Parallels Speed ISSUES!! - It became slow!!

[zzmad]

Hi,

I run my usual tests in Maya to check Parallels speed.
Unluckily they are much slower than the first time I run them with beta 4

I have a mac mini core duo with latest firmware and OSX 10.4.6.
The windows image used for testing has always been the same: WinXP SP2
Virtualization is "ON" and in Parallels-about-more menu it says "Intel Vt-x"

I REINSTALLED ALL the 3 Parallels versions tested with their own Tools. also rebooting the mac mini.

I don't know when it started being slow, I realised today.

Maya scene 1 with software Render.
- Parallels Beta 4 68 sec. (tested ~ 1 month ago)
- Parallels Beta 5 83 sec. (tested today)
- Parallels Beta 6 83 sec. (tested today)
- Parallels RCandidate 93 sec. (tested today)
- Parallels RCandidate 93 sec. (tested today) WIN2000
- Maya WinXP (Bootcamp) 42 sec.(tested ~ 1 month ago)
- Maya OSX Rosetta 171 sec.(tested today - 178 ~ 1 month ago))

Maya scene 2 with mentalray Render.
- Parallels Beta 4 123 sec. (tested ~ 1 month ago)
- Parallels Beta 5 165 sec. (tested today)
- Parallels Beta 6 165 sec. (tested today)
- Parallels RCandidate 190 sec. (tested today)
- Maya WinXP (Bootcamp) 69 sec.(tested ~ 1 month ago)
- Maya OSX Rosetta 325 sec.(tested today - 340 ~ 1 month ago)

So the Mac Mini is running as fast, or even better than a month ago.
It is not my Image since a fresh Win2000 install is giving me the same result as my WinXP SP2.
Are you aware that Parallels is running very slow?
Can you replicate the problem?
If you look at the tests the speed I got time ago make sense. Since Parallels uses 1 processor I got slightly more than double compared to WinXP SP2 native with bootcamp.

If these are the results Parallels takes from 2.5 to 3 times Bootcamp.

Any Help or Light into this is welcome!!

 

[MicroDev]

Everytime I install an update, the VM operates slower. This loss in speed (i.e. longer boot time) can be recovered by fresh installing windows and creating a new VM. I saw a definite improve when i did from Beta 4 and RC.

Ha, Ha. Yeah right. I'm going to re-install Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Linux, and Solaris and accompanying software with each release. I would hope there is a better solution than that available.

Personally, I use Sandra and BGInfo to get a quick snapshot of the speed. The CPU speed actually went up slightly in RC1 under XP, and is about the same under the rest. Currently the reported speeds are:

Windows 2000: 1.7Ghz Celeron II
Windows XP: 1.8Ghz Celeron II
Windows 2003: 833Mhz Celeron II

Is the floating point unit missing for some reason? Would that explain why it keeps reporting a Celeron?

 

[Mark]

What happens if you dedicate more to parallels? I gave Parallels 932 MB (in preferences) and then gave the VM 832 MB and it's pretty snappy. Since you say that you wind up with a 3GB swap file, which I assume is in Windows, then it sounds like Windows is swapping.

 

[steve]

Speed improved

Well, I just downloaded RC1 and installed. Having read the discussion regarding speed I was worried that my XP performance would decrease. I was surprised that to find that the boot time was about 1/2 of Beta6. I haven't done any experience testing of applications yet.

So, tentatively and with caution and concern for others experiences, GREAT WORK PARALLELS!

 

[zzmad]

What happens if you dedicate more to parallels? I gave Parallels 932 MB (in preferences) and then gave the VM 832 MB and it's pretty snappy. Since you say that you wind up with a 3GB swap file, which I assume is in Windows, then it sounds like Windows is swapping.

No I am talking about OSX, Not Windows. When I run Maya tests I only run 1 app in Windows which is Maya.
I will try to give more RAM to Parallels and see if that's the problem. But more than 512 kills OSX. It will have to move stuff on the swap and from then you'll have a zombie machine ..
I am not fan of rebooting. But I had a PMac G5 dual core with 4.5GB Ram and that made a lot of difference. Not the CPU, not even the HD but the Ram.

It looks like the slow down is pertinent to Maya though.
If anyone has still beta 4 I can test again.
Do you have a beta 4 download link at Parallels?

Thank you.