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Parallels Desktop help?

F

feliperubin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2013
21
0
Hey guys, just a quick question:

I have Parallels over here on my MacBook Pro mostly for Gaming (yeah..)

Well my specs aren't that great but here it is:
MacBook Pro 13-inch late 2011
16GB RAM
500GB HDD
INTEL HD 3000

I always used parallels as a VM but nowadays i keep thinking if it would be good to install windows on bootcamp and then add it to parallels.
I want to optimize it for gaming but I want it to be used such as parallels, just having a OSX as a windows side-by-side.

What is the best thing to do?

Keep My Parallels VM as it is or install windows on bootcamp and link it to Parallels?
 
feliperubin said:
Hey guys, just a quick question:

I have Parallels over here on my MacBook Pro mostly for Gaming (yeah..)

Well my specs aren't that great but here it is:
MacBook Pro 13-inch late 2011
16GB RAM
500GB HDD
INTEL HD 3000

I always used parallels as a VM but nowadays i keep thinking if it would be good to install windows on bootcamp and then add it to parallels.
I want to optimize it for gaming but I want it to be used such as parallels, just having a OSX as a windows side-by-side.

What is the best thing to do?

Keep My Parallels VM as it is or install windows on bootcamp and link it to Parallels?
Click to expand...

The limitation is the virtualisation layer, regardless of if you have a virtualised hard disk in Parallels, or a bootcamp install linked to Parallels.

As you are considering bootcamp with Parallels, I would just go straight bootcamp for the best performance. It doesn't stop you linking Parallels to that bootcamp install for other things such as office, but if you want the best possible gaming performance, then true bootcamp is the way to go.
 
feliperubin said:
Hey guys, just a quick question:

I have Parallels over here on my MacBook Pro mostly for Gaming (yeah..)

Well my specs aren't that great but here it is:
MacBook Pro 13-inch late 2011
16GB RAM
500GB HDD
INTEL HD 3000

I always used parallels as a VM but nowadays i keep thinking if it would be good to install windows on bootcamp and then add it to parallels.
I want to optimize it for gaming but I want it to be used such as parallels, just having a OSX as a windows side-by-side.

What is the best thing to do?

Keep My Parallels VM as it is or install windows on bootcamp and link it to Parallels?
Click to expand...

If you're gaming it's really stupid to be doing so in a VM, you're cutting down A LOT on performance by having two OS'es running one on top of the other.

Make a bootcamp partition.
 
Yeah, but would the performance be better if i did bootcamp and use it on parallels?
 
Playing older games (DX9 backwards) on a 2012 15" rMBP, Parallels is good enough performance-wise. Matter of fact I prefer it to Bootcamp cuz of better trackpad drivers. Newer games however will suffer.

You can give CrossOver a try and see if it provides better performance for your collection of games.
 
Well, what i'm currently thinking of is to install bootcamp and use it both ways:
1 - Simple windows programs I would use in parallels;
2 - Gaming I would switch to Bootcamp.

As Parallels website says it's possible, anyone knows a reason why not to do this?
 
Nope. Saves up desk space in the process. Never bothered to try it myself though.

/edit

scratch saves up space, think it just copies entire bootcamp partition and creates a VM file.
 
Last edited:
Well, I'll give it a try if it doesn't work out i'll just delete all and use only parallels
 
Their is nothing to stop you from trying, but I can tell you that Crysis doesn't work! I tried it, the game runs but is very sluggish, that is on my 2010 15" MacBook Pro with Nvidia 330m graphics. So bootcamp is the best way plus you get better graphics drivers in that too.

Maybe the next gen Mb Pro with a decent GPU will run the game in Parallels but that may be with all the settings turned way down low.

Give it a go and report your findings, but I think you'll find like the rest of us bootcamp is the best way to go for the best performance. It's not that it can't be done, just that you need a very powerful machine to do it at playable framerates.
 
yjchua95 said:
I'd forget any sort of gaming on your MacBook. The Intel HD3000 is pretty pathetic.
Click to expand...

