Intel's HAXM equivalent for AMD on Windows OS

Question

Is there any equivalent of Intel's HAXM for AMD (Windows OS) or has anybody been able to hack HAXM to make it work on AMD processors (Windows OS)?

Also, would Genymotion (http://www.genymotion.com) be significantly faster compared to the default Google APIs ARM / x86 system images provided by Google?

My exact dev machine specs:

• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
• Processor: AMD FX 8120 8 Core 2.81 GHz

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You will need to create a virtual device that runs on ARM. Virtual devices running on X86 require an Intel processor. AMD support as specified by Android is only available for Linux systems. If you want a better experience when creating your Virtual Device, use "Store a snapshot for faster startup" instead of the default "Use Host GPU".

Answer 2

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/07/android-emulator-amd-processor-hyper-v.html

Important

If you have an AMD processor in your computer you need the following setup requirements to be in place: AMD Processor - Recommended: AMD® Ryzen™ processors Android Studio 3.2 Beta or higher - download via Android Studio Preview page Android Emulator v27.3.8+ - download via Android Studio SDK Manager x86 Android Virtual Device (AVD) - Create AVD Windows 10 with April 2018 Update Enable via Windows Features: "Windows Hypervisor Platform"

Answer 3

Buying a new processor is one solution, but for some of us that means buying other components as well. Alternatively you could just buy an Android phone that supports your lowest target API level and run your apps off the phone. You can find some of those phones on Amazon, Ebay, craigslist for pennies (sometimes). Plus this grants you the benefit of actually running on the minimum hardware you intend to support. While this may be a bit slower than installing your app on an emulated system, it will probably save you money.

Android, device testing/debugging link: http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html

Answer 4

From the Android docs (March 2016):

Before attempting to use this type of acceleration, you should first determine if your development system’s CPU supports one of the following virtualization extensions technologies:

• Intel Virtualization Technology (VT, VT-x, vmx) extensions
• AMD Virtualization (AMD-V, SVM) extensions (only supported for Linux)

The specifications from the manufacturer of your CPU should indicate if it supports virtualization extensions. If your CPU does not support one of these virtualization technologies, then you cannot use virtual machine acceleration.

Note: Virtualization extensions are typically enabled through your computer's BIOS and are frequently turned off by default. Check the documentation for your system's motherboard to find out how to enable virtualization extensions.

Most people talk about Genymotion being faster, and I have never heard anyone say it's slower. I definitely think it's faster, and it will be worth the ~20 minutes it will take to set up just to try it.

Answer 5

This limitation (of Windows) should be publicly announced! The issue for me is the combination of the following: Windows 10 + AMD CPU (with AMD-V/SMV) +/- Hyper Visor

I have no issues running: Intel (with VT-x) + Linux or AMD (with AMD-V) + Linux

Link to Android studio issue here:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator.html#accel-vm

Xamarin/Visual Studio seems to have a workaround, but I haven't tested it yet:

If you need to use Hyper-V for other emulators then I'd recommend using the Microsoft Android Emulator instead, which uses Hyper-V and can also be used with Xamarin Studio/Visual Studio. You can download it for free from here.

I will update this after I confirm it works. Wish I would have known this before purchasing a new machine.

UPDATE!! It does not work "Requires Intel ..." error message is shown

Final note:

*Must be revision F3 or grater or must be F2 with BIOS support. Presence or absence of SVM Disable or other virtualization options in the bios does not ensure presence of BIOS support. You should contact the OEM to ensure support of Hyper-V.

*Some AMD BIOS's have options to enable/disable SVM (virtualization assistance)

*Some BIOS's list this as SVM Disable and it's a double negative, i.e. you want to disable SVM disable to enable SVM.

*Some BIOS's list this as Secure Virtualization, thus enabling Secure Virtualization will enable SVM

*Must have No-Execute enabled in the BIOS, sometime this is referred to as NX or Execute Disable

*If you want to find CPU's that are F3 see AMD's guide http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUFilter.aspx or http://products.amd.com/en-us/OpteronCPUFilter.aspx?f1=Second-Generation+AMD+Opteron%e2%84%a2