Slow graphics issue

[Brunix]

Dear all,

I am currently using Virtualbox 6.0 to run Windows 7 64 bit on a Retina MacBook (Late 2013), running Mojave.

I am experiencing serious graphics issues: although I have installed the guest additions, the entire system is extremely slow when it comes to rendering contents on screen, even moving the windows feels quite sluggish.

I have already tried the three different graphic adapters options, and have installed the 2D and base 3D acceleration drivers while in safe mode, with no success, except that of having a good screen resolution.

The strange thing is, with previous versions of MacOS and Virtualbox all worked seamlessly.

Please find attached the virtual machine log.

Thank you in advance for any suggestion.

Andrea

[mpack]

Do you actually require 3D acceleration for this VM? I.e. do you actually run 3D graphics CAD inside the VM? If not then try switching to 2D acceleration only.

Incidentally: I suggest that you don't thrash. If you get the same poor performance regardless of the settings then perhaps the settings are not the problem. 2D acceleration with GAs installed in safe mode and using VBoxVGA graphics is your default (which is working, according to the log). I.e. don't change from that until you find out what the source of the slowness is.

[Brunix]

Yes, I used to play a cartoon-like car game from 2001, that (I think) is in 3D... However it now lags.

Oddly, I have also tried to play Age Of Empires 2, which once worked fine, but now it just prints a frame every 10 seconds or so, causing the entire system to freeze.

EDIT: playing a low-res video on Windows Media Player also results in increasing lag till the system freezes up entirely.

[Aaron_SDR]

I too am having serious graphics/performance issues with a Windows 10 Pro install.
2018 MBP 15" Mac OS 10.14.3,
2.2 GHz i7
16GB RAM
Radeon Pro 555x 4GB
256 GB SSD

I have tried numerous configurations probably over 10 attempting various settings. I've installed the GuestAdditions, uninstalled and reinstalled the Extensions. Attempted using NVMe controller (which failed). 2D and 3D, adjusted memory from 2048 to 4096, adjusted Video memory from 128 to 256. Adjusted CPU Cores to 4 because I have 16 available. Installed all of the Win 10 updates.

[socratis]

00:00:01.400626 DMI Product Name: MacBookPro15,1
...
00:10:48.703208 GUI: UIMachineLogicFullscreen::revalidateNativeFullScreen: Ask machine-window #0 to enter native fullscreen

Your MacBookPro15,1 has a theoretical resolution of 2880x1800 and a maximum scaled of 1920x1200 (More Space). Trying to drive so many pixels with a fake, virtual GPU is not going to be super fast.

Here's what I do, assuming that you've selected the "More Space" option which makes it look like 1920x1200:

• Go to the VirtualBox Preferences » Display » Scale Factor: 200%
• Change the VM window from FullScreen to windowed mode, with a size of 1280x1024.
• Lower my expectations.

[Aaron_SDR]

At this stage of the game with everything I've done to remedy the situation, I'm giving win 10 up and moving to Ubuntu who hopes it will run faster. My ultimate goal is to run packet tracer from Cisco for training and it can run a bit on the heavy side with graphics. If you know of anything else I'll consider it. I did follow your suggestions and had no success.


Thank you

[socratis]

If you know of anything else I'll consider it.

Nope, I gave you everything that I'm doing as well.

Programs that tend to push the physical hardware to their limit, have strict requirements for the graphics card (GPU) specifications. Virtual machines will never be as powerful as the host, especially on the video side. They use after all a virtual graphics card, not your host's real graphics card. The virtual GPU itself is from around 1995-2000 in terms of capabilities. Applications that have high requirements on the GPU (drawing, 3D, games, video) are expected to not work as good as on the real hardware, if they work at all.

You only option is to pretty much wait for improved graphics support. I have no clue when this will happen, or if it will happen at all.

[Rannug]

Something related to graphics changed with MacOS 10.14.

After I upgraded my machine from 10.13.6 to 10.14.3 I immediately noticed much slower graphics in my Windows 7 VM.
All VM settings where the same. Dragging a simple explorer window now causes a lot of lag.

[socratis]

After I upgraded my machine from 10.13.6 to 10.14.3 I immediately noticed much slower graphics in my Windows 7 VM.

I have created just for those cases an external hard drive (just 200 GB, don't need bigger), that is set to quadruple boot into 10.11, .12, .13, .14 and it has room for .15 when it comes out.

Anything in particular I should be looking at, before I start rebooting my computer between different OSes?

[Aaron_SDR]

Hello,

It's me again.

I'm still having dead slow video performance with the latest release from VB while running windows 10 pro as a guest. Please see attached log and let me know what other information you might need.

Thanks

[mpack]

Zipping is great, but what possessed you to provide the log as a PDF? Inflating the download size and making it much less useful.