Host memory use

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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mikeybinec
Posts: 12
Joined: 28. Jan 2013, 02:04
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Win 8, Fedora, W2K8 64 and 32 bit
Location: El Cajon, California

Host memory use

Post by mikeybinec »

Just a dumb question I guess. I noticed on the tutorials that it states that one should not use
more than one gig of RAM for the virtual machine. Can someone tell me why that is? I was giving
Win 8 and Win 2008 sErver 1½ - 4 gigs of RAM and I did'nt see any performance benefit..Or am I doing something
wrong?

Thanks
stefan.becker
Volunteer
Posts: 7639
Joined: 7. Jun 2007, 21:53

Re: Host memory use

Post by stefan.becker »

Depends on the Host OS (32/64 Bit), the RAM size, free RAM.

You can give as much as RAM to the guest as you have free RAM. But not too much, the Host needs RAM for the OS and VBOX itsself. In your case (4 GB RAM) i think 2 GB for a guest is the maximum.

Benefits of more RAM you will only see if you start applications using/needing the RAM.
BillG
Volunteer
Posts: 5106
Joined: 19. Sep 2009, 04:44
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Windows 10,7 and earlier
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Host memory use

Post by BillG »

I agree with Stefan. There is no point in giving a guest OS 4G unless it can make use of it. The memory you allocate to a guest is no longer available to the host, and your guest performance will suffer if the host is starved on RAM.

Also if you allocate more memory to a guest than you have available at the time, it will not start.
Bill
mikeybinec
Posts: 12
Joined: 28. Jan 2013, 02:04
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Win 8, Fedora, W2K8 64 and 32 bit
Location: El Cajon, California

Re: Host memory use

Post by mikeybinec »

Thanks for replies..Most helpful
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