VMware Workstation 12 Brings Better Performance, OpenGL 3.3 Support

[Jeroen]

Michael, I'm very interested in seeing how VMware compares to Virtualbox now that versoin 5 has support for KVM. VMware was always faster with disk writes, it will be interesting to see how much of a difference the new KVM support makes.

[DebianLinuxero]

Archlinux has a patch to make Player 7.1.x work with kernels upto the latest 4.1.x. I've used it many times and allows to compile the kernel modules with 4.x kernels.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vmware-patch/

This patch doesn't appear to be necessary with the just released VMWare Player.

Hello.

I was meant Workstation 7, not Player 7. Player 7 doesn't support 32 bit CPU's.

It's curious how VMware has some 32 bit builds of its products, but those doesn't support real 32 bit CPU's. They are intended for 32 bit host OSes on 64 bit CPU's.

VMware 7.1.6 Workstation was the last thing that runs on real 32 bit only processors. Thought.

[JohnhHutch]

Upgrade to VMWare Pro 12 on a Windows 10 Host. Expected to see OpenGL 3.3 now in my Windows 7 Guest, but no it's only OpenGL 2.1. What happened to the promised OpenGL 3.3?

[Luke_Wolf]

Hello.

I was meant Workstation 7, not Player 7. Player 7 doesn't support 32 bit CPU's.

It's curious how VMware has some 32 bit builds of its products, but those doesn't support real 32 bit CPU's. They are intended for 32 bit host OSes on 64 bit CPU's.

VMware 7.1.6 Workstation was the last thing that runs on real 32 bit only processors. Thought.

You really don't want to run a VM on a processor which doesn't have the virtualization extensions anyway, which pretty much excludes all 32 bit processors by itself.

[towo2099]

I had running the vmware-workstation technical preview 2015 and it was running great. Yesterday i tryed vmware 12 and it does not run. Install was going fine, but then nothing.
Typing vmplayer or vmware is resulting in releasing terminal and nothing, no output, no errors, no hint in any logfile i viewed.

[RealNC]

That hasn't been my experience with previous versions of VMWare Player on Linux hosts. It ran Windows guests just fine and with better graphics performance than VirtualBox

I run Windows and Linux guests in Linux and also in Windows. The desktop of the guest (Windows and Linux) is choppy in Linux but smooth in Windows. This has always been the case for many years, since Workstation 6 (which was the first version I used in Linux.)

When you run your guest, is desktop as smooth as your host desktop? I highly doubt it. Under Windows, you cannot tell if you're in the guest or in the host. Both run 100% smooth.

Just to make it clear:

Windows host running Windows guest: smooth guest desktop
Windows host running Linux guest: smooth guest desktop
Linux host running Windows guest: choppy guest desktop
Linux host running Linux guest: choppy guest desktop

[RealNC]

I suspect you've got something misconfigured. I've been running VM Workstation 10, on RHEL6, and with a Windows XP guest & Steam, I can run most older games at silky smooth frame rates. No stuttering, no tearing, just smoooooth. FWIW vid card is a GTX 560 ti.

I don't run games. I run Visual Studio and other desktop applications. The whole desktop is choppy. Games are not choppy. The DESKTOP is.

[wodencafe]

I run Windows and Linux guests in Linux and also in Windows. The desktop of the guest (Windows and Linux) is choppy in Linux but smooth in Windows. This has always been the case for many years, since Workstation 6 (which was the first version I used in Linux.)

When you run your guest, is desktop as smooth as your host desktop? I highly doubt it. Under Windows, you cannot tell if you're in the guest or in the host. Both run 100% smooth.

Just to make it clear:

Windows host running Windows guest: smooth guest desktop
Windows host running Linux guest: smooth guest desktop
Linux host running Windows guest: choppy guest desktop
Linux host running Linux guest: choppy guest desktop

How do you define "choppy", exactly?

And what version of VMWare workstation are you having this experience with now? Because this hasn't been my experience.

[torsionbar28]

I don't run games. I run Visual Studio and other desktop applications. The whole desktop is choppy. Games are not choppy. The DESKTOP is.

If games are not choppy, but the Windows Desktop GUI is, that sounds like the issue is with the Windows Desktop GUI. FWIW I just loaded Windows 10 as a guest, and even the Win10 start menu, with the animated flipping tiles is silky smooth.

This is Workstation 10 on a RHEL6 host & GTX 560ti video, so not exactly "latest and greatest" stuff. Maybe it's a regression in the newer versions?? You have the VMware tools package loaded, and up to date, correct?