Fusion or Parallels, which has the best video support?

qom said:

I'm currently using Parallels, but I'm thinking of switching to Fusion.
Does Fusion support all DX9 games? Would I be able to play World of Warcraft without any problems? (yes I know there's a native client for WoW).

Also, if it will run WoW, which would give me the best FPS, Paralells or Fusion?
I feel that the video support in Parallels is kind of gimped, but if it's no better in Fusion, there's no point in switching.

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VMware Fusion supports DirectX 9.0, but support is experimental and doesn't include shaders. It seems better on Fusion than on Parallels, but still unplayably slow. It was better under CrossOver, but honestly not as good as the Mac version.

To be honest, while Vmware Fusion is a little better than Parallels with gaming I would think it still isn't good enough if your a hardcore gamer.

Your only best option is to create a bootcamp partition and run the game under that to get native speeds vs. using a virtualization program.

Parallels supports OpenGL and DirectX 8 WITH shaders (and usually gets twice the framerates Fusion does, or better). The DirectX support in Parallels is generally better than Fusion's from what I've seen and most of the games which don't require DirectX 9 work in Parallels. Not to mention Parallels is probably about a month or two away from a update for DirectX 9 support with shaders (which supposedly will be good enough to support Vista's Aero interface).

qom said:

So my best bet is CrossOver, or what?

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Boot Camp would be your best bet. Anything else will give you a noticeable performance hit. I've never used the 3D support in CrossOver so I don't know how the performance is, but I doubt it is much better than what you would get in Parallels (and even if it is, it is unlikely the programs/games you want to use will run without issues).

qom said:

So my best bet is CrossOver, or what?

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You should try it under CrossOver and find out how it works on your machine, it's highly dependent on the video driver with 3D games. In general, it's very playable on CrossOver and tons of people run it on the Linux version. It's barely playable on Fusion, and not playable on Parallels (current version), both suck for WoW if you ask me, especially compared to CrossOver for this game.

IMHO, though, there's really no reason to use the Windows WoW on CrossOver when the Mac version exists and is good.

brkirch said:

I've never used the 3D support in CrossOver so I don't know how the performance is, but I doubt it is much better than what you would get in Parallels (and even if it is, there is no guarantee that the programs/games you want to use will run without issues).

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The Parallels 3D support actually is built on the WINE/CrossOver DirectX-OpenGL translation layer. Same code borrowed from WINE/CrossOver.

Parallels/Fusion has to carry a much higher memory footprint, and processor hit, because you actually run Windows, CrossOver does not. CrossOver is always faster, better, leaner than Parallels/Fusion, but it's way less compatible. Parallels/Fusion + real copy of Windows runs almost every Windows application without issue, while CrossOver's list is limited. It's just that WoW happens to be on that list.

Mr. Zarniwoop said:

The Parallels 3D support actually is built on the WINE/CrossOver DirectX-OpenGL translation layer. Same code borrowed from WINE/CrossOver.

Parallels/Fusion has to carry a much higher memory footprint, and processor hit, because you actually run Windows, CrossOver does not. CrossOver is always faster, better, leaner than Parallels/Fusion, but it's way less compatible. Parallels/Fusion + real copy of Windows runs almost every Windows application without issue, while CrossOver's list is limited. It's just that WoW happens to be on that list.

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Only the current DirectX support with shaders in Parallels is based off of the WINE code. The DirectX support in Parallels that currently doesn't support shaders is actually completely different (works through the video driver instead of replacing DirectX dlls), and you control which is used by editing the virtual machine configuration. It does seem as though CrossOver/Wine should get better performance since you are executing the programs directly and not through Windows, but that is not always the case. Wine's implementation of the Windows APIs does not always give better performance, and the performance hit of virtualization is almost negligible so sometimes Windows programs through Windows and Parallels or Fusion actually gets better performance.

brkirch said:

Wine's implementation of the Windows APIs does not always give better performance, and the performance hit of virtualization is almost negligible so sometimes Windows programs through Windows and Parallels or Fusion actually gets better performance.

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This does not match my experience. Everything that works right in CrossOver, which is not exactly a long comprehensive list (MS Office, Half-Life 2, Quicken, uTorrent, etc.) works noticeably faster and better under CrossOver compared to Parallels/Fusion. Also, don't compare Wine compatibility with CrossOver compatibility though, even though the CrossOver team is the primary development team for Wine... CrossOver runs many more applications without issue than "normal" Wine, like Internet Explorer.

The downside to CrossOver is that some programs just don't work right, and that list is reasonably long.

I have a feeling my "not playable" may very well be the same thing as your "works without a hitch [...] FPS is limited." It's all in the eye of the beholder.

qom said:

Hi,mI'm currently using Parallels, but I'm thinking of switching to Fusion.Does Fusion support all DX9 games? Would I be able to play World of Warcraft without any problems?

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As far as I know experimental DirectX 9 support is realized on Fusion 1.1 beta-version.
Parallels officially supports Direct X8. But unofficially it supports Direct X9 as well. There is only Warcraft 3 in the game-list on Parallels official web-site.
Anyway, I think there is no point to switch from Parallels to Fusion to you! Enjoy your Parallels Desktop in everything but the games. Use BootCamp for gaming! According to my experience and according to many reports it is the best soft for gaming on Mac!

does fusion support AERO on windows vista??? I know parallels doesnt yet.

cdavi060 said:

does fusion support AERO on windows vista???

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No.

qom said:

WoW works without a hitch on Parallels 3 Build 5160.
But, the FPS is limited.

How many FPS do you reckon that CrossOver could get me?
I'm willing to give it a try, sounds interesting!

I hope Parallel comes out with better graphic capabilities in a near future

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I hope too! I think, each company is developing every day - if we tell them about our wish, they will make maybe our dream come true! Anyway I think there is no point in switching.

Could you decode me your abbreviations - WoW and FPS... ?

Flowero4ka said:

Could you decode me your abbreviations - WoW and FPS... ?

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WoW = World of Warcraft (popular PC-game)
FPS = Frame per Second (graphics characteristic)