Parallels VM performance requirements

[cuestakid]

I am trying to determine what is needed to run a Windows VM on either a Macbook Air or a Macbook Pro. I would only be running a couple of necessary apps (quicken/turbotax) and that is it. I know quicken works on Mac but I prefer the Windows version-same with TurboTax. My question is do I need to go beyond the 16GB Ram/512 storage on either and if not, would I really notice a performance difference between the Air and 13in Pro. I have concerns about the Air's cooling capability so I am not sure which way to go. Getting a VM is the only big thing I would need and there is also the option of keeping my old Windows laptop around for just those two apps though I would prefer not to do that if I could.


Thanks

 

[giffut]

You could use UTM and support open source software:

‎UTM Virtual Machines

‎Mit UTM kannst du Windows® 10, Windows® 11, Ubuntu® oder macOS® mit der besten Performance virtuell ausführen. Selbst ältere Systeme wie Windows® 7 oder Windows® XP funktionieren mit akzeptabler Geschwindigkeit. In UTM steckt unter Anderem der beliebte QEMU System-Emulator, den wir sicher...

apps.apple.com

UTM

Securely run operating systems on your Mac

mac.getutm.app

 

[tdar]

I am trying to determine what is needed to run a Windows VM on either a Macbook Air or a Macbook Pro. I would only be running a couple of necessary apps (quicken/turbotax) and that is it. I know quicken works on Mac but I prefer the Windows version-same with TurboTax. My question is do I need to go beyond the 16GB Ram/512 storage on either and if not, would I really notice a performance difference between the Air and 13in Pro. I have concerns about the Air's cooling capability so I am not sure which way to go. Getting a VM is the only big thing I would need and there is also the option of keeping my old Windows laptop around for just those two apps though I would prefer not to do that if I could.


Thanks

I run windows 11 and full business class windows apps on my m1 mini with 16 gb of memory and they all run fantastic. I don’t think you would have any problems with either of them.

 

[cuestakid]

I figured the 16/512 was enough but I then read(and forgot) that there are no fans on the Air so I am just concerned about heat dispensation and if a VM would create too much heat on the Air.

 

[cuestakid]

You could use UTM and support open source software:

‎UTM Virtual Machines

‎Mit UTM kannst du Windows® 10, Windows® 11, Ubuntu® oder macOS® mit der besten Performance virtuell ausführen. Selbst ältere Systeme wie Windows® 7 oder Windows® XP funktionieren mit akzeptabler Geschwindigkeit. In UTM steckt unter Anderem der beliebte QEMU System-Emulator, den wir sicher...

apps.apple.com

UTM

Securely run operating systems on your Mac

mac.getutm.app

I may try it but given I am already having to run Windows ARM, I prefer to have commercial support.

 

[jdb8167]

I figured the 16/512 was enough but I then read(and forgot) that there are no fans on the Air so I am just concerned about heat dispensation and if a VM would create too much heat on the Air.

It shouldn't be a problem. The MacBook Air is designed to run without a fan. It won't overheat. The most that will happen is that it will throttle a bit if pressed too hard. Even then, it is still a fast computer.

 

[cuestakid]

Thanks for the info. I will start looking at the Airs.

 

[pshufd]

I may try it but given I am already having to run Windows ARM, I prefer to have commercial support.

You wouldn't have commercial support running Windows ARM on Parallels as only Qualcomm processors are supported by Microsoft. You would have support for Parallels though. I am running Windows 11 ARM on UTM and I've allocated about 12 GB of RAM (I have 32), and it runs great. I'm just aware that Microsoft doesn't support the configuration.

TurboTax does a lot of work at startup when it's doing a software update but it otherwise doesn't use a lot of resources. I am going to download the Mac version as I've been using it for many years without problems.

 

[cuestakid]

I was referring to Parallels or VMware Fusion(who finally released a version). I don't expect support from Microsoft or Intuit-and I will probably keep a Windows machine around as a failsafe if performance truly dies. I am looking now at an Air with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD(though one could make a valid argument to go 24GB/512 as RAM would be more valuable.

 

[pshufd]

I was referring to Parallels or VMware Fusion(who finally released a version). I don't expect support from Microsoft or Intuit-and I will probably keep a Windows machine around as a failsafe if performance truly dies. I am looking now at an Air with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD(though one could make a valid argument to go 24GB/512 as RAM would be more valuable.

VMware Fusion is not worth it right now. Performance is pretty poor and what you'd expect from a beta.

You don't have support for Windows if you use Windows 11 ARM on non-Qualcomm CPUs. That's usually unacceptable to businesses.

My daughter has the M1 Air 16/1 and she loves it.

