vmware fusion game problems?

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I am currently running windows vista on VMware fusion and everything is just fine apart from games. When I run a game it will lag a quite a bit. I did some research and found out that VMware isn't very good at supporting "demanding graphics". I found out that bootcamp was the answer. The set up was an exe file and opened in windows and it installed lots of drivers for graphics and audio. But Im still getting lag in games, how do I fix this?
 
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If you want to do demanding tasks like playing games you will probably be better off installing windows directly and reboot into it. Instead of running it virtually as you are doing now (vmware).

Start up the bootcamp assistant and follow the instructions, I think it is in the Applications/Utilities folder somewhere.
 
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Even with Bootcamp, your still beholden to reality when it comes to games or other intensive GPU applications. Please post your system specs (make, model, GPU), the type of games you play.

Later games, especially FPS titles such as Crysis, Bioshock, FEAR2 etc are extremely hardware intensive whether running Bootcamp or not. You may have to adjust your game settings to turn things like AA or AF down to get decent-playable framerates.

Each game usually has a way to benchmark via demos or some other game specific setting. You can also install FRAPS a utility that will tell you what sort of framerates you are getting. Using this tool you can adjust settings, play some more, and get an idea of what you may need to adjust.
 
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Current Specs:
l Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB memory
640GB hard drive
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphic

EDIT: Using the Boot Camp Assitant now, will let you know the result.
 
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The 9400 is an integrated graphics card and as such is not as powerful as a dedicated GPU. You are definitely going to want to do some benchmarking to adjust your settings to be in line with your current hardware.

The FRAPS tool will help with that as will some basic trial and error. AA, AF and resolution are the main settings that will help give you better overall performance. Keep in mind that different games have different performance characteristics it's not a 'one size fits all' approach. My advice is to start with the lowest settings available and incrementally adjust your settings with each run until you get to the point where you don't feel the game is playable anymore.
 
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Agreed. Your video adapter is the key to this situation; while its better than the Intel integrated graphics in older Macs (like mine!), the 9400 does not compare to a separate, dedicated graphics card - which comes in the more expensive Macbook Pros and iMacs. And even so, video games are always on the bleeding edge and written for the latest and greatest hardware, so as your Mac ages, it can fall behind the latest games.

Good luck.
 
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The 9400 is an integrated graphics card and as such is not as powerful as a dedicated GPU. You are definitely going to want to do some benchmarking to adjust your settings to be in line with your current hardware.

The FRAPS tool will help with that as will some basic trial and error. AA, AF and resolution are the main settings that will help give you better overall performance. Keep in mind that different games have different performance characteristics it's not a 'one size fits all' approach. My advice is to start with the lowest settings available and incrementally adjust your settings with each run until you get to the point where you don't feel the game is playable anymore.

Benchmarking? Is there anyway to do it in vmware? I don't really like bootcamp so it would be great if I could get games to run in vmware. Im currently trying to play Counterstrike Source and Left 4 Dead.
 
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Neither of those games are going to run effectively in VMWare or any other VM solution.

All Valve games are GPU intensive and require direct access to the hardware, namely the DirectX API. A VMWare environment does not provide this type of support for the underlying graphics hardware being that it has to go through a translation layer.

Note, there is nothing to prevent you from trying this, but you are not going to get anywhere near the frame rates to play these games effectively.
 
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Neither of those games are going to run effectively in VMWare or any other VM solution.

All Valve games are GPU intensive and require direct access to the hardware, namely the DirectX API. A VMWare environment does not provide this type of support for the underlying graphics hardware being that it has to go through a translation layer.

Note, there is nothing to prevent you from trying this, but you are not going to get anywhere near the frame rates to play these games effectively.

So BootCamp is the only option?
 
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Yeah.

This is not particular to Valve games per se, it's simply the reality of how games in general use the underlying GPU and what that means in terms of framerates, playability. Direct hardware access is required for most of these and VM based solutions do not provide this type of hardware support.
 
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Yeah.

This is not particular to Valve games per se, it's simply the reality of how games in general use the underlying GPU and what that means in terms of framerates, playability. Direct hardware access is required for most of these and VM based solutions do not provide this type of hardware support.

Ok thanks, will run the games on bootcamp later and let you know :)
 

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