iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
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WelshMatt983
Posts: 60
Joined: 15. Nov 2015, 16:01

iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by WelshMatt983 »

Hi guys I am not expert but was wondering if anyone had any fixes for lag issues, I notice a lot of people are having issues as of late.

I basically have windows 7 32bit installed as guest and run a betting software program and it is very laggy almost to a point where it is pointless trying to use. Due to the large screen I have tried dragging corners to make smaller screen but no joy.

Here are some of the settings I have....

Base memory 2048MB
Processors 2
Video memory 128MB
Acceleration 2 and 3D enabled
Monitor count 1
Scale factor 200%

Anything you think I could try out out to try fix this, I only have basic knowledge of computers?! :roll:
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by mpack »

Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip, and attach the zip here.
WelshMatt983
Posts: 60
Joined: 15. Nov 2015, 16:01

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by WelshMatt983 »

mpack wrote:Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip, and attach the zip here.
Thanks, attached to this message.
Attachments
VBOX1-2019-08-20-16-28-52.log.zip
(32.13 KiB) Downloaded 14 times
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by socratis »

00:00:01.644379 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:01.644381   BlockCache <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)
Go to the VM Settings » Storage » select your SATA controller » Use Host I/O Cache: enable that.
00:00:01.644539   VRamSize         <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)
You could max that out to 256 MB, but I don't think it's going to make a difference.
00:07:05.894485 VMMDev: SetVideoModeHint: Got a video mode hint (1879x1228x32)@(0x0),(1;0) at 0
Try to change the resolution from within the guest to something more... computer-like. For example 1280x1024.

Those are the two only things that I could find being not ordinary in your VM setup. I don't know if that program that you're using is trying to use 3D accelerated graphics and is having issues with a virtual GPU from around 1995-2000 (in terms of capabilities). See if it has a mode where there's no hardware acceleration, no drawing goodies.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
WelshMatt983
Posts: 60
Joined: 15. Nov 2015, 16:01

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by WelshMatt983 »

Great thanks I will try this out this afternoon see if it makes a difference.
Last edited by socratis on 22. Aug 2019, 13:46, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary verbatim quote of the whole previous message.
Seedy
Posts: 1
Joined: 1. Sep 2019, 03:59

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by Seedy »

I understand that a conflict with retina displays may cause inordinate lag.

I'm not an expert. I did little programming and that was twenty years ago. However, I mention it as a possibility that has been discussed frequently elsewhere on the web. I actually stopped by here just to see if there has been any update to virtual box that would make it play nicely with Retina displays (HiDPI function displays for those not using macs). If anyone is familiar with this, I'd love to know more and whether or not there's even substance to these discussions. The people seemed knowledgeable to my uninformed self, and had tested the same mac using the native Retina display and a non-native display. They indicated that the native display lagged terribly and the non-native display running the same system showed no lag.

It's incredibly disappointing to me that it might be true that macs premier displays are causing the problem, and I certainly am not going to buy a separate laptop just to run VirtualBox, but maybe those other folks are wrong?

If not, it would be nice to see Oracle fix this.
socratis
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Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: iMac 27" Retina 2014 lag

Post by socratis »

Seedy wrote:I actually stopped by here just to see if there has been any update to virtual box that would make it play nicely with Retina displays
I, among plenty of other people, have a Retina display (mid-2015 MBP, 15"), and I don't have a problem. From what I've observed it's people that use the latest and greatest OSX that have the problems. I'm on 10.11.6 and I've never had a single issue.
Seedy wrote:had tested the same mac using the native Retina display and a non-native display
How's that possible? Are we talking about external monitors here or what?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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