Does using Office 2013 via VMware Fusion or Parallels increase battery usage in rMBP?

[Broadus]

I'm getting used to my first OS X computer, a refurbished mid-2012 rMBP (2.3GHz, 256GB SSD, 16GB memory) and need to add either Office 2011 for Mac or Office 2013 (presently use Office 2010 on my Lenovo ThinkPad T500).

Were I to run Office 2013 via VMware Fusion or Parallels on the battery, how significant will the additional drainage be?

I don't really need Outlook, so I'm inclined to get Office 2011 for Mac and forget having to run Office as a Windows program, but it would seem that the newer Office 2013 would be much improved over the older Mac version.

Is Office 2013 sufficiently superior to the older Office 2011 for Mac to make it the preferred buy, regardless how much more quickly it depletes the battery?

Or--I guess I could put it this way: were you buying Office today, would you go with Office 2013 and run it as a Windows app or would you go with Office 2011 and run it as an OS X app.

(And feel free to correct any misunderstanding on my part about how all this works--I've been a PC user for 25 years and only now am entering the Mac world.)

Thanks.

 

[Starfyre]

Yes.
Running Office 2013... versus running Parallels/VMWare Fusion+Office.... the latter takes up more battery life. Using the Mac battery life would save the most battery.

You could bootcamp and boot into windows, but windows itself would suck up battery life more than being in OSX. Best way to save battery is just get the OSX version of Office.

 

[iLog.Genius]

When you're using software through virtualization, it's always going to require more power/consumer more battery than running a native application. How much? Can't really say. If you're not an Office "power user", I'd say go with Office for Mac, it'll be more than adequate for you unless there's something specific that would require you to run Office in a Windows environment.