4gb vs 8gb Memory GIS Win 7 MBPro

R

RJM

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Hi folks:

I am running ArcMap 10 in Windows 7 in Parallels 6. I have a 15" MacBook Pro 2.66 Core 2 Duo, 4 gb ram and running on the 9600M GT video processor.

Here's my question, my system is still somewhat slow even with Aero turned off and Win 7 setup for memory conservation with 1.5 gb assigned to the VM. Will it help considerably to upgrade to 8 gb ram or is the video still going to be the bottleneck?

Thanks
 
My guess it's that it's the 256 video cap that is the issue. I have and iMac with 8GB of RAM and 512MB video, and I keep having insufficient memory issues that are related to video memory. I was informed by Parallels support agents that they are still working to increase the amount of video memory you can allocate to your VM above 256,as ArcMap is a video (and CPU)hog. I want to know if others are experiencing the same kind of problem with running ArcGIS 10 via Parallels, Just wanted to know whether ArcGIS 10 or Parallels is the problem ?
 
No memory errors but feels sluggish

Jeremy-I haven't experienced any insufficient memory errors but my machine is slow with the 4gb. Does your machine feel zippy until you actually get an insufficient error? Otherwise ArcMap runs fine for me.
 
RJM, Jeremy,

Could you describe is more detail when ArcMap feels slow? Which operations are particulary sluggish? Is that drawing or panning or what? What's approximate size of your data sets? Where are the data files located: locally in your VM, shared from Mac or loaded from network share?

Jeremy, how do you know you're having insufficient video memory issues? Are there any specific messages?
The trick is that VM uses video memory much more efficiently than physical hardware, this is particulary the case for OpenGL applications like ArcMap. On the other hand, the more powerful graphics your Mac have the better, 256Mb of video memory in VM is likely not the limiting factor.

RJM, more system memory in your Mac won't hurt anyway, but it might not necessarily help ArcMap. Task Manager statistics in Windows and Activity Monitor in OS X should give you hints about memory use/shortages.
Task Manager could also help you determine if CPU limits ArcMap performance. You can try giving two CPUs to VM if you havn't done so already.
One more thing: running Aero in Windows 7 can actually improve performance of graphics applications in some cases. You don't necessarily need to disable it, unless you see immediate benefits.
Finally, you can try disabling Hardware > Video > Enable vertical synchronization option for your VM to see if it have any effect in your case.
 
Could you describe is more detail when ArcMap feels slow? Which operations are particularly sluggish? Is that drawing or panning or what?
In my case really my entire system is slow with only the VM itself running (see more detail below). For ArcMap, given that I deal with allot of aerial imagery, rendering and panning with the photos visible.
What's approximate size of your data sets?
They are big since all my work involves aerial imagery 20, 30, 50 MB or more for each layer and 10 layers.
Where are the data files located: locally in your VM, shared from Mac or loaded from network share?
Locally in my VM
RJM, more system memory in your Mac won't hurt anyway, but it might not necessarily help ArcMap. Task Manager statistics in Windows and Activity Monitor in OS X should give you hints about memory use/shortages.
Task Manager could also help you determine if CPU limits ArcMap performance. You can try giving two CPUs to VM if you haven't done so already.
It isn't just ArcMap but my whole machine slows down with the VM running, especially if I try to use Safari. I had gotten to the point where my 5.0 VM would sometimes take 15 minutes to start up and my whole machine would slow to a crawl so I would boot the VM as I left for lunch. I then tried closing all open programs, then booting the VM and I would get a nice speedy startup. I also realized that if I had maybe Mail, one MS Office program and a few of the smaller programs open but NOT Safari the VM would boot up and run better but still clunky. Thus it seemed to be that Safari was the real problem so now I have switched (back) to using Opera and my system seem to run better with the VM open. I never could get a clear picture of what was going on in Activity Monitor. There did not seem to be a pattern to when things slowed and Activity Monitor would stall because my whole system was stalling. I went ahead and assigned the VM 2-CPU's so we'll see if that helps and I'll monitor Windows Task Manager.
One more thing: running Aero in Windows 7 can actually improve performance of graphics applications in some cases. You don't necessarily need to disable it, unless you see immediate benefits.
Finally, you can try disabling Hardware > Video > Enable vertical synchronization option for your VM to see if it have any effect in your case.
Before I tried the things I mention above, my whole machine was not just clunky but like molasses and unusable when I first upgraded to Win7 from XP. I found a forum somewhere which made suggestions for speeding up my system... turning off Aero, Vertical Sync and some other things which has made things bearable but still clunky.

I guess the real thing I was looking for here was to find out if the $250 investment in 8GB of RAM would give me significant improvements over my current clunky overall system performance and as an FYI to readers, that my primary use for the VM was ArcMap.
 
Jeremy's Answers:
"Could you describe is more detail when ArcMap feels slow? Which operations are particulary sluggish? Is that drawing or panning or what?"
-Its slower than running on a comparable straight windows machine in all respects, as far as I can tell. It's for geoprocessing, drawing/refreshing, and browsing for data layers via catalog

"What's approximate size of your data sets?"
- They range from small data layers to large rasters that are 100's of MB

"Where are the data files located: locally in your VM, shared from Mac or loaded from network share?"
- Mostly locally on the VM on the C drive. Sometimes over the internet, via ArcGIS Online.

"how do you know you're having insufficient video memory issues? Are there any specific messages?"
- yes, there are several messages I get. With loading or drawing imagery or complex data layers, the 2 that come to mind are: "ArcMap cannot allocate enough memory", and sometimes I get an arcmap drawing error message saying that one or more layers could not be drawn with some reference to video memory. When arcmap crashes, it always seems related to when arcmap is drawing/refreshing a complicated layout or large data layer.

The trick is that VM uses video memory much more efficiently than physical hardware, this is particulary the case for OpenGL applications like ArcMap. On the other hand, the more powerful graphics your Mac have the better, 256Mb of video memory in VM is likely not the limiting factor.
- I have a 3 month old quad core iMac 27 (Intel i5 2.66) with 8GB RAM and a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card, so I assume its got enough juice to run graphics intensive programs.

To Parallels credit, ArcGIS 10 runs WAY better on parallels desktop 6, and many of the ArcMap issues I had with 5 have gone away. In parallels 5, ArcMap crashed several times a day, and some of the graphics features of arcmap (like basemap thumbnails) never showed up at all.

Thanks- JD
 
RJM- it is not as fast as native windows machines I've worked on, but I can say it is faster with Parallels 6 than it was with 5 for sure. Not that I'm promoting the product or anything- this is just what I've observed. I am considering doing a bootcamp install for comparison, but not sure how efficient that'll be given that I toggle back and forth between the MacOS and windows a lot.
 
Well, I have been observing my memory and CPU usage all day in Activity Monitor. With 1.5 gb assigned to the VM I was continuously showing 200 mb or less free memory and slow but steady increases in page ins/outs. When I started a hog like Photoshop, Free Memory would drop to almost zero and page ins/outs would jump. Safari still seems to create more stalls than Opera even though Opera chews up 350 mb of memory.

When I shut down the VM, Activity Monitor showed free memory as 1.51 gb. Obviously, with my workflow and 1.5 gb assigned to the VM, the 4 gb of total system memory is simply not enough. I think/hope this explains the slow system and stalls. So, I just bought memory to go to 8 mb.

Thanks!
 
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