would 32GB ram make a difference

I have an iMac retina with 16 GB ram. Sometimes I use programs in VMWare fusion and i get little hangups. (Quicken and MS office- Yes I know about the mac version but I need access) Would upping the ram to 32 GB make a big difference.

Not really.

VMWare is a pretty intensive program, and running the two applications you mention, it will slow a little. 16GB of memory should be ample. Flash storage would be faster than a fusion drive.

As mentioned…increasing the ram to 32gig most likely won't help. But do keep an eye on how many apps you have open at the same time.

Also regarding VMware Fusion. Not only are computing resources being used running VMware Fusion…but computer resources are being used running the apps inside VMware Fusion.

Rebooting the computer occasionally can help too. Especially if you don't do it very often.

And finally. From time to time run the free maintenance app called Onyx.

- Nick

How much RAM have you given the VM within VMware Fusion? Did you give it at least 2 CPUs? Run Task Manager on the Windows machines while you are using the apps on that VM and see how the CPU/Memory usage looks like.

If you see any swapping happening, you likely need to up the amount of RAM to the VM. If your CPU is constantly pegged and you haven't given it 2 CPUs, then use 2 CPUs.

I have a 2013 rMBP with 16GB of memory and have 2 VMs running through VMware Fusion (Windows 8.1 with 6GB and Ubuntu Linux with 3GB). My Windows VM is running Visual Studio and Eclipse for development work and I'm usually sitting around 4.5GB of memory used. Both VMs have been given 2 CPUs and they are perfectly performant for my daily work.

With out knowing the complete specs of your iMac - i5 vs. i7, fusion drive vs SSD - also how full is your storage drive (lack of swap space occurs as it get too full) - I would say you should get some performance boost but take into account 16 GB is still a healthy amount of memory and I am not sure it would be what you expect.

I would suggest you download and run Onyx, which is a free maintenance app, to clean out your cache, repair permissions and other junk. Sometimes that will help a lot. I try to remember to run it monthly but I do run it when I start seeing the beachball a lot.

Titanium Software - OnyX

Make sure to download the right version for you version of OS X.

Lisa

Raz0rEdge said:

I have a 2013 rMBP with 16GB of memory and have 2 VMs running through VMware Fusion (Windows 8.1 with 6GB and Ubuntu Linux with 3GB). My Windows VM is running Visual Studio and Eclipse for development work and I'm usually sitting around 4.5GB of memory used. Both VMs have been given 2 CPUs and they are perfectly performant for my daily work.

Click to expand...

That's an impressive setup you got there Ashwin!

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

That's an impressive setup you got there Ashwin!

- Nick

Click to expand...

OS X and the Mac make it all happen..I actively use my Mac during all of this as well. Since the latest Yosemite upgrade, I've got 20 days uptime on the Mac and way more on the VMs since I just suspend and resume them for months..

Raz0rEdge said:

OS X and the Mac make it all happen..I actively use my Mac during all of this as well. Since the latest Yosemite upgrade, I've got 20 days uptime on the Mac and way more on the VMs since I just suspend and resume them for months..

Click to expand...

Apple should put you & your computer setup in a commercial aimed at "switchers"..to prove that WE CAN do just about anything on a Mac!!!

And if Apple won't do it…AT LEAST the VMware Fusion folks should!!!

- Nick

Right now my VMware settings are 1 cpu core and 2 GB Ram allocated. I had Quicken and Excel open.
I see memory swap used 14.0 MB and memory pressure green bar about 3/4 across.

Which version of Windows are you using within this VM? With 16GB of memory, 2GB is just not enough. The minimum requirements for 64-bit Windows 8.1, for example, is 2GB. You really should give Windows at least 6GBs and you really should give the VM at least 2 CPUs..

pigoo3 said:

Apple should put you & your computer setup in a commercial aimed at "switchers"..to prove that WE CAN do just about anything on a Mac!!!

And if Apple won't do it…AT LEAST the VMware Fusion folks should!!!

- Nick

Click to expand...

Nick,

My team all use various versions of Dell laptops with Windows 8.1 and a VM of Linux on it and my rMBP with 2 VMs performs better..

Unfortunately, the others aren't Mac savvy enough to switch over..

Unfortunately I'm still running windows 7. I haven't upgraded to 8.1 yet, as I figured 10 will be out soon and it will be a free upgrade. It is the 64 bit. Fusion is the latest release. My iMac is the newest 27" retina with i5 and fusion drive.
Thanks for the suggestion of Onyx. I'll give it a try. I will try upping the memory allocation and cpu to see if that helps.

Windows 7 has the same system requirements as Windows 8, so upping the memory and CPUs will make a world of good..