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My HOST has 12GB of RAM available. I've been allocating 4GB of RAM to my VMs.

While attempting to get better performance, I've been tweaking with services and application running by turning them off. Which has helped a lot. I've also tried to lower the allocation on VMs from 3 to 4GB.

Its seems that I get better performance when lower the RAM, increasing the HOST RAM to VM RAM ratio.

Is there a general ratio to follow or does it really depend on each HOST/VM configuration?

There is no rule of thumb as to how much memory to give to the guest. Generally it's a good idea not to assign more than 50% of the host's available memory as opposed to its total memory. Speaking of which, how did you end up with 12GBs of memory? That's an unusual amount.

Thank you for the reply and tips. Much appreciated.

The Crucial System Scanner reported that my laptop could host a max of 12GB, so I purchased an 8GB module and replaced the existing.

Commercial link deleted.

You're welcome. I'm not sure why you posted the link seeing I have no idea what machine you have. but in general it's not a good idea to have different sized memory modules.

Applogizes for any confusion. The link was providing a url the crucial website where one can download the referenced scanner that scans your hardware and provides potential upgrades. Thought it may be handy to someone else out there.

I'm reasonably satisfied that it was accidental, but we don't typically allow commercial links here, especially from users with a low post count and when the link advertises something with no direct relevance to VirtualBox. Hence I've deleted the link.

loukingjr wrote:...Speaking of which, how did you end up with 12GBs of memory? That's an unusual amount.

Not that unusual if you triple channel motherboard.

4GB + 4GB +4GB = 12GB.

loukingjr wrote: but in general it's not a good idea to have different sized memory modules.

In general, that is most of the time, different sizes will work fine. More accurate to say it may not work and more likely to not run optimally. It's definitely a better idea to Run more RAM than less, if you need it, and you can, than worry about matching sizes when you don't have to.