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Parallels 7 vs. Vmware 4 vs. Bootcamp
- Thread starter sneak3
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If you force the Intel GPU on 15/17" Notebooks and the VM is almost idle it may yield better battery life as soon as you do anything the VM overhead destroys all the gains you get from the integrate GPU.
Native Windows has native DirectX drivers with all kinds of optimizations. VMs may be much better today when they used to be useless for anything but 2D but Windows native is much more efficient.
Also native Windows only needs to run the game. VM shares RAM use it still needs to run all of OSX and stuff in the background and it has the added VM layer. Even if the GPUs would get close in performance CPU performance is much worse.
For some older games the VM performance might be enough. For newer games bootcamp is definitely the best solution. Battery life on native Windows will be better in all cases except for almost idle use (which means just sitting there or only reading a pdf or opening some non flash websites).
Native Windows has native DirectX drivers with all kinds of optimizations. VMs may be much better today when they used to be useless for anything but 2D but Windows native is much more efficient.
Also native Windows only needs to run the game. VM shares RAM use it still needs to run all of OSX and stuff in the background and it has the added VM layer. Even if the GPUs would get close in performance CPU performance is much worse.
For some older games the VM performance might be enough. For newer games bootcamp is definitely the best solution. Battery life on native Windows will be better in all cases except for almost idle use (which means just sitting there or only reading a pdf or opening some non flash websites).
The conversion tool from your PC? Or you created a Mac VM from your Mac? I'd like to do that..
Starcraft 2 runs natively in OSX
Bootcamp is free, so you only need a copy of Win7. The only downside is that you have to reboot before gaming.
Another option would be Crossover Mac, but for most games I find the results disappointing.
Amazing, that's what I wanted to hear!
Now for other kinda of stuff, forgetting about gaming, the smartest choice would be VMfusion, due to the higher ram limit?
My school runs Parallels on the iMacs, I use it nearly everyday for programming and getting it started sometimes is kind of a pain, I get it running maybe 7 times out of 10 but when it starts running its stable. Usual BSOD on Parallels but you can just restart it, or causes Lion to crash (needing to restart the whole iMac). I haven't tried VMware but sounds better from what I'm hearing 
I just prefer Fusion because it is the more stable choice. It is sort of the enterprise solution (compatibility, reliability, portability). Parallels is only and specifically for Mac and tries to differentiate by getting the best performance first.
I prefer the stability and reliability of Fusion and also its GUI. Parallels is a bit more OSX GUI but it doesn't work so well IMO.
For the most part they both feature the same features. Both can run a bootcamp partition as a VM too.
I use Fusion and Parallels and have no stability or reliability issues with either; both are rock solid in my experience. Personally, I'd buy which ever one is cheaper at the moment. (I got both from Frys for under $20 when they go on sale).
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Dusk007, is there anything you would like to say about this review? They seem not to like vmfusion that much :X
I've been reading that there are memory and 3D problems with VMware and Lion. Any truth to these rumors?
I hated Parallels the last I used it. It put those || icons everywhere and I hated it. I'd see a text file in Mac and it wanted to know if I wanted to open it a Windows or Mac app.
I hated Parallels the last I used it. It put those || icons everywhere and I hated it. I'd see a text file in Mac and it wanted to know if I wanted to open it a Windows or Mac app.
For games, Bootcamp for sure.
And, this:
And, this:
microsoft security essentials is free and works very well for antivirus
Anyone have issues going from VMWare to Parallels?
I got VMWare working and bootcamp working, and bootcamp in a vmware slice, wasn't happy with alot of vmware issues. No firewire (which all my games are on my firewire drive) and issues with video etc..
Now if I install Parallels 7, I get this error and looks like a lot of folks are getting this error and the only solution is to reinstall Win7 on Bootcamp.. Not sure why VMWare can see it, but Parallels cant.
Error: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)
Path: '/Users/jeremylindstrom/Documents/Parallels/My Boot Camp.pvm/APPLE SSD TS256C (disk0).hdd'
I got VMWare working and bootcamp working, and bootcamp in a vmware slice, wasn't happy with alot of vmware issues. No firewire (which all my games are on my firewire drive) and issues with video etc..
Now if I install Parallels 7, I get this error and looks like a lot of folks are getting this error and the only solution is to reinstall Win7 on Bootcamp..
Not sure why VMWare can see it, but Parallels cant. Error: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)
Path: '/Users/jeremylindstrom/Documents/Parallels/My Boot Camp.pvm/APPLE SSD TS256C (disk0).hdd'
Another vote for VMware. I was a long time Parallels user, and even with v7, I hated how it would run on Lion. VMware 4 is where it's at though, definitely the best out.
I am a long time user of VMware products and generally favour it over Parallels for based on how long they have been doing virtualization.
