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Parallels or Fusion?

plunar

plunar

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 7, 2003
334
0
can someone just tell which one is better? i don't want to deal with a bunch of crap. fusion seems more appealing though, considering they won't give me upgrade pricing even though i just bought their damn thing jan (won't even reply to inquiring emails) and applestore seems to be promoting fusion over parallels too....
 
I guess the only way to find out what suits you, is to try them both and see for yourself wich one you like. I like fusion better, but that's just me. :p
 
I have both but prefer Fusion. It does not seem to be as processor intensive as Parallels in addition to having 64Bit support. My boot camp partition is also easier to use in Fusion, with parallels I had all sorts of problems.

Hope this helps. :)
 
Here's my experience in using both of them.

Fusion: Faster than Parallels. Hardware compatibility is not as good as Parallels. (Fusion can't detect my wacom tablet automatically)

Parallels: More tools than Fusion - it comes with Kaspersky Security Software. The performance speed is not as good as Fusion though.
 
I recommend Fusion as well.
I have tried both and posted some thoughts about both products on my blog but the performace argument made Fusion the better choice for me.
Plus the Kaspersky argument for Parallels is nice but you can get a lot of freeware antivirus software for Windows that is just as good as Kaspersky. Apparently the reason for Fusion being so much faster than Parallels is that Fusion uses both cores of the processors and Parallels doesn't.

byakuya
 
Parallels' Coherence works better than Unity and it has more supporting features (SmartSelect), but at least in the betas, the stability of the virtualization itself has left a lot to be desired. When I sleep my iMac (Mid-2007), any running Parallels VM restarts. This has always worked flawlessly in VMware in Windows and OS X, even in betas. And whenever I try to suspend my Parallels VM, it is unable to wake up.

Also, I've had two times where my system has locked up because of Parallels.

In other words, Parallels' basic functionality - the part of it that should remain mostly unchanged - is the part that isn't working very well. I'll probably end up moving to VMware in a few weeks, and hopefully they'll release a new version that catches up with some of Parallels' features pretty soon.

I have no doubt that VMware is much better at virtualization. They're also much better at releasing products that work as intended.
 
byakuya said:
Fusion uses both cores of the processors and Parallels doesn't.
Click to expand...

Just a quick qualifier on that is that Fusion only uses 1 core by default, you have to go into the Virtual Machine setup and tell it to use both cores if that's what you want. I did that for my Vista partition and it made a pretty good difference in speed.
 
Fusion is faster

Parallels has more tools

I tried Parallels first then after a massive crash that completely wrecked my Windows Image, I'm on fusion, fusion does load quite a bit faster, even when set to 300mb odd ram and doesn't slow my mac up as much.

If you're not looking for any specific features and just want to get on with it, get fusion.
 
VMware offers excellent tech support and services. Parallels treats their customers with no respect. Usually they just ignore our emails.
 
Adding my vote for Fusion as well.

Tried both, had too many problems with Parallels. Also, you can't go wrong with Fusion, VMware has been in the virtualization business for years now.
 
which one has the best 3d support? I only need windows for one thing, Madden 08 on the PC. Which one will work with Madden?
 
ViperDesign said:
which one has the best 3d support? I only need windows for one thing, Madden 08 on the PC. Which one will work with Madden?
Click to expand...

Neither will work with Madden '08. Fusion only supports DirextX 8.1 and not all DX 8.1 games at that, for instance Sim City uses DX 7 and runs but you can't really see anything. I believer parallels only supports 8. something as well.
 
I have never used Fusion but I had some trouble with the early versions of Parallel's.

A few weeks ago I installed version 3 and I have found it absolutely first class .. :)
 
GavinTing said:
I haven't tried either yet, but have you tried downloading the trials to see which you like?

http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/eval.html
http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/

They both come with 30/15 day evaluation periods ;)
Click to expand...

I downloaded the parralles but of course I never used it and it said my 30 day is up so i would have to purchase it :(

vmware for whatever reason does not find my internet connection just gives me a red x over it (using vista) so I can't use that.
 
thegrifman said:
Neither will work with Madden '08. Fusion only supports DirextX 8.1 and not all DX 8.1 games at that, for instance Sim City uses DX 7 and runs but you can't really see anything. I believer parallels only supports 8. something as well.
Click to expand...

Well that stinks, i wonder why they can't support something higher..
 
Well I use Parallels 3.0 and have no complaints.
As far as tech support.. I had a few questions.. emailed them and had answers in less than 24 hours.
I run a MacPro with 1gig Ram.... and the machine and Parallels on active 24/7 with nary a problem.

Coherence mode is awesome. The windows toolbar sits right on top of the Apple Dock, and I can run programs in both OS as if they were one [even cut and paste between the two]

Have set up a "shared" folder which is visible to WinXP and OSX on my Mac, as well as being seen as a "network" drive to the other computers in my LAN.

As far as speed? It blows my 2.2gig Win Box away [yeah some of that is dual core vs single]

So my suggestion... try them both.... pick the one YOU like
 
I used the Parallels trial version months ago. Parallels seemed alright with the limited experience I had with it. Since then Fusion has become available. The discussion comments here indicate Fusion might be a better product.

For my purposes I only plan to use Microsoft Office 2003 with one of these emulators. Can Fusion or Parallels handle Office 2003 without any problems? I have an unopened copy of Parallels that could be returned if Fusion is a better choice for me. I plan to run Fusion or Parallels on a MacBook and iMac.
 
plunar said:
can someone just tell which one is better? i don't want to deal with a bunch of crap. fusion seems more appealing though, considering they won't give me upgrade pricing even though i just bought their damn thing jan (won't even reply to inquiring emails) and applestore seems to be promoting fusion over parallels too....
Click to expand...

I wanted to get VMware, but Parallels was in my eyes the first and the best to realize what I wanted out of a Mac (in regards to running those little progs I needed when moving over).

Now, to be honest, I think I will have to get a license for VMWare Fusion, and perhaps stop using parallels, it's just a bit smoother and better. But .. I am optimistic and will give the company some time to fix the little issues parallels has.
 
Make sure you have enough RAM!

I haven't tried the VMWare product, but I've been enjoying Parallels since the beginning of 2007 and love it. It recognizes all of my USB devices, prints to my strange configuration of network printers, and generally gets the job done. You DO need more than minimal ram for this to work, though. Forget trying with any machine with 512mb, and I'd start with no less than 1.5gb, say 700mb allocated to MS, for good results
 
For you guys who use Bootcamp for gaming, how many gb did you partition? I am thinking of doing the same thing, but don't want to partition too much or too little.
 
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