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Parallels 4.0 Promises Significant Performance Improvements

I upgraded from 3.x to 4.x last night and had some issues updating the tools. I had to cancel a few times but eventually it works.

So far everything seems to be working well with cpu in idle mode around 5-8%.

Having the tasktray icons in the Apple bar up top is nice. now I can finally get rid of the windows taskbar whereas previously I still needed to show it to get access to Office Communicator 2005.

I'm not sure if it's much faster at this point. Unfortunately, even though it supports more processors now, on my MBP, it will still only you allow to use one [which makes sense]

I still can't figure out how to copy images from Mac to Windows through copy/paste though
 
fperkins said:
Unfortunately, even though it supports more processors now, on my MBP, it will still only you allow to use one [which makes sense]
Click to expand...

I thought so too, since it was grayed out. However, the VM needs to be shut down before you can make changes to processors or RAM. Once I shut mine down on my MBP, I could change the # of processors to 2. (And I haven't noticed any increased performance either. I'll probably be changing it back to 1).
 
I've been looking into Fusion/Parallels in order to ease my switch from XP to OSX. Will I be able to hook my iPod (Windows formatted) and my Windows Smartphone (using ActiveSync) up to XP through Fusion or Parallels?

FS
 
Has anyone been silly enough to try to run 3d studio max under parallels 4? I'm curious as to how it works because their website says p4 runs it. I'm currently running it on bootcamp but I hate restarting to have to switch between OS's.
 
Fair enough.

slackpacker said:
Its your first post.... so... I will now have to try it with XP. I will do a side by side test... I don't Believe you. Have you ever checked out how many fishy websites claiming to be Parallels only ordering site... they have many many alternate publishers.
Click to expand...

This is now my 2nd post, having lurked on this site since, Aug 07 when I ditched my PC and bought a MacPro. Now the proud owner of a iMac 24", MacPro 30", iPod 5G and an iPhone 3G.

have a look at http://www.acky.com/mymacrocks2.jpg , I have Quake3 running between 40-62 FPS in a window in a windows P4 session, much better than I was getting in P3. It barely got above 30. I find it's snappier and does not have the silly refresh problems that P3 had.

for fun :) http://www.acky.com/mymacrocks.jpg
 
Parallels 4.0 is pretty fast when it's working correctly. I even ran Age of Empires III on it pretty smoothly. But, today I tried opening launching Parallels (which uses my Boot Camp partition), and it repeatedly got stuck on the Windows XP loading screen. Every time I have to force quit Parallels, but I'm always scared it will mess up my Boot Camp partition and give me blue screens like Parallels 3.0 did. It always asks me to install Parallels tools to even though I already did. Fusion is a much, much, much better product. It's much more stable and reliable.
 
himansk said:
You need to re activate windows when moving from 3.0 to 4.0
Click to expand...

Nope. I recently upgraded to the 4.0 parallels trial version...it converted my existing parallels 3.0 trial vm to the new format...no need to reactivate. OTH if u reinstall windows from start...ya u will have to reactivate.
 
Not impressed

Ok I was going to run Parallels and Fusion at the same time for the test... but lets not and say we did.

But I did run the first test in 3D Mark 05 on both Parallels 4 and Fusion 2.

The test results

Fusion averaged 10-15 frames per second and reached 19 fps a number of times.
Parallels Stayed below 3-6 fps throughout the Benchmark.

Now there were some visual issues with Fusion but not show-stopping. Although Parallels Did look like it was rendering a better scene. So that maybe the issue. Fusion in my informal test Blows away Parallels 4.
 
My Completely UNscientific Benchmarks

I ran 4 unscientific tests in Parallels 4 and Fusion 2 to see if I could detect any performance difference between them on my MBP. Both VM's have default settings and Windows XP with the latest updates.

P4 - XP startup : 1:02
F2 - XP Startup : 1:01

P4: Opening Word 2007 : 19.6s
F2: Opening Word 2007 : 9.7s

P4 - IE7 Display Initial Page : 16.4s
F2 - IE7 Display Initial Page : 8.2s

P4 - Copy 280MB file into VM : 18.7s
F2 - Copy 280MB file into VM : 1:10

They both seem to be basically the same, but I swear P4 *seems* snappier.
 
CrossFireXT17 said:
I currently have VMWare Fusion. If I download a Parallels trial, will it mess up anything for my VMWare?

I just want to see if its worth thinking about!

thanks :D
Click to expand...

