

[chrisandersen]

Is there a windows programs that shows the amount of memory in the machine vs the amount of memory used? Like activity monitor?

 

[r.j.s]

Is there a windows programs that shows the amount of memory in the machine vs the amount of memory used? Like activity monitor?

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