Hardware acceleration for emulator performance (Hyper-V & HAXM)

02/13/2020

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This article explains how to use your computer's hardware acceleration features to maximize Android Emulator performance.

Visual Studio makes it easier for developers to test and debug their Xamarin.Android applications by using the Android emulator in situations where an Android device is unavailable or impractical. However, the Android emulator runs too slowly if hardware acceleration is not available on the computer that runs it. You can drastically improve the performance of the Android emulator by using special x86 virtual device images in conjunction with the virtualization features of your computer.

Scenario HAXM WHPX Hypervisor.Framework You have an Intel Processor X X X You have an AMD Processor X You want to support Hyper-V X You want to support nested Virtualization Limited You want to use technologies like Docker X X

Accelerating Android emulators on Windows The following virtualization technologies are available for accelerating the Android emulator: Microsoft's Hyper-V and the Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX). Hyper-V is a virtualization feature of Windows that makes it possible to run virtualized computer systems on a physical host computer. Intel's Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM). HAXM is a virtualization engine for computers running Intel CPUs. For the best experience on Windows, it is recommended that you use WHPX to accelerate the Android emulator. If WHPX is not available on your computer, then HAXM can be used. The Android emulator will automatically make use of hardware acceleration if the following criteria are met: Hardware acceleration is available and enabled on your development computer.

The emulator is running a system image created for an x86-based virtual device. Important You can't run a VM-accelerated emulator inside another VM, such as a VM hosted by VirtualBox, VMware, or Docker. You must run the Android emulator directly on your system hardware. For information about launching and debugging with the Android emulator, see Debugging on the Android Emulator. Accelerating with Hyper-V Before enabling Hyper-V, read the following section to verify that your computer supports Hyper-V. Verifying support for Hyper-V Hyper-V runs on the Windows Hypervisor Platform. To use the Android emulator with Hyper-V, your computer must meet the following criteria to support the Windows Hypervisor Platform: Your computer hardware must meet the following requirements: A 64-bit Intel or AMD Ryzen CPU with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPUs). Minimum of 4-GB memory.

In your computer's BIOS, the following items must be enabled: Virtualization Technology (may have a different label depending on motherboard manufacturer). Hardware Enforced Data Execution Prevention.

Your computer must be updated to Windows 10 April 2018 update (build 1803) or later. You can verify that your Windows version is up-to-date by using the following steps: Enter About in the Windows search box. Select About your PC in the search results. Scroll down in the About dialog to the Windows specifications section. Verify that the Version is at least 1803:

To verify that your computer hardware and software is compatible with Hyper-V, open a command prompt and type the following command: systeminfo If all listed Hyper-V requirements have a value of Yes, then your computer can support Hyper-V. For example: Enabling Hyper-V acceleration If your computer meets the above criteria, use the following steps to accelerate the Android emulator with Hyper-V: Enter windows features in the Windows search box and select Turn Windows features on or off in the search results. In the Windows Features dialog, enable both Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform: After making these changes, reboot your computer. Important On Windows 10 October 2018 Update (RS5) and higher, you only need to enable Hyper-V, as it will use Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) automatically. Install Visual Studio 15.8 or later (this version of Visual Studio provides IDE support for running the Android emulator with Hyper-V). Install the Android Emulator package 27.2.7 or later. To install this package, navigate to Tools > Android > Android SDK Manager in Visual Studio. Select the Tools tab and ensure that the Android emulator version is at least 27.2.7. Also ensure that the Android SDK Tools version is 26.1.1 or later: When you create a virtual device (see Managing Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager), be sure to select an x86-based system image. If you use an ARM-based system image, the virtual device will not be accelerated and will run slowly. Accelerating with HAXM Use HAXM to accelerate the Android emulator if your computer does not support Hyper-V. You must disable Device Guard if you want to use HAXM. Verifying HAXM support To determine if your hardware supports HAXM, follow the steps in Does My Processor Support Intel Virtualization Technology?. If your hardware supports HAXM, you can check to see if HAXM is already installed by using the following steps: Open a command prompt window and enter the following command: sc query intelhaxm Examine the output to see if the HAXM process is running. if it is, you should see output listing the intelhaxm state as RUNNING . For example: If STATE is not set to RUNNING , then HAXM is not installed. If your computer can support HAXM but HAXM is not installed, use the steps in the next section to install HAXM. Installing HAXM HAXM install packages for Windows are available from the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager GitHub releases page. Use the following steps to download and install HAXM: From the Intel website, download the latest HAXM virtualization engine installer for Windows. The advantage of downloading the HAXM installer directly from the Intel website is that you can be assured of using the latest version. Run intelhaxm-android.exe to start the HAXM installer. Accept the default values in the installer dialogs: When you create a virtual device (see Managing Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager), be sure to select an x86-based system image. If you use an ARM-based system image, the virtual device will not be accelerated and will run slowly. Troubleshooting For help with troubleshooting hardware acceleration issues, see the Android emulator Troubleshooting guide.