Performance Tuning

C

chinarut

Member
Hi! I've been using Parallels for about 2 months now and notice my macbook gets sluggish over time. I'm not clear if it's because I keep Parallels up all the time (WinXP is generally in the background perhaps 75-85% of the time) or whether it's something else.

Rebooting always helps and in the past, I was able to not reboot my machine for weeks.

I am wondering if anyone else has any issues leaving Parallels Desktop and WinXP running full-time?

I have a macbook 2.16Ghz with 2GB RAM with 10.5.3

if there are any tweaks you think I should make in my configuration, I'm all ears!
 
Some tips
1. Set memory for Virtual Machine to less than 1 GB
2. Perform Mac and Windows side disk defragmentation http://www.xvsxp.com/system/system_tools_defrag.php
3. Set Adjust memory limit from Auto to Manual at Parallels Desktop -Preferences-Memory, and set limit a bit more higher than VM memory
4. Disable Themes in Windows XP serives.msc stop Themes service
5. If you are running in Coherence, try to switch to Single Window, or lower Mac resolution
6. Some antivirus software can load CPU when Heuristic Prediction is set, or Tamper protection (Symantec, MacAffey), adjust settings to risk you are supposed, high security settings is not always good idea, as it can also affect software running
7. Run msconfig , and disable unneeded startup items
See http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html
 
hi! thanks for the tuning tips. I disabled most of the anti-virus services and then realized I didn't mention one thing: I often suspend (push "pause") on my WinXP virtual machine.

shouldn't this put the VM in the background and shouldn't Mac OS X eventually swap it out?

I assumed this would improve performance but not clear if it makes a difference.

I admit, it's hard to pin down exactly what the performance issue is.

I'm still not clear if Parallels will run smoothly at first and whether keeping it running as a background process is expected to degrade the performance of Mac OS X over time?

I prefer to sleep my macbook instread of shuting down and rebooting every morning as well.
 
chinarut said:
I'm still not clear if Parallels will run smoothly at first and whether keeping it running as a background process is expected to degrade the performance of Mac OS X over time?

I prefer to sleep my macbook instread of shuting down and rebooting every morning as well.
Click to expand...


No, it performance depends on programs running in Parallels Desktop , there is no memory leak which can degrade performance
 
ok - what I hear is Parallels doesn't inherently have any memory leaks.

I rebooted my machine and notice it is running a lot smoother right now with Parallels not in the background. I will load the system further by starting all my frequent apps and see what happens over the next few days.

I'm still not clear why suspending my WinXP VM when I'm not using it would not help the situation.
 
thanks for the continued response - just for the benefit of everyone - I found this discussion to be valuable:

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/virtualization/topic4247.html

the experiences shared are more down to earth and not in some "lab" somewhere.

it sounds like if I had 4GB of memory it would help tremendously. I've got to give up the upset I bought my macbook the day the new rev was released on Nov 1st so I'm maxed out at 2GB :/

I've been only running a few hours since my last post and I'm clear there is a performance issue when Parallels and my guest WinXP is running. Suspending the VM doesn't seem to help. I assume resources are still being taken even when suspended.

current memory breakdown without Parallels running:

* Free: 45MB
* Wired: 304MB
* Active: 1.12GB
* Inactive: 547MB

sounds pretty tight - right?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top