Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Parallels 10 - Very high energy impact
- Thread starter WorldIRC
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The energy output of that "other OS" is greater than everything running on OS X combined.
Fusion runs slow. Parallels runs much more smoothly for me. I use a CRM that's proprietary to my industry and Windows.
My first reaction was "duh."
But that wouldn't be very helpful. So I'll be helpful instead.
You are running 2 complete OS'es at the same time on a single computer. You are therefore, at the very least, using twice the amount of energy you would be otherwise, even when both OS'es are completely idle.
Add that to the fact that Windows has to run on just about every combination of hardware out there, and you get an OS that is a jack of all trades and master of none in the energy saving department.
Windows simply cannot be optimized as much as OS X for the hardware it is running on simply due to the sheer amount of different combinations of hardware you can use to run it.
Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about it. Perhaps bootcamp would offer you better battery performance, or even a windows laptop.
If you want a good idea of where the energy is used start Parallels but don't start Windows. Check the energy usage. Start Windows but don't run any applications, check energy usage again. Then start your normal apps and check again. Which item caused the largest energy spike? My guess is Windows.
Just got pushed a new Parallels 10 update:
his update for Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac build 10.0.2 (27712) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes:
- Resolves an issue with accidental keyboard input in Coherence
- Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools installation in Ubuntu 14.10 virtual machines
- Resolves an issue with distorted Windows OS native sounds when LogMeIn is installed
- Resolves an issue with excessive CPU usage by the prl_tools_service.exe process in Boot Camp virtual machines
- Resolves an issue with virtual machines crashing when shutting down
I wonder if the excessive CPU usage is the cause of the high energy impact...although I'm not using Boot Camp VMs.
I was also affected by the last one, crashing VM on shutdown.
his update for Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac build 10.0.2 (27712) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes:
- Resolves an issue with accidental keyboard input in Coherence
- Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools installation in Ubuntu 14.10 virtual machines
- Resolves an issue with distorted Windows OS native sounds when LogMeIn is installed
- Resolves an issue with excessive CPU usage by the prl_tools_service.exe process in Boot Camp virtual machines
- Resolves an issue with virtual machines crashing when shutting down
I wonder if the excessive CPU usage is the cause of the high energy impact...although I'm not using Boot Camp VMs.
I was also affected by the last one, crashing VM on shutdown.
Last edited:
OS X quite often even thinks the battery is dying and needs to be serviced or replaced, because the energy pattern is so weird running a Windows VM.
It's Windows alright, you can run any number of Linux machines and there will be nothing like the energy pattern from a Windows VM.
Same also for Parallels and Fusion, I've run both extensively.
My take: it's a lack of architecture in Windows that makes it impossible for Virtual Hosts to plug in a limited number of energy managers (mostly I think it's i/o processes for different applications that run on their own tracks in Windows, that affects energy consumption in Parallels) - you'd need specific ones to handle e.g. Office (which has its own architectural components for indexing, cacheing etc), and if you have e.g. an enterprise managed machine, which again adds a number of services with their own control points.
So we'll have to live with it until Windows gets architectured in a way that won't allow specific applications to run their own low-level services. My guess is as good as yours as to when that might occur
It's Windows alright, you can run any number of Linux machines and there will be nothing like the energy pattern from a Windows VM.
Same also for Parallels and Fusion, I've run both extensively.
My take: it's a lack of architecture in Windows that makes it impossible for Virtual Hosts to plug in a limited number of energy managers (mostly I think it's i/o processes for different applications that run on their own tracks in Windows, that affects energy consumption in Parallels) - you'd need specific ones to handle e.g. Office (which has its own architectural components for indexing, cacheing etc), and if you have e.g. an enterprise managed machine, which again adds a number of services with their own control points.
So we'll have to live with it until Windows gets architectured in a way that won't allow specific applications to run their own low-level services. My guess is as good as yours as to when that might occur
You therefore need a new computer. On this 2011 iMac both Fusion 7 and Parallels 9 run exactly the same.
indeed it is very intense, but i find it worth it since i use it for photo editing (light room, photoshop, illustrator... etc) and since i have all my apps in Windows i dont have to buy them all over again
You could try running your CRM application under Wine or CrossOver ? They don't emulate the whole OS, only select dlls and translate the rest to normal operations.
Wine : https://www.winehq.org/about/
CrossOver : https://www.codeweavers.com/products/