Sluggish Windows 11 VM in VMware on 2019 MacBook Pro

Question

Level 2

332 points

Sluggish Windows 11 VM in VMware on 2019 MacBook Pro

I’m using a 15” 2019 MacBook Pro Intel Core i9 (32GB RAM) to run workloads, I have used bootcamp to run windows, but I am considering using a virtual machine to run windows 11, now, when I set it up using VMWare, Windows will feel very VERY slow, sluggish and laggy, making myself consider it unusable, now I’m wanting to run local LLMs on that windows virtual machine, but I was told that it will not work properly (Windows in general) in a virtual machine due to my Intel processor, I consider my MacBook Pro to have good specifications, Including a core i9, 32GB RAM, and 8 cores in the CPU, I have allocated 4 CPU cores to the virtual machine and 16GB of RAM to go with it, so I’m not sure why it’s sluggish and very slow, and with a very low frame rate, say 10 FPS, THATS WITHOUT ANYTHING ON IT, on the Home Screen!

I believed that I’ve allocated too little cores, so I’ve added one extra making it 4 cores to the virtual machine and no difference, I do not know if this is a GPU issue or anything else related to it (GPU: Radeon Pro 555X)

That local LLM is not supported on Intel Macs and is only available on either windows or Apple silicon macs, I believe that my hardware is not the problem, BUT there is a possibility that there is a solution related to my GPU? No idea, Thank you in advance.

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Aug 1, 2026 12:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

184,972 points

Aug 2, 2026 3:12 AM in response to Mu-iOS

well with bootcamp the 2 operating system have 100% of the hardware to access

where in a virtual machine the host and the vm share the system resources between them, you can check vmwares settings to see if you can reserve more power for the vm and see if that helps

you can also try other virtual machine programs like oracles virtualbox (it's free) or parallels (the most experienced for macos)

and of cause you mention gpu and fps but with virtual machines the vm can't really access 3d features of the gpu at all so it acts like a generic vga adaptor, so not really a gaming suited thing.

Reply

Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

129,194 points

Aug 3, 2026 1:29 PM in response to Mu-iOS

I have been running VMWare Fusion 26H1 on Sequoia 15.7.8 and now on Tahoe 26.6. Fusion 26H1 requires macOS Catalina or later so your Fusion 13.6.4 is way out of date. I am using the free for personal use VMware Fusion which you can get from this link: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/14/announcing-vmware-workstation-and-fusion-26h1/

Don't know anything about LM type software so you should confer with those vendors for more detailed runtime recommendations. You will likely need to increase the guest RAM as you begin to run heavier applications in the Windows guest.

Reply

Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

129,194 points

Aug 3, 2026 2:56 AM in response to Mu-iOS

I am running Windows 11 Pro 25H2 as a guest in VMware Fusion 26 on a 2020 3.8 Ghz Core i7 iMac. That iMac has the Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8GB GPU.

I keep the guest container on a USB3.2 Gen 2 SSD (1050 MB/s) plugged into the Thunderbolt 3 port. I have assigned 6 processor cores and 8GB RAM to that guest and it boots right up and works without lag. I doubt that assigning 16 GB RAM to that guest would make much difference.

Virtual Machines are not intended as game consoles and won't give you bare hardware GPU frame rates. Running the guest with other demanding non-VM loads on your Mac may sabotage guest performance.

Reply

Answer 4

Mu-iOS Author

Level 2

332 points

Aug 3, 2026 6:53 AM in response to Rudegar

Yeah, so my main usage for windows is browsing and running local LLMs using LM Studio on windows 11 (BOOTCAMP VM), and file sharing (love how I can just move a file from Mac to windows) I’m not really looking at gaming, and even if I was going to game, I would switch to my bootcamp partition to run natively on my Mac, I assume running a local LLM really uses the GPU a lot? Do you recommend VMware fusion? Or virtual box? I could use parallels but I don’t see myself paying for it, so I think it’s between these two, NOTE THAT LM STUDIO DOES NOT SUPPORT INTEL MACS but I think thats silly because my MacBook should be strong enough to run it using windows.

Reply

Answer 5

Mu-iOS Author

Level 2

332 points

Aug 3, 2026 7:01 AM in response to VikingOSX

VMWare Fusion 26? I’m sorry I’m on 13.6.4 is that not the latest? Anyways, I have tried 8GB and it didn’t make a difference just like you said, so what I’m looking to do on windows is using windows only apps, and using LM studio especially local LLMs (LM STUDIO is one) but I have no idea if LM studio on windows uses my GPU, I am sure it would work when run natively but I need macOS at the same time when running windows, Is there nothing else I could do? And talking about the updates, I thought I downloaded the latest version of VMWare fusion from the official Broadcom website no?

Reply