VMware Workstation 6.5: performance in virtualised environments
Virtual desktops are becoming increasingly common in enterprises. Consequently, tests with VMware Workstation 6.5 and the application-based Winstone benchmarks are useful in providing an insight into the efficiency of virtualised IT environments. Even though the Winstone test is somewhat long in the tooth, it's still relevant because what's being tested here is the efficiency of the processors involved in VMware virtualisation rather than application performance.
In the test, two virtual machines (VMs) running Windows XP were tested using Content Creation Winstone (CCWS). In each case, the VMs have two CPU cores at their disposal. A test using Cinebench R10 was also conducted in the virtualised environment. Both Intel's EPT and AMD's RVI direct memory access technologies are supported. However, neither the new Nehalem processors nor the AMD Phenom work faster in this mode of operation. According to these tests, the fastest chip for virtualisation is the Core 2 Extreme QX9775, which only supports Intel VT.
It's possible that VMware Workstation is not optimised for processors that offer direct memory access for VMs. On the other hand, it's also possible that the tests we conducted do not make the most of this technology. Further testing will be required to clarify the use of direct memory access.
VMware/Cinebench tests: longer bars are better.
VMware/Content Creation Winstone tests: longer bars are better.
Image editing: Paint.Net, Autopano pro, Jalbum
Image editing programs use advanced parallelism to capitalise on the power of multi-core processors. We used three programs to test Core i7 performance in this area: the freeware tool Paint .NET is an efficient image editor based on the Microsoft's .NET interface; and its accompanying benchmark, pdnbench, puts a full workload on the processors during typical image operations. Additional tests are provided by Autopano Pro, which produces panoramic images, and Jalbum for HTML art galleries.
Jalbum and Paint .NET make the most of the new Nehalem quad cores' hyperthreading features. In both tests, the 2.66GHz Core i7 920 delivers better results than the 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9775. Autopano Pro's ability to make use of eight processors seems to produce no advantage, while the 64-bit versions of Paint .NET and Autopano Pro are clearly faster than their 32-bit equivalents.
Image editing tests (seconds): shorter bars are better.
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The charts that accompany this article are difficult to read because the order of the bars and the legends keep changing. What's up with that?