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At work I log into a virtual Windows machine. I'm told it runs as fast as a PC, but I'm skeptical. Is there an application I can run on the machine that will tell me how faster the machine is actually running?

It would be nice if it ran on Windows and on Mac.

Updating with more details -- I was asked "why does it matter" -- here's why:

It matters because I'm a programmer and I need as much speed (CPU and memory) as possible to do my work. IMO, the virtual machine is noticeably slower than a basic $800 PC would be, but I need a way a proving it. Websites like Bandwidthtest.com can show me my internet speed, so I'm wondering if there's an app that can test my computer's speed.

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If it does what you need it to do does it really MATTER? – Shinrai Mar 14 '11 at 14:19
@Shinrai, please see updates to the original question for details. – Robert Hume Mar 14 '11 at 14:31
@Robert Hume: Please include a link to the original question. – Randolf Richardson Mar 14 '11 at 14:36
@Robert - Okay, if it's actually subjectively slow that's different. As originally written it just sounded like skepticism just because. ;) – Shinrai Mar 14 '11 at 14:43
@Shinrai, no problem thanks. :) – Robert Hume Mar 14 '11 at 14:48
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3 Answers

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Geekbench runs both on Windows and Mac:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/

Simple way to compare the performance.

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Thanks! That's exactly what I needed. – Robert Hume Mar 16 '11 at 16:37
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up vote 1 down vote

You can try VMware's VMmark . It is used to measure the performance and scalability of applications running in virtualized environments
Also you can look at a similar threads on stackoverflow :

  1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/120212/virtual-machine-benchmarks
  2. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/516716/how-to-benchmark-virtual-machines
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up vote 1 down vote

Without the same exact PC with windows installed... its hard to get an apples to apples comparison. Assuming you DO have a windows installation on the PC (Dual booted PC w/ the MAC also having a VM'd windows installation)

As you are a programmer, there are simple ways to test how long it takes code to execute which will be an exact test whether or not things run slower in a VM.

Using the windows API (include windows.h) you can use the QueryPerformanceFrequency and QueryPerformanceCounter functions to 'time' a piece of code. Do this in the vm a bunch of times and then do it on the same exact system with Windows installed.

If there isn't a significant difference in the timing, then I would say its not that slow.

From my personal experience, I'd rather stick with a fast system as my default (I prefer Fedora) and VM into windows only when needed (I develop using Qt... so I do most of my development in Linux and only run Windows to get Binaries when I'm ready to distribute...)

Check out this link for info from Microsoft on timing code.

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