VMwear or Parallels Desktop

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 08:26 AM

Is there any speed difference between VMwear and Parallels Desktop? I have VMwear on my iMac and am running XP Pro which I installed through VM not Boot Camp, and my only program (Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate) crawls along. I have 4GB of Ram installed on the iMac.

JKitterman · Nov 4, 2008, 08:46 AM

How much memory do you have allocated in the virtual machine? Are you allowing both processors if you have dual core?

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JKitterman

How much memory do you have allocated in the virtual machine? Are you allowing both processors if you have dual core?

I have 3GB allocated and have one processor chosen. What should I have it set for, and can I still have Thunderbird and Firefox still loaded in the OSX environment?

ayeying · Nov 4, 2008, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joelw135

I have 3GB allocated and have one processor chosen. What should I have it set for, and can I still have Thunderbird and Firefox still loaded in the OSX environment?

Don't need to allocate that much. Use at most 2GB for Guest.

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ayeying

Don't need to allocate that much. Use at most 2GB for Guest.

OK 2Gb but how many processors?

ayeying · Nov 4, 2008, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joelw135

OK 2Gb but how many processors?

Just 1 is enough. I don't see a real need to use 2. If you want really good speed, boot camp is the way to go.

sangosimo · Nov 4, 2008, 11:20 AM

virtual box.

Lurchdubious · Nov 4, 2008, 11:22 AM

weird. I have fusion running XP with only 512 RAM allocated & it runs absolutely fine. Much better than Parallels, in fact.

Mr Rogerss · Nov 4, 2008, 11:26 AM

It was always my understanding that VMwear was the more simple VM and it was recommended to me if I didn't have the 4 gig option in my MBP.

I was told to only get parallels if i had the power to run it.

Sounds like VM might be more known for speed for most people.

ChrisA · Nov 4, 2008, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joelw135

Is there any speed difference between VMwear and Parallels Desktop? I have VMwear on my iMac and am running XP Pro which I installed through VM not Boot Camp, and my only program (Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate) crawls along. I have 4GB of Ram installed on the iMac.

Why are you bothering with Paint Shop Pro? There are some very good image editors that run native under Mac OS X. Just get Adobe Photoshop Elements and be done with Windows.

In general, most Windows software runs at near native speed in VMware but the exception is graphical stuff, like games and (I guess, Paint Shop Pro) The best soltion is to find a native Mac program that will do what you want. In this case it's easy.

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lurchdubious

weird. I have fusion running XP with only 512 RAM allocated & it runs absolutely fine. Much better than Parallels, in fact.

I can't figure out what the problem is! There seems to be delays every time I click the mouse on the pictures directory, and processing seems slow. I am now trying with 1 processor and 2500 Gb of ram.

Lurchdubious · Nov 4, 2008, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joelw135

I can't figure out what the problem is! There seems to be delays every time I click the mouse on the pictures directory, and processing seems slow. I am now trying with 1 processor and 2500 Gb of ram.

Yeah I don't know man. I was thinking maybe it was cuz of the graphics thing, but I run a program for school that has quite a lot of graphics-type stuff and it doesn't really affect performance.

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisA

Why are you bothering with Paint Shop Pro? There are some very good image editors that run native under Mac OS X. Just get Adobe Photoshop Elements and be done with Windows.

In general, most Windows software runs at near native speed in VMware but the exception is graphical stuff, like games and (I guess, Paint Shop Pro) The best soltion is to find a native Mac program that will do what you want. In this case it's easy.

The problem is that I have a huge amount of money invested in plugins and filters for the Windows environment. Also Elements does not handle layers well at all.

jzuena · Nov 4, 2008, 01:59 PM

It should only be 3D graphics that slow down a virtual machine in VMware or Parallels. You may actually have too much memory allocated to your virtual machine, causing OS X to have to do a lot of swapping. I use 1 GB of memory (out of my MBP 4 GB total) for Windows XP Pro and it runs fine. On my home machine I use 512 MB of memory (out of 2 GB total) and even that runs fine. I run VMware Fusion now, but ran Parallels in the past with similar results.

adrian.oconnor · Nov 4, 2008, 02:20 PM

I found VMWare was a bit rubbish until I disabled 3D in the Display settings. After that it was great. Try changing that and see how it goes.

I've used both VMWare and Parallels for some quite intensive stuff (I'm a windows programmer by day). have found VMWare to be the better of the two in terms of performance and quality. The only thing Parallels does better is hide the Mac menu bar in full screen (full screen is nice if you use spaces with hot-keys enabled). I can't understand why VMWare doesn't at least have the option to hide the menu bar.

As for processors and RAM, I say use a single CPU and go for 2GB. You don't want to starve OS X of memory and having one core for Windows and one for Mac works out well in practice. Make sure your VMWare is up-to-date too.

If after all of that you're still slow, check the process monitor in Windows - maybe something there is causing the virtual machine to get bogged down?

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adrian.oconnor

I found VMWare was a bit rubbish until I disabled 3D in the Display settings. After that it was great. Try changing that and see how it goes.

I've used both VMWare and Parallels for some quite intensive stuff (I'm a windows programmer by day). have found VMWare to be the better of the two in terms of performance and quality. The only thing Parallels does better is hide the Mac menu bar in full screen (full screen is nice if you use spaces with hot-keys enabled). I can't understand why VMWare doesn't at least have the option to hide the menu bar.

