Better virtualization on hackintosh than iMac

I haven't done any benchmarking but the performance of Linux VMs using VMWare Fusion on my Hackintosh (i7-7700k, SSD) is noticeably better than on on my mid-2015 27" iMac (i7-6700k). I've informally tested opening some apps and they tend to launch 1 second faster on the Hackintosh. Could this just have to do with the faster CPU alone, or does the BIOS setting for virtualization on my ROG Maximus IX Code make a difference relative to the iMac? Would an iMac be configured for virtualization in the same way by Apple?

Author: @digitthedog