Microsoft's son Hyper-V competes with virtualization giant VMware Workstation in performance

Hyper-V VS VMware

1: Hyper-V comes with Windows 10, no need to download and install, just restart after opening, while Vmware needs to download and install 2: Hyper-V virtual hard disk adopts vhdx format, the host can directly read the virtual machine files, while Vmware needs Self-mapping 3: Hyper-V memory is dynamically allocated, when the virtual machine is running in the background, the memory usage is automatically reduced, while Vmware is fixed memory 4: Hyper-V suspends the virtual machine faster, and can be ignored regardless of the virtual system Shut down directly when it is running, and Vmware suspends the virtual machine slowly. You need to wait until the virtual memory is released before shutting down. 5: After Hyper-V is turned on, the performance of the host computer decreases slightly, while Vmware will not. 6: Hyper-V can only display Fixed size (Linux), which led me to abandon Hyper-V directly, and Vmware can dynamically adjust the size following the window after installing vm-tools. 7: Hyper-V cannot connect to the external network by default, and there is only a virtual switch network solution, Vmware The default NAT network mode can connect to the external network, and there are three network modes 8: Hyper-V USB peripherals cannot directly connect to virtual machines, while Vmware can 9: Hyper-V supports fewer operating systems and better support for Windows. Linux support is poor. If you want to use a Linux virtual machine (such as Ubuntu), Hyper-V is not recommended, and Vmware supports more operating systems. 10: Hyper-V uses CPU to simulate the display by default, and the performance is low, but it can be passed Means to virtualize the GPU, and VMware can directly use the GPU to improve display performance after installing Vmware-tool

Preface
I believe that you are familiar with VMware Workstation (hereinafter referred to as VMware). In a narrow sense, it is a virtual machine. Broadly speaking, it is a hardware virtualization platform. The most common way is to install various operating systems in VMware. Gamers will use VMware Chinese games are often opened and hanged, code farmers will install Linux system in Vmware to develop and compile software, hackers will test virus programs in virtual machines, and ordinary users may install some domestic rogue software in virtual machines.

It was only after I had my first laptop more than ten years ago that I knew there was something like a virtual machine. At that time, I was shocked! Windows can be installed in Windows, not only can it be installed in Windows, but also other non-Windows systems, system sets, hens and chickens, since then, the virtual machine has been one of the essential tools in my computer! Of course, VMware Workstation had already debuted at that time, but I don’t know what Hyper-V is. Hyper-V has only entered people’s vision in recent years. Hyper-V was released in Windows Server 2008, but Hyper-V was not built-in until Windows 8 was released. , Windows 10, which is now commonly used, of course also has Hyper-V built in.

What is the difference between Hyper-V and VMware Workstation? At present, there are two virtualization architectures on the surface, namely Type 1 and Type 2, which correspond to the left and right sides of the figure below, respectively. Type 1 runs directly on the bare metal (which means running directly on the bare metal. You may think that the bare metal sounds more Cool, so it’s called that), Type 2 requires a managed operating system, it runs on the managed operating system, and is essentially just a piece of software on the operating system




Hyper-V is Type 1. When it is turned on, the original Windows system becomes a virtual machine of Hyper-V, so the performance of Windows with Hyper-V will be slightly reduced, while VMware Workstation belongs to Type 2 and is on Windows A piece of software, theoretically speaking, Type 1 has one less layer and higher performance.

So the question is, can I run VMware Workstation on Windows with Hyper-V enabled? Isn't this a two-tier matryoshka anymore? Yes, this is indeed a problem. It is indeed incompatible before a certain version. After Hyper-V is turned on, VMware Workstation cannot be used, but it will be compatible in 202005.

After Vmware workstation is upgraded to version 15.5.5, it can be compatible with Hyper-V, but there are restrictions: it must be Windows 10 20H1 (also called version 2004) or higher
Performance comparison


Idea: Great method of controlling variables is good

First turn off Hyper-V (Windows is turned off by default), then test the four major components of the host CPU, GPU, hard disk, and network, then install Windows in Vmware, and test the four major components again
Then turn on Hyper-V, then test the four major components of the host CPU, GPU, hard disk, and network, and then install the same version of Windows in Hyper-V, and test the four major components again
Take the results of the above two cases directly for comparison

test tools
In view of this test, I specifically collected some test tools

CPU running points: Cinebench
Cinebench is a software designed by MAXON Computer to test the rendering capabilities of the CPU. Another more well-known software launched by MAXON Computer is actually a 3D animation rendering and production software: Cinema 4D. Running sub-tests through Cinebench allows users to easily evaluate the performance of their PCs when running Cinema 4D.