Depends on the kind of games he likes to play I'd say.

Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga
Baldur's Gate 2 Complete
Beneath a Steel Sky
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Icewind Dale Complete
Icewind Dale II
Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition
Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete
Planescape Torment
Temple of Elemental Evil
Terraria
The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director's Cut
Torin's Passage
Treasure Adventure Game
Ultima 4 - Quest of the Avatar
Worlds of Ultima - The Savage Empire


These are the games currently occupying space on my VM Desktop. Bet he can run most if not all of them without a hitch.
 
nerowolfe said:
Depends on the kind of games he likes to play I'd say.

Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga
Baldur's Gate 2 Complete
Beneath a Steel Sky
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Icewind Dale Complete
Icewind Dale II
Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition
Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete
Planescape Torment
Temple of Elemental Evil
Terraria
The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director's Cut
Torin's Passage
Treasure Adventure Game
Ultima 4 - Quest of the Avatar
Worlds of Ultima - The Savage Empire


These are the games currently occupying space on my VM Desktop. Bet he can run most if not all of them without a hitch.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, these games and the likes of Minecraft wouldn't have problems.

But Battlefield, COD and NFS would have major problems.
 
yjchua95 said:
Well yeah, these games and the likes of Minecraft wouldn't have problems.

But Battlefield, COD and NFS would have major problems.
Click to expand...

It's dated, but it's not obsolete. Reason being most games were released prior to 2010 not after it. And that's a huge volume of games which's still viable today.

On a practical level I wouldn't run a good number DX9 games beyond mid-settings on 1024x768 on that machine. And virtually all DX10+ games are out the window.

It's very limited by today's standards there's no mistaking that, but it's far from useless that you should forgo gaming on it altogether when you take into account what it can and can't run.
 
nerowolfe said:
It's dated, but it's not obsolete. Reason being most games were released prior to 2010 not after it. And that's a huge volume of games which's still viable today.

On a practical level I wouldn't run a good number DX9 games beyond mid-settings on 1024x768 on that machine. And virtually all DX10+ games are out the window.

It's very limited by today's standards there's no mistaking that, but it's far from useless that you should forgo gaming on it altogether when you take into account what it can and can't run.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I only want to run casual games on my 13" and therefore I don't want max eye candy. If I want that, I play them on my Xbox One
 
MrGimper said:
Indeed. I only want to run casual games on my 13" and therefore I don't want max eye candy. If I want that, I play them on my Xbox One
Click to expand...
The holidays offer that gets you an XB1, 2 controllers and a game for $350's been killing PS4 sales of late. Smart marketing, you aren't buying games if you don't buy hardware first. Bought 3 of them for fam/friends.

Personally my gaming needs don't require one. Waiting for Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pillars of Eternity and possibly Witcher 3.
 
nerowolfe said:
The holidays offer that gets you an XB1, 2 controllers and a game for $350's been killing PS4 sales of late. Smart marketing, you aren't buying games if you don't buy hardware first. Bought 3 of them for fam/friends.

Personally my gaming needs don't require one. Waiting for Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pillars of Eternity and possibly Witcher 3.
Click to expand...

I actually had an Xbox One on pre-order from Amazon in 2013. I went to a lock-in at Game to see it a week before launch and I was so unimpressed I actually cancelled my pre-order.

Picked up a white one a few weeks ago now the games seem to be getting better.
 
MrGimper said:
I actually had an Xbox One on pre-order from Amazon in 2013. I went to a lock-in at Game to see it a week before launch and I was so unimpressed I actually cancelled my pre-order.

Picked up a white one a few weeks ago now the games seem to be getting better.
Click to expand...

I reckon its biggest selling point is convenience and being well-rounded. Now that it's cheaper and more mature, and developers have been transitioning and phasing out 360 it's become less of a tough pill to shell out cash to buy one.
 
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