 

[bobcomer]

I am trying to determine what is needed to run a Windows VM on either a Macbook Air or a Macbook Pro. I would only be running a couple of necessary apps (quicken/turbotax) and that is it. I know quicken works on Mac but I prefer the Windows version-same with TurboTax. My question is do I need to go beyond the 16GB Ram/512 storage on either and if not, would I really notice a performance difference between the Air and 13in Pro. I have concerns about the Air's cooling capability so I am not sure which way to go. Getting a VM is the only big thing I would need and there is also the option of keeping my old Windows laptop around for just those two apps though I would prefer not to do that if I could.


Thanks

Your specs look good for the size of the machine, but I can't reccomend running a VM on a Mackbook Air. It'll over heat and throttle too much. I bought the M1 MBA to begin with and put it on the shelf to be sold later after 2 months. I *need* a VM and it couldn't handle it for any length of time.

Now a Macbook Pro with active cooling, no problem.

 

[jdb8167]

Your specs look good for the size of the machine, but I can't reccomend running a VM on a Mackbook Air. It'll over heat and throttle too much. I bought the M1 MBA to begin with and put it on the shelf to be sold later after 2 months. I *need* a VM and it couldn't handle it for any length of time.

Now a Macbook Pro with active cooling, no problem.

It might throttle but it won't overheat.

 

[cuestakid]

Your specs look good for the size of the machine, but I can't reccomend running a VM on a Mackbook Air. It'll over heat and throttle too much. I bought the M1 MBA to begin with and put it on the shelf to be sold later after 2 months. I *need* a VM and it couldn't handle it for any length of time.

Now a Macbook Pro with active cooling, no problem.

Your specs look good for the size of the machine, but I can't reccomend running a VM on a Mackbook Air. It'll over heat and throttle too much. I bought the M1 MBA to begin with and put it on the shelf to be sold later after 2 months. I *need* a VM and it couldn't handle it for any length of time.

Now a Macbook Pro with active cooling, no problem.

Your specs look good for the size of the machine, but I can't reccomend running a VM on a Mackbook Air. It'll over heat and throttle too much. I bought the M1 MBA to begin with and put it on the shelf to be sold later after 2 months. I *need* a VM and it couldn't handle it for any length of time.

Now a Macbook Pro with active cooling, no problem.

that was my original fear and with your confirmation I will adjust accordingly.

 

[bobcomer]

It shouldn't be a problem. The MacBook Air is designed to run without a fan. It won't overheat. The most that will happen is that it will throttle a bit if pressed too hard. Even then, it is still a fast computer.

It most certainly overheated for me. And throttled a lot, not a little.

Did you try running a Windows VM on an M1 MBA for any length of time???

 

[Confused-User]

1) The Air will be more than enough. Even the 8GB version would be enough for the load you're describing, which is virtually no load at all. But I wouldn't recommend that - get 16GB, or 24GB if you can afford the extra. I did that and I haven't regretted it.
2) Cooling is not a concern. Your load is minimal, but even if it weren't, the CPU would just throttle a bit.
3) Consider VMware, which is now release and free. Parallels clearly has the advantage right now but their pricing is terrible and again, your load is so minimal, you're not going to experience any significant difference.

For the workload you've described, even an M1 would be overkill, so choose based on other factors.

 

[jdb8167]

It most certainly overheated for me. And throttled a lot, not a little.

Did you try running a Windows VM on an M1 MBA for any length of time???

If it overheated then you should have contacted Apple because the MacBook Air is designed to not overheat. It gets to its max temperature and then throttles. And yes, I've run many things on both an M1 and M2 MacBook Air, including Windows 11, that causes throttling but never to the point of overheating.

 

[pshufd]

It most certainly overheated for me. And throttled a lot, not a little.

Did you try running a Windows VM on an M1 MBA for any length of time???

On TurboTax? TurboTax doesn't use much in the way of resources except when it runs updates. Here's UTM running Windows 11 ARM YouTube at 720P fullscreen on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro. You'll notice that the fans are not running at all.

I am working with Intuit to get a discount on TurboTax and will install it on this Mac to see how it performs but my guess is that the fans won't run at all with it. I ran TurboTax last year on my M1 mini and had no problems.

 

[bobcomer]

If it overheated then you should have contacted Apple because the MacBook Air is designed to not overheat

It wasn't broken, it ran everything else fine and passed diagnostics no problem.

It gets to its max temperature and then throttles. And yes, I've run many things on both an M1 and M2 MacBook Air, including Windows 11, that causes throttling but never to the point of overheating.

I can't take throttling to any great extent, I had work to do, but it really did get fairly hot to the touch over the top middle. I couldn't stand using it at all. I traded it in on a Mac Studio, and went back to a Windows laptop for portable.

