VirtualBox is very slow in Windows 10

Question

I had VirtualBox installed on Windows 8.1 and it was working correctly. I upgraded to Windows 10 and re-installed VirtualBox, but it's very slow.

System Info:

• CPU : Intel Core i5
• Graphic Card : Nvidia 740m
• 6 Gigabyte RAM
• 256 GB SSD Storage

Drivers are up to date. 3D Acceleration is enabled.

What's the problem?

Solution 1

It seems you're on a laptop, so tweaking Windows power options may be a solution:

http://www.rawinfopages.com/tips/2015/05/speed-up-virtualbox-enormously-with-this-simple-tweak/

To quote:

So it turned out to be a simple problem, partly caused by selecting the wrong power plan. Make sure that the High power plan is selected when running virtual machines VirtualBox.

After some more experiments, I found that by raising the minimum processor speed when running on mains power raised the CPU speed. Setting it to 80% made the minimum speed 2GHz on mains power, which was fine for running the virtual machine.

To do this, go to Power Options in the Control Panel and next to the Power saver plan, click Change plan settings. On the next screen, click Change advanced power settings. Expand Processor power management, Minimum processor state, and set Plugged in to 80% or whatever value gives reasonable performance in the virtual machine.

Solution 2

I had the same problem today -- found that the "Graphics Controller" (Display tab) had defaulted to VBoxSVGA. Clicking over all my VMs, it was the only one on that setting. So I changed it to VBoxVGA, and voila - no more lag! It was so bad, I'd see the display update in the VirtualBox Manager mini preview, so I'd click off the VM then click back and the display would update. Good as new now.

Solution 3

In my case, it was because Hyper-V was enabled. I had it disabled in Windows Features but I was still getting the turtle icon in the bottom right of the VirtualBox guest window. To turn it off completely, I had to:

1. On the host computer, open Command Line (as Administrator).
2. Enter the following command: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
3. Restart the host computer.

After this, there was no lag at all.

Solution 4

I noticed a significant boost in Windows speed after enabling 3D acceleration from the Display settings panel.

Solution 5

1) You might exclude from antivirus & Windows Defender:

Search Virus and Protection > ... Settings > Add Exclusions > Add Folder -> C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox

2) Check the Execution cap. I use around 30-70%

CPU Execution cap limits the amount of time a host CPU spends to emulate a virtual CPU. The default setting is 100%, meaning that there is no limitation. A setting of 50% implies a single virtual CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.

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Comments

[Gavin]

By slow do you mean graphics are very delayed? I experienced the same issue in VMWare Player as well. I have yet to find a solution.

[Ali]

Yes, is the same. Please show your solution.

[Ramhound]

You are using the current version of Virtualbox I presume?

[Ali]

I use the latest version.

[Ali]

power plan is High performance mode

[mlvljr]

@Ali Pity, then :(

[Ali]

I installed it, but nothing changed

[Polynomial]

This worked for me, alongside disabling the host I/O cache in the disk settings.

[Kyle Strand]

@Polynomial Sorry, you disabled the I/O cache? shouldn't that make it slower?

[Polynomial]

@KyleStrand No, the I/O cache feature shares the host disk's physical I/O cache. If you turn the feature off, it instead uses a software cache on the virtual machine.

[Kyle Strand]

@Polynomial That still sounds like the software cache version should be slower.

[Polynomial]

@KyleStrand You'd think, but not always. Sometimes you get weird issues with the hardware cache not responding properly when you try to share it across multiple OSes running concurrently.

[Nicholas DiPiazza]

crazy enough, this totally fixes the problem. cray-cray <3 it. i also installed the virtualbox guest additions which you should always do anyway. not sure if that might have helped too.

[PerrierCitror]

That did the trick (adding more memory / cpus didn't do shit). Huge difference in graphics lag after I switched to VBoxVGA.

[Jeff]

Did you make the change on the host or guest?

[mlvljr]

@jeff the source article talks about the host, as far as I understand

[Ξένη Γήινος]

Please expand your answer to include the information about how fixed the issue.

[pablorenato]

Worked for me. Also read this guide: forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97693 & forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=62339 Install guest additions for better performance also

[Plain_Dude_Sleeping_Alone]

This also kinda work for me. My centOS runs smoother now. Hopefully nothings drives me banana later.

[zac]

So I will have to create a new VM ? also if I need more space I can not ?

[zac]

Also disable Windows 10 animation and other visuals

[Sabito 錆兎 stands with Ukraine]

This was the only answer here that actually worked for me