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Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 5. Mar 2020, 00:03
by MacDawg
Hello,

I have assigned my WIndows 10 vm 4GB of Base Memory, however, Activity Monitor reports that VirtualBox VM is using 8.37GB.

Why is this more than double?

Thanks for your help.

Host:
MBP 13
2.8 quad-core i7
16GB memory
Virtualbox Version 6.1.4 r136177 (Qt5.6.3)

Guest:
Windows 10 Pro

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 5. Mar 2020, 01:43
by scottgus1
On my Windows hosts, I see Process Explorer report exact expected usage on Virtualbox guests. (I don't have a Mac.) Can you post evidence to the forum to support your assertion?

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 5. Mar 2020, 02:39
by MacDawg
Attached image of VirtualBox settings for the running VM in front of Activity Monitor.

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 5. Mar 2020, 04:30
by granada29
MacDawg wrote: I have assigned my WIndows 10 vm 4GB of Base Memory, however, Activity Monitor reports that VirtualBox VM is using 8.37GB.
I can reproduce this value (I have a Windows 10 VM with 4096MB of RAM allocated) but I think what you are seeing here is the virtual memory allocation for the process. Or some other random value that Apple has chosen to display and never document.

If you right-click the table header in 'Activity Monitor', or select the menu View/Columns/, you should be able to select a column labelled 'Real Memory'. In my case, this column displays 4.77GB as the memory usage for my VM - and I think is a truer indication of the actual memory usage of a process.

I hope that helps

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 5. Mar 2020, 05:39
by MacDawg
Much appreciated, granada29

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 20. Apr 2020, 19:22
by rsc
Just noticed the same thing here (MBP host, Windows 10 Guest).

Funny that I have been using VirtualBox for more than 3 years with MBP host / Win guest and don't remember ever seeing this issue before. Maybe was something introduced in a recent version of Virtual Box?

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 17. Jul 2020, 16:40
by sygibson
Confirmed on my side. Since 6.1.3 and through 6.1.12 - any VM assigned memory will end up with actual consumption on host (Mac OS X 10.14.6 Mojave) consuming just over 2x the amount of memory.

Downloading and installing the 6.1.2 version, and restarting the VM returns to just a touch over 1x memory usage.

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 20. Jul 2020, 17:09
by vboxgps
Yup, I concur. Uninstalling 6.1.12 and installing 6.1.2 fixed the problem for me as well.

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 23. Feb 2021, 02:44
by Mark0P0L0
NOTE: ok, so- please move my post to according thread, but I haven't found related in "Windows Host" or "Linux Guest", but the issue is exactly related to this thread, so I am leaving it here>

The Issue: despite assigned 5 Gb of RAM, VirtualBox allows Linux CentOS Guest to use 10Gb of RAM causing extreme slowdown on the system, eating up memory.

Setup: Host- Windows 10 64 bit, Guest- Linux CentOS 7 (SecurityOnion 2.3.21); VirtualBox Version 6.1.18 r142142 (Qt5.6.2)

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 15. Apr 2021, 19:42
by JGCamarena
Same problem to me
Running Virtuabox 6.1.18 on MBP early 2015 with 8GB RAM with Big Sur.

The host machine (Lubuntu 20.04) with 2GB uses 4GB
Captura de pantalla 2021-04-15 a las 19.18.04.png
Captura de pantalla 2021-04-15 a las 19.18.04.png (53.11 KiB) Viewed 11029 times
Captura de pantalla 2021-04-15 a las 19.18.25.png
Captura de pantalla 2021-04-15 a las 19.18.25.png (63.08 KiB) Viewed 11029 times
I've read that downgrading virtual box to 6.1.2 the problem solves, but I think that because Big Sur I can't use 6.1.2 :(

Thanks

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 15. Apr 2021, 19:46
by scottgus1

Re: Host Memory Used vs. Base Memory (Guest Memory) assigned

Posted: 2. Aug 2021, 21:49
by antg