Gamers are a special breed, and to them the holy grail is the fastest computer. Gamers don't mind spending big bucks for even small increases in spread, even though it makes each additional small increment in speed/power more and more expensive.
I think VMware will degrade performance on the guest OS about 10%, and many of the newer VM(s), such as Redhat's Zen claim to be much faster than VMware. Having a monstrous amount of memory on a desktop computer, even one running many VM(s) really isn't necessary. The VM(s) not being used can be put to sleep, so they are not using lots of memory. For a desktop computer, I think 8G or 16G would be fine, and I think it would a big mistake for Microsoft to up the memory requirements for it Vista and future OS(s). At least for me, as the OS requirement for more and more memory increases, the OS's attractiveness to me decreases and decreases. Someone mentioned a motherboard that supported 64G of memory LOL, which seem a little much for a desktop computer. Heck, Ive run complete OS(s) including all the applications and data on a lot less space than that, so unless Microsoft or someone else decide to hold the entire OS in a RAM disk or in a solid state HD, I don't see the advantage to lots of memory, especially given that huge amounts of data can be accessed in a database like PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, DB2, etc almost instantaneously. Manipulating data can also be handled plenty fast on a HD, like a bubble sort, etc, so huge amount of memory isn't needed for that. The same goes for arrays, which can be put into a database for manipulation, etc. Also, todays hardware is very capable of managing memory and grabbing files as needed and then doing garbage collection to clean-up and free memory as needed. However, if I were running servers like alike VMware's enterprise, PostgreSQL, and busy web server, then lots of system memory makes sense. For gamers the action all takes place on the video card, (eg GUP), so they just add additional video cards to increase processing power and memory. Still, even gamers don't need huge amounts of memory as the graphics are switch out from the HD. Regards, LelandJ Bill Arnold wrote: > Hi Leland, > > Gaming may be an exception because I understand some such programs > bypass the OS and API's and go directly to the hardware (I guess that's > what you're talking about), but as a Big General Rule, computer > performance 'degradation' is a function of physical I/O with devices, > usually managed by the OS and device drivers, and from this standpoint > if enough RAM is installed to keep 'x' number of OS's and 'y' number of > applications in memory, there should be little, if any, difference > between a standalone OS machine and a VM machine. > > > Bill > > > > >> Yes, that had occurred to me. A VM is not the best choice on >> which to >> run games. Windows is still ahead of Linux at this point as a gaming >> OS; although, I haven't seen any benchmark/comparison. It is my >> understanding that the windows NVIDIA driver is more mature for SLI, >> etc, than is the Linux NVIDIA driver, and the windows (OS) will yield >> more FPS, (eg Frames per Second) and greater SLI functionality under >> windows than the Linux OS with a NVIDIA driver. >> >> I would rather host VM(s) under the Linux OS and have all my >> web stuff >> under the safer Linux OS, (eg web browser, email clients, >> etc), and only >> run applications that are not available under Linux/Unix in a >> Windows VM >> guest, but if I were a gamer, I would reverse it and host the guest >> OS(s) on Windows, so I could run games natively. >> >> Regards, >> >> LelandJ >> > > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
