Installing Drivers on Parallels

[AkramHD]

Hey,

So I just used the Parallels Desktop application for the Mac to install Windows 7 from an ISO, and the installation went fine, however I'm wondering if I have to install any drivers.

When I install Windows using Bootcamp, I usually have to run the Bootcamp app that installs all the drivers, however in Parallels I have no idea how to do that. Is it necessary?

I'm planning on using Parallels to run a few Windows games, so I'm guessing graphics drivers are important. Are they?

I'm on a Mid 2012 Retina Macbook Pro, with Nvidia GT 650M graphics. Are the graphics drivers already installed on Parallels, or do I have to do something?

Any insight is appreciated 🙂 Thank you.

 

[makaveli559m]

In Parallels you are not going to have the same power as you would in Bootcamp, you wouldn't be able to run high demanding games on Parallels.

 

[AkramHD]

Do you think I would be able to run the Southpark game The Stick of Truth?

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Parallels as far as I know has it own drivers. Virtualization software tends to present a "stock" setup to its hosts. It be the parallels that acts as the middleman between your comps real hardware and the facade it presents to the vm's hosted.

All you can do to optimize gaming is give the image more ram and more processors in the config of that image.

Not sure how South Park will run. I have some relatively older games that do not run uber fast or as pretty than in a more dedicated environment. If you don't mind cranking down some settings you can bypass this hopefully.


Also as seems common with even ports on mac os, running in windowed mode seems to help a bit. I have parallel windows games that seem to go smoother windowed than full screen on my t-bolt display. Not a ding against parallels, I have stream plays and even my eve wrapped up client for mac its just better to run windowed, to me anyway. YMMV