The interface is long like this, in fact, it is running through CPU single-threaded or multi-threaded rendering for running scores

Click here to download Cinebench




Memory test: AIDA64
AIDA64 is a system information, diagnostic and audit program running on the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is used to display detailed information about the components of the computer. Performance testing is one of its functions. It can test the memory write and read speed

AIDA64 is a paid software, free trial for 30 days, it is enough for our test

AIDA64 click here to download

Hard disk IO running points: AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark is a dedicated SSD test software from Germany, which can test continuous read and write, 4K alignment, 4KB random read and write and response time performance, and give a comprehensive score.

SSD solid state drives are generally used to run scores when they first go on the market.




AS SSD Benchmark click here to download

Graphics card running points: entertainment master
I didn’t find a suitable tool for the graphics card, or it was a giant like 3DMark, and I wanted to find a trotting tool without installation. I accidentally found that the entertainment master is very suitable. You can select the graphics card separately for running scores.






Entertainment Master Green Free Installation Download

Picture Toolbox
In the process of searching for tools, I learned about the comprehensive toolbox developed by Tuba Dadi, which has many functions, green installation-free, non-profit, and can test by yourself if you are interested.

Official website: http://www.tbtool.cn/





hardware information
Hardware information involved in this test

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 6 core 12 threads
Motherboard: ASUS B350-PLUS
Memory: ADATA DDR4 2400MHz 3 x 8 = 24GB
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti
Hard disk: Lenovo HP EX900 SSD (host machine) / ADATA SP900 (virtual machine)
Software information
Host Windows version: Windows10 64bit 19042.746 20H2
Host Hyper-V version: 10.0.19041.746
Host VMware Workstation version: 16.1.0 build-17198959
The Windows version of the virtual machine: Windows10 64bit 19042.631 20H2
Remark:

Hyper-V version view command
wmic datafile where name="c:\\windows\\system32\\vmms.exe" get version
Evaluation results
Host performance comparison



As shown in the figure above, where

CPU: Turning on the Hyper-V CPU has a performance loss of about 5.7%. During the actual measurement, Cinebench has the longest running score, and the results of multiple runs tend to be consistent. Therefore, this data is less affected by the environment and has a high degree of credibility.
GPU: The results of the entertainment master's running scores are almost the same. The scores of turning off Hyper-V are slightly higher. The scores of multiple runs are very different. The data may be affected by the environment and not caused by Hyper-V.
Memory read and write: Turn Hyper-V on and off, the speed is almost the same, memory read and write is greatly affected by the environment
Hard Disk: Turn Hyper-V on and off, the speed is almost the same
Conclusion: Turning on Hyper-V and turning off the Hyper-V host have almost the same performance, the CPU performance is slightly lost, the performance will not be affected too much, and there is almost no perception in normal use



Hyper-V vs. VMware
Hyper-V installed Windows virtual machine compared to VMware installed virtual machine, in which VMware has turned off Hyper-V during the test




As shown in the picture above (note that the above test is for entertainment only), where

CPU: VMware is slightly higher, because it is tested under 2 cores and 4 threads, it has a lower running score than the host
GPU: GPU did not compare the running scores, because Hyper-V does not use GPU by default, and the screen is simulated by CPU, while VMware 16 can use GPU by default; later I discovered that you can use patching to force Hyper-V -V virtualized GPU, introduced later
Memory reading: Hyper-V is much lower than VMware and should be affected by environmental factors (later found that different programs opened have a great impact on memory reading, so you should try not to open other programs when testing)
Hard disk: Hard disk performance also shows that Hyper-V is lower than VMware
Conclusion: The above running scores are only for entertainment and do not reflect the extreme performance difference between Hyper-V and VMware, but it is certain that Hyper-V virtualized GPU needs to be patched, and the overall ease of use is not as good as VMware



Hyper-V patch virtualized GPU tutorial for virtual machine:

Create a virtual machine and create a checkpoint (resuming use)
Turn off the checkpoint function
Open powershell and execute the following command
# win10 is the name of the virtual machine
$vm = "Win10"

Add-VMGpuPartitionAdapter -VMName $vm

Set-VMGpuPartitionAdapter -VMName $vm -MinPartitionVRAM 80000000 -MaxPartitionVRAM 100000000 -OptimalPartitionVRAM 100000000 -MinPartitionEncode 80000000 -MaxPartitionEncode 100000000 -OptimalPartitionEncode 100000000 -MinPartitionDecode 80000000 -MaxPartitionDecode 100000000 -OptimalPartitionCompute 100000000 -MaxPartitionCompute 100000000 -MaxPartitionCompute 80000000-

Set-VM -GuestControlledCacheTypes $true -VMName $vm

Set-VM -LowMemoryMappedIoSpace 1Gb -VMName $vm

Set-VM -HighMemoryMappedIoSpace 32GB -VMName $vm