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I am preparing to create a virtual machine on VirtualBox. The wizard asks for the memory size to use for this guest machine and it is recommending 512MB. I have 16GB of memory on my computer so I would expect to be able to utilize more then just 512MB.
- Why does VirtualBox recommend 512MB?
- Is this a hard-coded value or is this a calculated value based on the amount of memory I have?
- What would be the ramifications of using a higher value, such as 4GB?
UPDATE:
I just read the following from the VirtualBox online documentation...
Depending on what guest operating systems you want to run, you will need at least 512 MB of RAM (but probably more, and the more the better). Basically, you will need whatever your host operating system needs to run comfortably, plus the amount that the guest operating system needs. So, if you want to run Windows XP on Windows XP, you probably won't enjoy the experience much with less than 1 GB of RAM. If you want to try out Windows Vista in a guest, it will refuse to install if it is given less than 512 MB RAM, so you'll need that for the guest alone, plus the memory your operating system normally needs.
So it sounds like they 512MB recommended is just a minimum and I will want to use as much memory as possible without taking up the memory my main computer will be using. But I would still be interested in learning your experiences with this issue.
2512MB is simply the default recommended amount. If you have a need for the virtual machine to have more then 512MB then increase the amount. The default value has to be something and the developers choose 512MB. – Ramhound – 2015-09-16T16:43:43.203