I have both installed as trial software. No problems so far. Parallels couldn't convert my vmware images though it said it could (unless I misundestood).
 
Upgraded from 3.0 to 4.0

MacBook Pro 2.4/4GB RAM

Quick, painless, easy! I only had to enter the 4.0 activation code. It installed rather quickly. Updated/Converted XP and Vista without a hitch! I'll check back to give my views on any speed improvements!

In the meantime... I'm a VERY satisfied 4.0 users!
 
Upgrade P3 to P4 Network settings need reset?

I'm on the fence post about upgrading from P3 to P4.
I have the standard XP Pro install, all I use it for is Access and Coldfusion. When you run the upgrade does it retain network settings? I'm happy with P3 but as I understand with P4 you can set it so it doesn't try to connect with your ipod or iphone when you plug it in to sync. I'm hesitant to upgrade because of all the horror stories over on the parallels forums, of course the only people that post there are the ones that have problems and it just isn't worth it if I have to change all of my settings
 
Nihgtmare

I am having the nightmare that you had and possibly for the same reason.
What exactly did you do to get it to work.

Spiritgreywolf said:
I just upgraded from version 3.0 to 4.0 and it was a nightmare. Be very careful about upgrading if you are an existing customer. There are a LOT of issues going on in the support forums for parallels (http://forum.parallels.com/forumdisplay.php?f=59). I had to go through so many gyrations to get my image actually upgraded I almost lost my hair.

I finally did manage to get it working after flip-flopping versions and re-running the upgrade NUMEROUS times. The converter isn't quite ready for prime-time so make sure you backup your images and still have the old software (version 3) handy as well as ALL of your permanent keys and upgrade keys. Oh - and make sure that you have your image completely shutdown before upgrading. And make sure it's a normal shutdown and not just a hang at the screen "Windows is shutting down" and quitting the image. That's apparently what started my upgrade nightmare.
Click to expand...
 
Smooth transition

You are right when you say that...

I upgraded XP and Vista and played with them both yesterday... The only thing that happened to me when upgrading Vista that didn't happen with XP is... It requested the original CD so it could do an install of something... Other than that, it was a problem free upgrade.

I went from 3.0 to 4.0. I registered the 3.0 online when I installed it, if that makes a difference... Then I just purchased the 4.0 "upgrade" and installed it... Pretty slick so far!

The only thing that I'm NOT seeing is the 50% speed improvement... They were both rather speedy in 3.0... Much faster than actual XP computers I use at work! Not feeling much of a difference in 4.0 as far as that goes... Stay tuned I guess!

MacBook Pro 2.4/4GB RAM

jeffgtr said:
of course the only people that post there are the ones that have problems
Click to expand...
 
slackpacker said:
Ok Parallels 4 Sucks!


I did full installations on a Mac Pro 8 Core. 4GB RAM

SAME XP , RAM Allocated & Same HD Size on the same drive.

Install was painless in Fusion.

Install in Parallels = Frustation....
PD somehow had to authorize an encrypted folder on my desktop over and over. Overall install was painless. But after the install I had to reboot a few times before everything clicked. I found the shared folder part of PD confusing and turned it off.

The Test

I use Edius 4.6 all the time. Its a High End editing program like Final Cut for Windows. For my setup I copied a 4gb folder of demo material to the Virtual Disk of each. Parallels just had problems with copying the files (took 4 times as long to copy as well when compared with Fusion) and running programs until I rebooted. After that things clicked.

The straight to the point fact is. Edius running in Fusion is Usable... it even comes pretty close to BootCamp Speed and is a joy to use since I don't have to re-boot out of the warm embrace of OS X. But Parallels is Mushy and Slow, Window redraw is very apparent. Unusable!


The OS itself -

There are few hiccups in Fusion it Feels like I'm running XP in BootCamp.... but a little slower.. and no 8800 GT graphics card.

Parallels has many pauses and waits so it feels fast one second and then slows down. You never really know when its going to happen.

My experience with running this one app (edius) is enough to delete Parallels from my machine since I will never use it. I find it hard to believe that Parallels is any faster when running anything else. But I will leave it on my machine for a while if anyone wants anything else tested.
Click to expand...

How many CPUs did you select. I am testing on an 8 Core Mac Pro too. I was under the impression an 8 Core Mac had 2 CPUs and 4 cores in each.
 
