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When looking to improve Virtual Machine performance what would be better ... Increasing the available RAM or increasing the processor power?

Here is my choice ...

  1. Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 GHz with 8 GB RAM and integrated graphics (Mac Book Pro 13")

  2. Core i7 @ 2.6 GHz with 4 GB RAM and 512 MB dedicated graphics (Mac Book Pro 15")

    I plan to run Windows x64 in the VM with SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2010, and SharePoint 2010. I am planning to run VMWare Fusion v3. I also didn't know if a dedicated graphics card makes a difference when using a Virtual Machine. Thank you.

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if you are running vs2k10 in 64bit, then vs2k10 can take advantage of 4gb of ram. also, you might want to set up the vm to use a 2nd vhd for the swap file – Muad'Dib May 5 '10 at 17:48
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3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

You should most certainly opt for the 15" i7 model. The i7 is substantially faster than the Core 2 Duo, and while the additional RAM is always a welcome addition to a VM environment (with 8GB, you could dedicate 4 to the Mac and 4 to the VM), it's far easier to upgrade the RAM later than it is to buy a new machine (since you can't upgrade the processor).

The dedicated graphics will also help with VM performance.

As some unsolicited advice, I've had great success running VS 2008 on my identically-equipped 15" MBP using Parallels 5. I've only dedicated 1GB to the VM and it performs quite admirably, enough for me to eschew my previous Boot Camp-based setup (a VM using the partition, or a reboot directly into Windows for serious work).

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Thank you Adam! You make some good points. – webworm May 5 '10 at 17:22
I didn't realize a dedicated graphics card would help with performance. Would this only be when using Windows "Aero" features? I ask because "Aero" is one of the things I turn off right away. :) – webworm May 6 '10 at 12:12
@webworm: I don't believe so; I would imagine that Parallels/VMWare both attempt to take advantage of the graphics processor as much as possible, since you have a layer of indirection between the client OS (Windows) and the host hardware (your Mac). I can't point to any benchmarks, but I'd be surprised if there aren't any and even more surprised if they didn't show discreet graphics outperforming integrated in a virtualized environment. – Adam Robinson May 14 '10 at 15:14
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up vote 3 down vote

In real world you would benefit much more from a second hard drive.

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+1. Ideally a second drive will perform the best in regards to disk IO. It's a shame that Windows won't boot off of an external drive, as a Boot Camp setup on an external drive that could also run as VM would seem to be the absolute best of both worlds. – Adam Robinson May 5 '10 at 17:39
So an external USB or firewire drive would help with performance? – webworm May 5 '10 at 18:07
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up vote 0 down vote

second system would be better and also a hdd with high RPM (10000-15000RPM) will give the best performance increase ...((or you add a hdd with 7200 RPM but you don't install on it expect virtual machine's hdd; you sould place virtual hdd on a unused internal so because of that hdd not busy with other windows operation you gain more performance... i hope i explained myself ;)

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Both system are MacBook Pro (laptops), so he can't add a 15,000 rpm HD – Melvyn May 5 '10 at 17:58
Being a MacBook Pro my only option for a second hard drive would be an external drive via USB 2.0 or Firewire. Would installing the VM on the external hard drive help with performance? – webworm May 6 '10 at 12:10
an external drive can be good but firewire800 interface should be used otherwise there will be a speed limitation so that will not useful...(i don't now about macbook pro but i guess that they have firewire800 support) ((but you should be carefull when using an external drive cause of drive letter, in win7 you can easiliy change drive letter from disk management)) (((when you are using virtual machine if you also use main OS you should choose corei7 for better performance))) – xpugur May 6 '10 at 17:45
((by the way as i know and depending on my usage of virtual machine, i can't install graphic card drive even i install win7 so i guess graphic card upgrade won't effect the performace)) – xpugur May 6 '10 at 17:45
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