Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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exharris
Posts: 8
Joined: 17. Feb 2019, 13:47

Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by exharris »

I recently purchased a new Asus Zenbook 14 laptop with Intel Core i7 G7 1165G7 (4 cores, 8 threads) and 16GB RAM. It has Windows 10 Home on it. I am on build 21376 (21H1).

I am using VirtualBox 6.1 running a Windows 10 Pro guest.
I have settings as per below (

4Gb RAM3, 3 x CPU, enable PEA/NX, default paravirtualization interface, enable nested paging yes

Performance in the guest is not great, and when trying to play a 70Mb WMV file in VLC, it completely stops (CPU in guest is at 100%, CPU on host is never above 34%) and struggles to render the video.

Can anyone explain why this is?

I think this processor should definitely be up to the task, and I have enough RAM.

Thanks.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by scottgus1 »

Please right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log.

Search the far left tab's log for this text:

Attempting fall back to NEM

If you find it, Hyper-V is enabled and needs to be disabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).

If you don't find that text, save the far left tab's log, zip the log file, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
exharris
Posts: 8
Joined: 17. Feb 2019, 13:47

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by exharris »

That text does not appear in the log files.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by mpack »

Please provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
exharris
Posts: 8
Joined: 17. Feb 2019, 13:47

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by exharris »

Link to ZIP below
Attachments
vboxlog.zip
(45.89 KiB) Downloaded 8 times
Last edited by mpack on 16. May 2021, 11:20, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Move zip from OneDrive to local attachment.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by mpack »

I don't see any sign of an error in the VM. I would reduce the VM allocation to 2 cores: depriving the host of it's fair share of CPU cores will not be helping matters.

What is in this WMV file? VirtualBox has had a long standing issue if you try to play audio with data needs any higher than stereo: the virtual hardware simply can't do the emulation fast enough to cope with 5.1 or 7.1 sound, especially at higher bit rates.

p.s. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but you were asked to attach a zip locally, instead you uploaded the file to OneDrive. These conversations are intended to benefit people for years to come, they will probably last way longer than your OneDrive account, so we prefer to be self reliant as regards file storage.
exharris
Posts: 8
Joined: 17. Feb 2019, 13:47

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by exharris »

I could not see an option to attach anything locally when creating a post on here
I’ve now seen it hidden away at the bottom, it’s not very prominent

The file is just a short high res video. I’ll try some other video files and see if I have same issue

I also have an encrypted file volume being accessed using EAS256 but again it should be able to cope with this
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by mpack »

exharris wrote: The file is just a short high res video.
Strange. For some reason I thought your problem was with audio. Perhaps I confused your discussion with another.

Anyway, a video performance problem would be no mystery: you have not enabled 3D acceleration, meaning everything is being done with software-only renders. The more pixels are involved, the worse it will get (and remember that pixel count grows as the square of the DPI).

On the attachment: no problem, I just fixed it.
exharris
Posts: 8
Joined: 17. Feb 2019, 13:47

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by exharris »

Thank you. before I read your latest reply, I thought I have solved it by amending the laptop's performance profile to 'best performance in windows. This seemed to do the trick.
I did not even think about the 3d acceleration issue. I wonder how much better it might have performed. I will remember this next time.

I ended up returning this laptop anyway due to the screen size/aspect ratio not being very good.

I am getting a new 6 core 12 thread AMD Ryzen 4600H based laptop to replace it. Hopefully, VB works OK on AMD hardware and with the higher core count, it will run better.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Win 10 guest on Win 10 host - performance

Post by mpack »

exharris wrote:and with the higher core count, it will run better.
Don't assume that. 2 cores is usually best for a VM, regardless of how many cores the host has.
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