Which OS virtualised runs faster Win 7 or Win 8.1

I wish to setup a development windows VM on my Retina Macbook Pro(mpb). This is for the purpose of learning how to develop with Visual Studio 2013.

The question is, in terms of performance or optimisation, which OS plays better when vritualized? Win 7 or Windows 8.1. Is windows 8.1 more optimised to be run as a VM?

I couldnt find anything on google in regards to this, nor could I find any questions here.

I plan on using either VM Ware fusion 6, or Parallels 9. Depending on the feedback I get here.

Laptop Specs: Mac OSX 10.9.1 2.6 Ghz (i5) 8gb ram 512gb SSD

If there is no concrete evidence for either case, what were your reasons for choosing one or the other, and what is your perception of the positives or negatives of that choice.

Kismet

Posted 2014-02-11T12:18:44.730

Reputation: 3

Here is some relevant information on the topic. MacTech Labs: Virtualization Benchmarks, January 2013

– Kismet – 2014-02-11T17:22:19.337

Answers

The two will perform very similarly. However, Windows 8 / 8.1 was built to be even lighter and faster than Windows 7, so you will see some performance gains on 8.1.

Regardless of the performance gain though, I would recommend Windows 8.1 for Visual Studio 2013 development so you can really play with VS 2013. Windows 8.1 will allow you to also use the Windows Phone 8 SDK and Windows 8 SDK, so you can develop mobile, tablet and "Modern" theme apps.

Austin T French

Posted 2014-02-11T12:18:44.730

Reputation: 9 766

@Ramhound Damn fat fingers! I meant 8.1 but apparently struck the zero on the num pad. – Austin T French – 2014-02-11T12:40:15.597

Only caught it because it was a weird suggestion to be honest. Upgrading 8.0 today has a single purpose migrating a Windows 7 machine to Windows 8.1 in a round about way. – Ramhound – 2014-02-11T12:43:53.243

@AthomSfere Would you recommend x86 or x64? What were your reasons for selecting either? – Kismet – 2014-02-11T17:25:33.443

@Kismet I would use x64, that way you can fully build / run / debug x64. You probably don't need to, but if you do you will kick yourself for not planning for the contingency IMO. – Austin T French – 2014-02-11T17:54:37.943

The issue comes down to much you want to allocate a machine. Both of these instances more or less run on the same system requirements(Windows 8 & Windows 7). Windows 8 is apparently better on performance due to how the OS was constructed, but does this really give it a point when visualized? Probably not.

If we assume you give both what they require to run then both function perfectly fine. If you can give both the system spec they require then it's all down to personal preference.

I am running two instances of Windows 8 for testing purposes and an instance of Windows 7 for...whatever reason I came up with at the time. Both serve different purposes, which was the deterministic characteristic in my using them.

Sources - Microsoft

Matthew Williams

Posted 2014-02-11T12:18:44.730

Reputation: 4 149

Since I am a Technical Support and QA Engineer, I'm working with VMs all day long. I have every OS virtualized, and from my experience, you will benefit more if you opt for using the x86 instead of x64 OS. If you do not have ultimately need for x64 OS, than you will be happier with lighter x86 OS. It is quite reasonable that you opt for the newest OS as developer, meaning that 8.1 x86 will allow you to exploit VS 2013 completely

I have 8-core/64GB RAM machine and even when I grant more memory to x64 OS, the x86 OS working easier and faster (this is just my perception, I did't tested). I'm using the VS2013 as well which is x86 applications, meaning that you will not gain any benefits from x64 OS when using VS 2013

Nikola Dimitrijevic

Posted 2014-02-11T12:18:44.730

Reputation: 3 363