High CPU usage a limited problem?

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by InsanelyOne, Feb 18, 2007.

  1. InsanelyOne

    InsanelyOne Bit poster

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    I'm trying to get a feel for how big of an issue Parallels unusually high CPU usage is. I have Parallels running on 2 computers... one is a MacBook DuoCore 1.8Ghz with 2GB RAM, the other is a Hackintosh Pentium D 2.8Ghz with 3GB RAM. My Hackintosh has no CPU usage issues at all. Parallels works beautifully. The MacBook is a different story. When Parallels is running, the CPU is running at 80-90% and the fans are going non-stop. The minute I pause or shutdown Parallels...everything is back to normal. In my Windows XP VM, the CPU usage is around 5%. I've had this problem with every version of Parallels. I'm currently at RC2.

    I haven't seem much in the forums about this.. so I fear it's an isolated issue that will be hard to figure out.

    How many people here have CPU usage issues?
     
  2. markintosh13

    markintosh13 Member

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    15" C2D MBP 2.33 here - Parallels consisistently has taken up 23 - 26% of cpu as measured in OS X Activity Monitor when sitting there doing nothing. If it's doing something, it will ramp up higher.

    Could that instance of XP be updating or virus scanning in the background?
     
  3. sidssp

    sidssp Hunter

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    The RC3 build seems to have improved CPU consumptions bit. On my 20" iMac, at idle, Windows XP VM uses up about 12% according to the Activity Monitor. The same VM used to use up at least twice as much under RC2 build.
     
  4. drval

    drval Pro

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    That would be my guess as well.
     
  5. InsanelyOne

    InsanelyOne Bit poster

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    This has been going on since I first installed Parallels. It doesn't matter what's going on in the VM.
     
  6. ajwans

    ajwans Member

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    Me too! I'm just about to try RC3 but I'm not holding much hope for improved system performance since all my other emails/postings seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

    My Macbook CPU usage is consistently over 60% with RC2 running Linux.

    andy
     
  7. ajwans

    ajwans Member

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    RC3 is worse for me, approximately 70% CPU usage while guest is idle.
     
  8. abanks

    abanks Hunter

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    Is that in Cohearance mode or just full screen?

    Mine idles at around 78%, Vista runs lovely and smooth but the mac side of things can be soo slow and if you do something in Vista such as a copy then the mac side becomes unusable.

    Hopefully this will be fixed / improved in the official 2.5 release rumoured for next week !!
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2007
  9. hussein

    hussein Bit poster

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    1
    My CPU also chews at 50-70% on both cores, even when Desktop does nothing and is in the background. On Windows task manager, the CPU is completely idle - there is no background task requiring this much CPU.

    This is simply unacceptable.
     
  10. verloren

    verloren Bit poster

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    Mine seems stuck at around 106% (in activity monitor) following the final release - that's on a 1.83 Macbook Core Duo. :(
     
  11. jp20r

    jp20r Junior Member

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    90 % Cpu

    85 to 90% CPU, idle Parallels

    what does it mean ?
    anybody can give me an expl ?
    thks

    other Activity Monitor infos:
    Real memory 145.30 MB
    Virtual memory 2,11 GB
    space utilized 70,17 MB out of 76,18 dedicated to Parallels

    ------------------
    MBP CD, 2.16 GHz, Osx 10.4.8, 2GB Sdram, W2000, Build 3186
     
  12. abanks

    abanks Hunter

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    104
    Now with Version 2.5 i idle at around 65% but when in use i can hit up to 106% !!

    Thats on my spec (below) running Vista Ultimate
     

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