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Slow graphics on guests

Posted: 26. Jul 2008, 21:05
by seattle vic
I'm running xp, w2k and debian under a ubuntu host. For the most part, the guests run flawlessly and I'm very happy with the product.

However, the graphics runs noticeably slower. For most operations like spreadsheets (excel) it's not a problem, but with a graphics-intensive app, you really notice it. I tried to run google earth under a guest and it was just too slow.

My machine and graphics card are pretty fast. Nvidia with 256M and dual core processors with 4G memory.

Is there anything that can be done to bring the guest up to speed with the host?

Thanks in advance,

Vic

Posted: 27. Jul 2008, 02:26
by TerryE
I am assuming that you have Guest additions installed.

The reason that GE runs slowly is that it uses DirectX or equivalent graphics libraries when they are available. These pass most of the work to the graphics processors in the Nvidia. VBox does not virtualize this interface so GE falls back to a simpler mode which only uses the x86 (or one in the case of a VM) hence it runs a lot slower.

Any 3D apps should be run native. Try GE for Linux :-)