macOS virtualization on M1/M1 Pro

[dotck]

Has anyone tried macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon and if yes, how is the performance?

Background: Working as consultant for multiple customers for which I'd like to have a isolated environment for each of them because it involves VPN etc. This works fine with Windows as guest OS (using Parallels Desktop on latest Big Sur), everything is fluid and responds instantly. However when using macOS 11 (or 12 beta) as guest OS, the performance is absymal because there is no proper GPU device virtualization, resulting in bad UI performance and artifacts. All this happens on a late 2015 iMac 5K (i7/32GB/2TB-SSD).

Did this improve with Apple Silicon?

 

[Joe Dohn]

Has anyone tried macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon and if yes, how is the performance?

Depends on what "Apple Silicon" you are talking about.

The 2021 iPad is an Apple Silicon device. However, because there is no paid virtualization app, you are restricted to UTM, which is quite buggy and difficult to use. Add to the fact it lacks GPU acceleration and a hypervisor, and your experience will be very slow, except for old operating systems or ARM Linux (which is also a pain to setup).

However, if you mean the Macbooks or desktop processors, it's an entirely different story. The Apple hypervisor allows for speeds closer to native, especially if you're running ARM builds. Also, if you run VMware fusion and Parallels, they have GPU acceleration, so you'll have a very smooth experience, and you can even game well in many titles.

Considering the huge speed boost in the Mac Pro lines, I'm expecting gaming virtualization to match what you would have on Windows with a high-end GPU card, if only by brute force. Of course, I could be wrong, which is why I'm waiting for the benchmark results. But considering the M1 Pro Max is up to 3x - 4x faster than the original M1 and very similar to it, I don't see why virtualized applications would be anything other than buttery smooth.

This works fine with Windows as guest OS (using Parallels Desktop on latest Big Sur), everything is fluid and responds instantly. However when using macOS 11 (or 12 beta) as guest OS, the performance is absymal because there is no proper GPU device virtualization, resulting in bad UI performance and artifacts.

Try Steam Link if it's available for the Mac. While it was originally designed for gaming, it's also buttery smooth for desktop applications, provided you have a high speed connection.

 

[pacmania1982]

You may wish to look at this:

You can now Virtualize macOS on an M1 Mac with macOS Monterey!

You can now run macOS Monterey in a VM / Virtual Machine on an M1 Mac for the first time ever!!! I'll walk you through the entire process!

mrmacintosh.com

pac

 

[jdb8167]

Has anyone tried macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon and if yes, how is the performance?

Background: Working as consultant for multiple customers for which I'd like to have a isolated environment for each of them because it involves VPN etc. This works fine with Windows as guest OS (using Parallels Desktop on latest Big Sur), everything is fluid and responds instantly. However when using macOS 11 (or 12 beta) as guest OS, the performance is absymal because there is no proper GPU device virtualization, resulting in bad UI performance and artifacts. All this happens on a late 2015 iMac 5K (i7/32GB/2TB-SSD).

Did this improve with Apple Silicon?

The biggest problem right now is that you can’t login with your AppleID. No iCloud, messaging, developer access with Xcode, etc. For me, until this is fixed, it makes it pretty much useless.

On the other hand, performance is fine.

 

[Joe Dohn]

You may wish to look at this:

You can now Virtualize macOS on an M1 Mac with macOS Monterey!

You can now run macOS Monterey in a VM / Virtual Machine on an M1 Mac for the first time ever!!! I'll walk you through the entire process!

mrmacintosh.com

pac

The fact we have a new virtualization framework suggests that Apple understands that virtualization is an important tool to be integrated to their new machines, and that their multicore processors can take good advantage of it. The more integration and support with virtualization, the better for Apple and consumers.