I'm in the same camp as DABaron, and it's extremely frustrating.
HOST:
8-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5530 @ 2.40GHz
12 GB Ram
300GB SATA-3 drive
AMD/ATI RV620 [FirePro 2260] dual-head, radeon drivere
OS: kubuntu 12.10, fully patched
VMWS 9.0.1 build-894247
Linux kernel (tested: 3.2.0-37-generic, 3.5.0-24-generic, 3.7.7-030707-generic, 3.8.0-030800-generic )
Guest:
WinXP SP3
3GB ram, dedicated
vmtools
80G sata drive (RAW DRIVE)
All kernels tested exhibit the same lagginess.
Additionally, VMWS drains the buffer cache at an extremely rapid pace. taking the system from 7GB free to 0GB free in under 30m.
I'm seriously considering backing out my purchased and very lousy performing install of VMWS9 for the completely useable VMWS7 (with 3rd-party patches for newer kernels, obviously)
It's insane, I don't know how this build escaped QA.