What settings do you use in Fusion 3.0 for a virtual machine?

[maglite]

I run two VMs under Fusion, both Vista 64-bit. One I assign 1.5GB of RAM to, the other 1GB of RAM (I have 8GB of RAM in my machine). Performance is not exactly 'speedy' and I have to admit I was disappointed when I upgraded to 3.0 having read reviews from some blogs and professionals that the 64-bit version was much snappier than 2.0.

I also noticed in Activity Monitor that Fusion does not use 64-bit memory in the way some of the other Mac 64-bit processes do. E.g. Safari is listed as an Intel (64 bit) process and Fusion is just listed as an Intel one. Perhaps I am interpreting this incorrectly but seeing that made me curious.

So, I just wondered if anyone else had any suggestions for configuring Fusion 3.0 to run with Vista 64-bit that would really make my VMs as snappy as I have been led to believe they would be under Fusion 3.0.

- thanks in advance.

[nbe03]

The question regarding 64 bit has been asked several times in the last few days: parts of Fusion are 32 bit and parts are 64 bit. The 32 bit parts are 32 bit because it either is useless to have those in 64 bit right now or it's because they have to since you're running the 32 bit kernel by default. The processes responsible for the vm's (vmware-vmx) is 64 bit and will show up as Intel (64 bit) in the Activity Monitor. Of course you need to have a 64 bit capable Mac (which you have).

[mmarinho]

Actually the less memory you assign to a VM the better. Fo example assigning XP Pro around 512 MB of ram should be a good amount. Also if you haven't already explored the following, download this app for your Mac:

http://www.ahatfullofsky.comuv.com/English/Programs/SMS/SMS.html

Switch your Mac to the 64 Bit Kernel and reboot. Now your Mac will always boot up using the 64 bit Kernel unless you run the app again and change it. There are manual ways of making this change floating on the net but they don't appear to work and will cripple your Mac and prevent it from booting period. I been running the 64 bit kernel for a few days and no major issues. I run a mix of 32 and 64 bit apps and they all run fine. Let us know if you yourself notice any general improvements when running under the 64 bit kernel. Don't worry so much about the statistics or what everybody else says about the 64 bit kernel.

-Manny

[nbe03]

Assigning 1 GB or 1,5 GB of RAM to a vm when you have 8 GB in total will work just fine, it will even work fine when you have just 4 GB of RAM. Some vm's will run better when you assign more memory to them (Windows Vista, 7 and XP will all work a lot smoother with 1 GB of RAM) but it is not always necessary to do so (just experiment).

Booting Snow Leopard with the 64 bit kernel is unrecommended as it will break a lot of things such as drivers (most are not made for the 64 bit kernel). A lot of users report several different problems when booting the 64 bit kernel that disappear when booting back into 32 bit. If you want you can boot the 64 bit kernel (make sure your Mac is one of the supported Macs) but be prepared that not everything will work correctly. If things break, just boot the 32 bit kernel instead and all will be well.

[mmarinho]

Well I'm happy to report that I have no such issues when running the 64 bit kernel. I just setup a new printer today under Leopard and all is well, and all my applications 32/64 bit all run fine. I just flipped back to the 32 bit kernel for a moment, rebooted and all is well. Don't be shy just give it a try!

-Manny