Low FPS in a 2012 R2 Windows Server

[songie]

The system has an Intel Xeon L5639 CPU and in the host itself, i get way then enough FPS for what i need todo, running OBS even 5 times at 60 FPS is not an issue, now when i create a Virtual Box with Windows 7 as a guest if i get at best 3-5 FPS out of it and the mouse pointer feels sluggish as hell, dont even try running OBS.

Ive installed the guest additions in safe mode and followed most relevant solutions to get more FPS out of the box, but it still feels like a snail.

Virtualisation is also turned on in the bios, i had them check it, its completely impossible to run anything inside it.

I am really scratching my head here.

[socratis]

What's "OBS"?

[songie]

Its Open Broadcast software, used for streaming. but i cant even get 5 fps out of the box without running anything yet.

[socratis]

Follow a "start the VM from cold-boot" / "observe error" / "shutdown the VM" cycle. With the VM shut down completely (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log". Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

Does OBS reproduce locally what it distributes? Does it require a powerful GPU? High-speed network? Please give the specifics as I'm pretty sure that the majority of users around here hasn't even heard of Open Broadcasting Software before.

[songie]

I am reinstalling a VM right now, ill post the log as soon as i can get one.

But the issue is not OBS, i just used OBS as an example that it can run 60 FPS on the host system, even when i open 5 instances they all run at 60 fps.

But the Virtual Box can barely move the mouse pointer, let alone run OBS, it does require some GPU performance but a 12 year old Intel Q6600 can run 3 at once.

But thats not the issue, its the 5 fps i get in a clean box with all drivers correctly installed while the host system can produce 60 fps without a hitch.

Ill get logs when ive reinstalled one.

[socratis]

FPS points to graphics performance not CPU, that's why I asked you specifically if it requires a GPU. Because you have to remember that a virtual machine does *not* use your host's GPU, or even close. It uses a software based GPU which is orders of magnitude slower than today's GPUs. And I'm not talking 3-years old, I'm talking more than a decade (and I'm optimistic).

[songie]

It does not require a GPU, not in a direct sense anyways.

I just want to know if it is normal for Virtual Box to only run at 3-5 fps, while the host has no issues...

Look, lets drop the OBS part of my question, because ive not been able to run it yet, i would first like to use the mouse as if its not lagging 10 feet behind the pointer, unless thats normal.

So while a VM uses a software based GPU, why is it at best outputting 5 fps, unless thats normal, i dont know that part.

[socratis]

Follow a "start the VM from cold-boot" / "observe error" / "shutdown the VM" cycle. With the VM shut down completely (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log". Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

[songie]

New and fresh install, log is attached.

[socratis]

00:00:02.613383 Guest OS type: 'Windows7_64'
00:00:02.458808 Host RAM: 16374MB (15.9GB) total, 14864MB (14.5GB) available
00:00:02.897915 RamSize  <integer> = 0x0000000040400000 (1 077 936 128, 1 028 MB)

1028 MB of RAM is barely enough to get Win7x64 off the ground. You have plenty of memory available, I would go for at least 4096 MB, even more if you're planning on doing heavy duty work on the VM.

00:00:04.273318 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled

You should definitely enable that.

That's all I could find. You might as well upgrade to 5.1.24 and see if that makes a difference, but I believe that the increased RAM and enabling the 2D acceleration will definitely help...

[songie]

Ive tried it with 2GB, didnt make a diffrence; ill try 4GB but for some reason the 2D accel option is greyed out.

[mpack]

00:00:02.855379 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VENDOR: Microsoft Corporation
00:00:02.855393 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_RENDERER: GDI Generic
00:00:02.855398 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VERSION: 1.1.0
00:00:02.855402 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_EXTENSIONS: GL_WIN_swap_hint GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_paletted_texture

Generic host 1.1 OpenGL drivers == no 3D acceleration. GDI is Windows own graphics engine.

The host is using software rendering, which the guest can do for itself (slowly, but at least without additional host call overhead).

Basically, turn 2D and 3D acceleration off, because your host doesn't support it.

[songie]

Ok will try that aswell! thanks so far for the help.

[mpack]

Hmm. I didn't really give you anything to try, I simply pointed out that your host is not currently capable of doing what you're telling VirtualBox to do.

The solution would be... check if there are better drivers available for your host graphics chipset. Failing that you'd need a decent new graphics card.

[songie]

I got it to run at decent mouse pointer speed now, thats a big one really.