Now having said that, I own both Parallels 6 and VMware 3 (and Parallels 5 and VMware 1/2 before that) and offer the following items I found interesting:
Parallels feature what I call better integration into the OS in terms of making apps available from the Windows install. It has fairly decent OS support and was ahead of VMware for a while (I think that is moot now however) and was a better performer as well but that may be the extended release cycle of VMware versus Parallels. I bought Parallels 5 in spring 2010 and then Parallels 6 came out in the late summer/early fall of 2010 and an upgrade is 50 dollars. I bought new licenses for Parallels 6 in spring 2011 (I got one for 50 dollars plus 10 other pieces of software and one for 40 dollars - OEM version) and not 7 is out for 50 dollars.
VMware is compatible with all of the other products for the most part (Workstation, Player and ESX) which as an IT person who manage virtual infrastructure is a boon. I find the VM interface to be better setup than Parallels even though the integration seems better in Parallels. I found Parallels has an extraordinary desire for excessive disk space compared to VMware and have run into issues because I gave Window 4GB of RAM and did not have 9GB of disk to handle reboots of the VM - I had to actually shutdown and power on (my space woes are related to the fact I have a 240GB SSD versus 600GB or more HDD.)
If you want to Windows game, Bootcamp is the best solution as anything in a VM is going to be second rate even with the newer tech available in both products. Blizzard games are native to both OSes and while the games will run better in Windows versus OS X it is not that much of a difference and if you are concerned with competitive gameplay then you are lowering your settings so it is not a concern anyways.
Parallels is not a Mac only product, they do have other products out there, Desktop for Windows and Linux as well as the Virtuoso Virtual Containers for certain infrastructure (not directly comparable to VMware Server or ESX but does provide something needed in the cloud space/webhost space.)
my 2 cents
Dennis
Now having said that, I own both Parallels 6 and VMware 3 (and Parallels 5 and VMware 1/2 before that) and offer the following items I found interesting:
Parallels feature what I call better integration into the OS in terms of making apps available from the Windows install. It has fairly decent OS support and was ahead of VMware for a while (I think that is moot now however) and was a better performer as well but that may be the extended release cycle of VMware versus Parallels. I bought Parallels 5 in spring 2010 and then Parallels 6 came out in the late summer/early fall of 2010 and an upgrade is 50 dollars. I bought new licenses for Parallels 6 in spring 2011 (I got one for 50 dollars plus 10 other pieces of software and one for 40 dollars - OEM version) and not 7 is out for 50 dollars.
VMware is compatible with all of the other products for the most part (Workstation, Player and ESX) which as an IT person who manage virtual infrastructure is a boon. I find the VM interface to be better setup than Parallels even though the integration seems better in Parallels. I found Parallels has an extraordinary desire for excessive disk space compared to VMware and have run into issues because I gave Window 4GB of RAM and did not have 9GB of disk to handle reboots of the VM - I had to actually shutdown and power on (my space woes are related to the fact I have a 240GB SSD versus 600GB or more HDD.)
If you want to Windows game, Bootcamp is the best solution as anything in a VM is going to be second rate even with the newer tech available in both products. Blizzard games are native to both OSes and while the games will run better in Windows versus OS X it is not that much of a difference and if you are concerned with competitive gameplay then you are lowering your settings so it is not a concern anyways.
Parallels is not a Mac only product, they do have other products out there, Desktop for Windows and Linux as well as the Virtuoso Virtual Containers for certain infrastructure (not directly comparable to VMware Server or ESX but does provide something needed in the cloud space/webhost space.)
my 2 cents
Dennis
Here is another excellent overview of Windows virtualization software: http://tidbits.com/article/12498.
Be sure to read the section about the cost of keeping the software up-to-date... Parallels is significantly more expensive than Fusion if you plan on upgrading on a regular basis.
Be sure to read the section about the cost of keeping the software up-to-date... Parallels is significantly more expensive than Fusion if you plan on upgrading on a regular basis.
I'm a long time user of VMWare products in the corporate world. That's why it was a logical first choice for my Mac. I also purchased Parallels and used Bootcamp. I must admit (this coming from a VMWare flag waver) that Parallels just seems to be the slickest solution for Windows needs (outside of hard core gaming) for the Mac. Yes, you can "see" a Bootcamp partition from Parallels but there really isn't much, if any advantage to that vs just creating a straight VM. Parallels has several modes of operations, a couple of which are incredibly slick in terms of the way they blend into OS X.
Point blank, when it comes to my 25 year professional IT life and need high availability & DR across our global data centers, VMWare gets my vote. When it comes to handling Windows specific needs on my Macs, Parallels is my choice.
Point blank, when it comes to my 25 year professional IT life and need high availability & DR across our global data centers, VMWare gets my vote. When it comes to handling Windows specific needs on my Macs, Parallels is my choice.