VirtualBox on Core 2 Extreme vs i5

[cpf]

Hello,
I am running the same virtual machine (100GB disks, 12 GB RAM) on 2 computers:
- Intel Core i5 2400S, 16GB RAM DDR3, HDD (newer MB and processor)
- Intel Core 2 Duo Exterme QX9650 , 16GB RAM DDR3, SSD (faster storage, better video card)
On the first configuration, the VM works well, on the second it barley starts; in any other tasks (not involving VirtualBox) i don't see any difference. Host OS is Windows 7. What could explain such a strange behaviour? Is there any configuration that could help me to get the VM working on QX9650 too?

[mpack]

Without a log for either VM we stand little chance of making any sensible comments. In any case a comparitive evaluation is often pointless: we don't care why VM A runs well, what we actually want to know is why VM B runs poorly, which with the correct diagnostics can be answered without needing to discuss case A.

So, with VM B fully shut down, right click it in GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

[cpf]

Hi,
Please find attached the log file. Thank you.

[michaln]

The Core i5 is much better at virtualization than any Core 2, because it supports nested paging (EPT in Intel-speak). On the host side the difference isn't big and the Core 2 could easily be faster, but for virtualization the Core i5 has a huge advantage.

[mpack]

Points in no particular order.

• What Michaln said.
• What kind of technology does host drive "P:" use?
• I see that you have a quad core host, but you made the mistake of assigning 4 cores to the guest. That doesn't leave anything for the host to run VirtualBox with (and everything else the host needs to do). The VM should have 3 cores max, in fact I'd give it no more than 2.
• I see you still have the VBoxGuestAdditions ISO mounted in the VM, which is bad practice. You should eject it.
• Despite the latter point, you don't seem to have actually installed the GAs. You are not required to, but it indicates that you may be leaving the GAs ISO mounted when updating VirtualBox, which can cause problems.
• I notice that the hard disk is called "Clone of Fedora17_i386.vdi". If you cloned the VM then it isn't the same VM on two PCs. Cloning changes UUIDs, which may make some guests behave differently. All you have to do to copy a VM to a new host is copy the VM folder and register the .vbox file there.
• I see that 3D acceleration is enabled. Does your Fedora guest need this? If this option is enabled then obviously performance in the guest would depend heavily on the performance of the OpenGL drivers on the host.