Playing games on Fusion

[Maximus38]

I've just installed Fusion on my iMac, but cannot get any games to play.
I'm guessing it's a problem with my video card, and may need drivers - but which ones?
I have a Radeon X1600 video card which isn't listed on the Radeon site - I've tried a few different options but nothing seems to work.
Is there anyone out there who has had similar issues?

My iMac has these basic specs:

1.83 Intel Core Duo 512 MB RAM

 

[ansalmo]

Ignoring your graphics woes for a mo, I'd suggest you consider increasing your RAM. 512MB is probably just about OK with OS X alone, but running Fusion on top must cause huge amounts of disk swapping. Consider upping it to at least a gig, or preferably a couple since memory is relatively cheap at present.

So back to your graphics - you surely need the drivers for your emulated card, not your hosts's card, so it's whatever Fusion provides inside the VM. I thought they were provided by Fusion itself, though it's a while since I've played with either that or Parallels, so I may be way off.

Which games are you trying to play? You'll struggle with most recent games, and both Parallels and Fusion favour different games (e.g. I can play Medal Of Honor on one but not the other) - have you confirmed with the supported games lists?

 

[Maximus38]

Good point about the RAM - I was considering upping it to 2 GB, at the moment I'm just trying out a 30 day freebie for Fusion. I was hoping to play some of the newer games once I'd upped the memory - is Bioshock out of the question?

Thanks for the tip about the emulated card - I'll see if I can find out what it is.

 

[Maximus38]

Hmmmm the emulator card seems to be a VMware SVGA II - doesn't fill me with confidence.....also the emulated system only seems to have 224 MB of RAM, which is hopeless

Unless I can upgrade somehow, it hardly seems worth it. Again I'd appreciate any advice!

 

[ansalmo]

I haven't tried Bioshock, but I'd hazard a guess that you might be better off with Bootcamp.

 

[Maximus38]

Thanks for your advice - I may well abandon Fusion altogether, shame because it would have been much cheaper than going down the bootcamp route!

 

[lucky3killer]

You can play games under Fusion when games are support Directx 8.1 or under, or any games that's released in before 2004.

Fusion can support Directx 9 without shaders but still not good for games.

 

[webgoat]

Thanks for your advice - I may well abandon Fusion altogether, shame because it would have been much cheaper than going down the bootcamp route!

how could fusion be cheaper than boot camp when the former is around $50 rebated and the latter is free with the os? the only thing i can think of is you're running tiger and not leopard and thus don't have access to boot camp

 

[balancepoint]

I've set up bootcamp on my MBP almost exclusively for gaming, and I can tell you bioshock through vmware is not even worth setting up. You're computer is already at or below minimum spec for that game and you'll need all you can get to play it on med-low settings. Save yourself the headaches and buy a copy of leopard, set up bootcamp and run your games full speed. The ram upgrade is a must as well. The x1600 IS listed on AMD/ATI's site, and you'll also need to DL directx9.0c if you're drivers are out of date. Good luck setting up.