How good is the MacBook Air 2012 in running Fusion?

[hajime]

Hi, how good is the maxed out version of MacBook Air in running VMWare Fusion? I don't play games. Probably just running office (words, excel, powerpoint), visual c++, etc.

[elpocholo7]

My 2012 13" Ultimate (8GB/i7/256gb) runs Parallels Desktop with Win7 like a piece of cake. It's really smooth as long as you don't do do 3D Gaming under it. So my bet is that you'll be able to run Fusion just fine!

[mpaquette]

Fusion runs fine on my 2012 MBA. I did go with 8GB of RAM because I knew I would be using Fusion. I don't do any gaming in Fusion, I just use it for my job.

[SpoekGTi]

Same here got Fusion also with the 8GB version. Got WinXP and 7 on it run them occasionally both at the same time. Works brilliantly and on performance, it's possible to atleast watch a fullhd youtube video on fullscreen in Win7

I'm happy with it.

[BigB82]

FWIW I had a 2011 ultimate 13 with fusion that ran just fine too and now I have the 2012 13 ultimate and it works just as good with it. Does load and shut down a tad bit faster with the 2012 machine. Not sure if thats cause the 8gb ram or processor?

[jbanning]

Fusion is fantastic with a 2012 ultimate with I7, 8GB, 512 SSD. I also had an 2011 11" with just 4GB and it was fine. Granted, I could not have much open on the Mac side of things, but Fusion was fine with Windows 7. Now having 8GB, it's even better.

[crazyxzer0]

I use to run Parallels on my 2008 Macbook, and the fans would go nuts on them when it was running. On the new MBA I just got, the fans are almost inaudible even when running windows! I love it.

Of course I'm not doing anything taxing in windows.

I actually like using parallels with 2GB of RAM so the footprint of the virtual machine is smaller. I don't seem to need 4GB of RAM for it just yet.

[dyn]

You don't need the i7 for Fusion. VMware products will benefit far more from lots of memory and fast i/o. The cpu does very little. I've got the MBA 2012 with the i5, 256GB ssd and 8GB of memory. I don't have any problems running Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04LTS at the same time. I still have enough memory to even run another vm with OS X (10.7 or 10.8) and some OS X apps but that's maxing it. My MP 2010 only excels in graphics because it has a much more powerful GPU (5870). Memory is about the same but if you put more in the machine it will obviously be better and allow you to run even more vm's at the same time. I do have an ssd in this machine though.

[jbanning]

Sorry, I read my post above and was not clear. I have an I7 processor but it's definitely not needed to run Fusion. The MacBook Air can run fusion without issue; my MacBook air from two years ago ran it fine. The main thing is RAM; the more better, but that's always the case. My 2011 Air only had 4 GB and I made that work just fine with Fusion.

[vastoholic]

Originally Posted by jbanning

Sorry, I read my post above and was not clear. I have an I7 processor but it's definitely not needed to run Fusion. The MacBook Air can run fusion without issue; my MacBook air from two years ago ran it fine. The main thing is RAM; the more better, but that's always the case. My 2011 Air only had 4 GB and I made that work just fine with Fusion.

I was at the apple store today asking this very question. I'm looking into the 11" Air to run fusion and Win 7 purely for my C programming. I figured a non intensive application like that would be fine on 4GB as the only other things I'll be using the MBA for are email, Internet, Microsoft Office, and iWork. I've realized I would benefit a lot more being able to do my coding homework out on the go between classes rather than waiting until I got home or after work at the last minute sometimes. I used to have an iPad to try and take notes but I really think the MBA is the way to go for me. Sold the iPad earlier this month.