As for processors and RAM, I say use a single CPU and go for 2GB. You don't want to starve OS X of memory and having one core for Windows and one for Mac works out well in practice. Make sure your VMWare is up-to-date too.

If after all of that you're still slow, check the process monitor in Windows - maybe something there is causing the virtual machine to get bogged down?

I just switched to 1 GB of ram and it seems a little better. What bothers me is that when I shut XP down then change the ram allocation and restart XP the scary blue screen asking if I want to start windows in safe mode or normal mode. I think VMware isn't closing down XP properly.

Bmode · Nov 4, 2008, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JKitterman

How much memory do you have allocated in the virtual machine? Are you allowing both processors if you have dual core?

How do you differentiate or assign the processors? In my Duo Intel 4GRAM MBP, I have 2GB for Parallels to run, so does it automatically use the other 2GB to run the Mac OS in the background?

Regarding the slow issue, what I do is close the screen and wait a minute or two, then it comes back up running at normal speeds.

joelw135 · Nov 4, 2008, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bmode

How do you differentiate or assign the processors? In my Duo Intel 4GRAM MBP, I have 2GB for Parallels to run, so does it automatically use the other 2GB to run the Mac OS in the background?

Regarding the slow issue, what I do is close the screen and wait a minute or two, then it comes back up running at normal speeds.

When you say close the screen, do you shut down or suspend the application?

Bmode · Nov 5, 2008, 12:32 AM

Sorry, that was a lame response on my part. Leave the app running, and close the screen, quick sleep mode if you will. Some say to wait for the sleep white light indicator to repeat 3 times, but it works for me after about :20 seconds.

joelw135 · Nov 5, 2008, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bmode

Sorry, that was a lame response on my part. Leave the app running, and close the screen, quick sleep mode if you will. Some say to wait for the sleep white light indicator to repeat 3 times, but it works for me after about :20 seconds.

Please explain how to do what you said as I am new to iMac and OSX. Thanks.

Nov 4, 2008, 08:26 AM	#1
joelw135 macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New Jersey, USA	VMwear or Parallels Desktop Is there any speed difference between VMwear and Parallels Desktop? I have VMwear on my iMac and am running XP Pro which I installed through VM not Boot Camp, and my only program (Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate) crawls along. I have 4GB of Ram installed on the iMac.
	0

Nov 4, 2008, 11:20 AM	#7
sangosimo macrumors 6502a Join Date: Sep 2008	virtual box. __________________ :flickr \\ photos :twitter \\sangosimo
	0

Nov 4, 2008, 11:22 AM	#8
Lurchdubious macrumors 65816 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: The Gem State	weird. I have fusion running XP with only 512 RAM allocated & it runs absolutely fine. Much better than Parallels, in fact. __________________ iPhone 5 64GB 32 GB 3rd Gen iPad 13" MB Air 1.7GHz i5 13" 2.4 Ghz Unibody MB, ATV2: Assorted iPods
	0

Nov 4, 2008, 01:59 PM	#14
jzuena macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Burlington, MA, USA	It should only be 3D graphics that slow down a virtual machine in VMware or Parallels. You may actually have too much memory allocated to your virtual machine, causing OS X to have to do a lot of swapping. I use 1 GB of memory (out of my MBP 4 GB total) for Windows XP Pro and it runs fine. On my home machine I use 512 MB of memory (out of 2 GB total) and even that runs fine. I run VMware Fusion now, but ran Parallels in the past with similar results. __________________ Pilot, greyhound walker, retired bartender extraordinaire.
	0

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Nov 4, 2008, 08:46 AM	#2
JKitterman macrumors member Join Date: Oct 2006	How much memory do you have allocated in the virtual machine? Are you allowing both processors if you have dual core?
	0

Nov 4, 2008, 11:26 AM	#9
Mr Rogerss macrumors member Join Date: Sep 2008	It was always my understanding that VMwear was the more simple VM and it was recommended to me if I didn't have the 4 gig option in my MBP. I was told to only get parallels if i had the power to run it. Sounds like VM might be more known for speed for most people.
	0

Nov 4, 2008, 02:20 PM	#15
adrian.oconnor macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Nottingham, England	I found VMWare was a bit rubbish until I disabled 3D in the Display settings. After that it was great. Try changing that and see how it goes. I've used both VMWare and Parallels for some quite intensive stuff (I'm a windows programmer by day). have found VMWare to be the better of the two in terms of performance and quality. The only thing Parallels does better is hide the Mac menu bar in full screen (full screen is nice if you use spaces with hot-keys enabled). I can't understand why VMWare doesn't at least have the option to hide the menu bar. As for processors and RAM, I say use a single CPU and go for 2GB. You don't want to starve OS X of memory and having one core for Windows and one for Mac works out well in practice. Make sure your VMWare is up-to-date too. If after all of that you're still slow, check the process monitor in Windows - maybe something there is causing the virtual machine to get bogged down?
	0

Nov 5, 2008, 12:32 AM	#19
Bmode Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: California, USA	Sorry, that was a lame response on my part. Leave the app running, and close the screen, quick sleep mode if you will. Some say to wait for the sleep white light indicator to repeat 3 times, but it works for me after about :20 seconds.
	0


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