Does anyone know if I upgrade from 3 to 4, can I use version 3 (old key) on another computer and then install version 4 on my current computer? I have an imac that my kids use that I've thought about putting it on, but wasn't going to spend the money on a full version just for this.
 
Paid Parallels, hell no!

I was very unsatisfied Parallels 3.0 owner. I swore then I would NEVER give Parallels a dime again.

Then I hear that Parallels 4 isn't really “that special” and I hear about the installation horror stories...

I'm just very satisfied Fusion owner. :)
 
yesterday I finally ugraded my parallels 3 to this version...

I shut down all my virtual machines, and the upgrade was very fast;
It then had to update my virtual machines (one in this case), it took about seven minutes...

I then started my virtual machine, it felt longer than in version 3, hmm...
Then it just went to Coherence mode, which is IMO very anoying, and I couldn't find the way to swich back to windowed mode (the menu just had about four items?, but some time after the menu finally had all the options, and I could change it to windowed mode)...

Now, one test I was anxious to make: Halo 2!
(the Halo 2 demo, in multiplayer mode, allows you to play with other Halo's but of the same platform, which means my brother's Halo Demo PC can't join me on a game :(

So, I installed the demo, and opened...

Incredible!
It is incredibly playable! I couldn't feel a significant FPS "lag" :)
In Parallels 3, It would open, saying I hadn't the minumum requirements, and I even lowered all the specs of the game, and gave the maximum VRAM to that VMachine and nothing...

I'll try other programs to see if it is indeed faster than in v3.

One thing: the new icon is incredibly bad (those two red lines - paralells symbol), just looks like a mistake or some kind of warning?

My setup: MBP 2.2 2GB RAM, OS 10.5.4
 
madrag said:
yesterday I finally ugraded my parallels 3 to this version...

I shut down all my virtual machines, and the upgrade was very fast;
It then had to update my virtual machines (one in this case), it took about seven minutes...

I then started my virtual machine, it felt longer than in version 3, hmm...
Then it just went to Coherence mode, which is IMO very anoying, and I couldn't find the way to swich back to windowed mode (the menu just had about four items?, but some time after the menu finally had all the options, and I could change it to windowed mode)...

Now, one test I was anxious to make: Halo 2!
(the Halo 2 demo, in multiplayer mode, allows you to play with other Halo's but of the same platform, which means my brother's Halo Demo PC can't join me on a game :(

So, I installed the demo, and opened...

Incredible!
It is incredibly playable! I couldn't feel a significant FPS "lag" :)
In Parallels 3, It would open, saying I hadn't the minumum requirements, and I even lowered all the specs of the game, and gave the maximum VRAM to that VMachine and nothing...

I'll try other programs to see if it is indeed faster than in v3.

One thing: the new icon is incredibly bad (those two red lines - paralells symbol), just looks like a mistake or some kind of warning?

My setup: MBP 2.2 2GB RAM, OS 10.5.4
Click to expand...

One of my first tests was Second Life which won't run in VMware 2.0 due to graphics check (this on a Mac Pro 8 Core with NVideo 8800 GT). In Parallels 4 it not only runs but it is as fast as BootCamp allowing the second highest setting in the graphics prefs in SL. This is also equal to the Mac running OS X. Very impressive! What is more Parallels allows me to run SL on my 30" screen in a window at full size. On my Mac OS X I am limited to the 23" screen (I have three monitors and two graphics cards) as SL freezes all the time on the 30". This probably says more about the SL code for Mac though or the NVidia drivers for OS X for the 8800!
 
Stevamundo said:
I was very unsatisfied Parallels 3.0 owner. I swore then I would NEVER give Parallels a dime again.

Then I hear that Parallels 4 isn't really “that special” and I hear about the installation horror stories...

I'm just very satisfied Fusion owner. :)
Click to expand...

I use both and stay open minded. I have been playing with Parallels 4 for a day (and half a night now). I have to say version 4 has put Parallels out front in many areas by far. I assume VMWare will have to step up to the plate now. Watch the video all the way through before deciding.

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/pd40_tutorial

I too gave VMware top score over Parallels till this.
 
I upgraded last night to parallels 4 and installed the tools but when I click in the vm I have to always hit ctrl+alt to release the mouse and keyboard and I cant get it to do it automatically like in parallels 3, does anyone know is there a setting or something I may have wrong that is causing it to do that, I looked and it all looked like the same settings that I had in parallels 3.
 
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