 

[bobcomer]

On TurboTax? TurboTax doesn't use much in the way of resources except when it runs updates. Here's UTM running Windows 11 ARM YouTube at 720P fullscreen on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro. You'll notice that the fans are not running at all.

View attachment 2133622

I am working with Intuit to get a discount on TurboTax and will install it on this Mac to see how it performs but my guess is that the fans won't run at all with it. I ran TurboTax last year on my M1 mini and had no problems.

I haven't used the computer side turbotax in years, so no, I can't comment specifically on that, just for general usage.

 

[pshufd]

TurboTax supports Macs that can run Big Sur. The weakest Mac that can support Big Sur would then be the 2013 MacBook Air 11 inches. That model has Geekbench 5 scores of 561 and 1,148. The M1 MacBook Air 8/8 scores 1,687 and 7,225 respectively. I don't think that you'd see throttling or heat issues with TurboTax on an M1 Air given that it has far more CPU capacity than the 2013 Air 11.

 

[bobcomer]

TurboTax supports Macs that can run Big Sur. The weakest Mac that can support Big Sur would then be the 2013 MacBook Air 11 inches. That model has Geekbench 5 scores of 561 and 1,148. The M1 MacBook Air 8/8 scores 1,687 and 7,225 respectively. I don't think that you'd see throttling or heat issues with TurboTax on an M1 Air given that it has far more CPU capacity than the 2013 Air 11.

You are running MUCH more than turbotax when you're running a Windows VM that is running an emulator for x86 apps.

 

[pshufd]

You are running MUCH more than turbotax when you're running a Windows VM that is running an emulator for x86 apps.

Windows 11 ARM runs x86 in translation, not emulation. This is similar to Rosetta 2. Code is translated and that translated code is save so that it doesn't have to be translated again when it is run again.

I ran Geekbench 5 within the Windows 11 ARM virtual machine on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro and got scores of about 1,200 and 8,000 using 8 cores. The M1 Air would handily still beat the 2013 Air 11 even with the fewer cores on the base M1 CPUs. Note that Geekbench 5 is an x86 application so that it has to be translated to ARM but, even so, it still runs over twice as fast as the CPU in the 2013 MacBook Air 11 in single-core.

 

[bobcomer]

Windows 11 ARM runs x86 in translation, not emulation.

Ehhhh, that's a debatable point, but WoA actually does uses emulation for some of it's program execution, and it's not as easy a job as rosetta has. But anyway, it's a whole different OS on top of your Mac OS with it's own resources, you can't possibly think that doesn't count.

I ran Geekbench 5 within the Windows 11 ARM virtual machine on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro and got scores of about 1,200 and 8,000 using 8 cores. The M1 Air would handily still beat the 2013 Air 11 even with the fewer cores on the base M1 CPUs. Note that Geekbench 5 is an x86 application so that it has to be translated to ARM but, even so, it still runs over twice as fast as the CPU in the 2013 MacBook Air 11 in single-core.

Whopdidodaday. I used it for work, and it was not good enough to keep, period, argue all you want about turbotax and benchmarks, that doesn't change my opinion whatsoever. An opinion was asked, I gave it, this isn't a general discussion.

 

[pshufd]

Ehhhh, that's a debatable point, but WoA actually does uses emulation for some of it's program execution, and it's not as easy a job as rosetta has. But anyway, it's a whole different OS on top of your Mac OS with it's own resources, you can't possibly think that doesn't count.

Whopdidodaday. I used it for work, and it was not good enough to keep, period, argue all you want about turbotax and benchmarks, that doesn't change my opinion whatsoever. An opinion was asked, I gave it, this isn't a general discussion.

I ran FX!32 back in the 1990s and that was one of the ancestors to Rosetta and Rosetta 2. It had limitations but it was mostly translation. Of course you can't translate all code.

I would not use unlicensed/unsupported software in a work environment. It subjects the company to potential liability in various forms. Which is why some companies lock down the systems that they give to employees.

Workloads very widely from user to user. Your workload may be nothing like the OP's workload. In those cases, I like to query someone that actually has a similar workload rather than someone that just says it won't work without any knowledge of the resources that the workload requires.

Of course it would be easier to start a thread in the MacBook Air forum as I'm sure that there are large numbers of MacBook Air customers that run TurboTax with no problems at all.

 

[bobcomer]

I would not use unlicensed/unsupported software in a work environment. It subjects the company to potential liability in various forms. Which is why some companies lock down the systems that they give to employees.

Neither would I for anything more than test. But now it appears it's not unlicensable per Microsoft.