virtualbox.org

Hi all,

What is better for running several (3-5) VMs - more cores or more CPU cache? Is it possible to answer in general?
In my case, one VM works as network gateway - it's primary job is to route network packets. There are also linux and windows HTTP servers. Finally, 2-3 testing computers running diferent soft, even SQL.

Following CPUs has similar price:
AMD Phenom II X2 560 3.3 GHz 7Mb
AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 GHz 2Mb

Which one is better for virtualization?

More cache per cpu is better, but alot of quads these days have larger caches, up to 6mb/core.

vuser1 wrote:What is better for running several (3-5) VMs

depends on the workload, but thats how much i would run on a quad core. A dual core is ok for max. 2 guests IMHO

Workload is not big. The only hard-loaded VM is network gateway. Other VMs are not loaded a lot. There ARE CPUs with 4 cores and 8Mb cache, but I believe I don't need to pay so much.

So, in my case:
- one VM is net gateway, loaded
- 2-4 VMs, not loaded so much

I know that VM eats CPU context switches even when idle. Which CPU is better?

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