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rMBP, parallels, and Office 2010

T

theAXEDhead

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2012
63
2
Has anyone got these three working together.

  1. How is the performance generally?
  2. How does it perform say in comparison to on a Windows machine?
  3. Is it any better or worse on the rMBP vs say an older MBP?

I will shortly be a new Mac user coming from Windows and will need access to Office 2010 as I make training for how to use it.

I am liking the idea of getting into the Mac thing as fully as possible and would prefer not to Bootcamp that much, hence my interest in this question.

Thanks in advance
 
Why bother with bootcamp?... if you want to run Windows, use VMWare or have a pc/laptop with windows on... I run windows on VMware and it is very quick. I also run Office 2010 on the Windows VM and the mac version and I have had no issues.

I don't own a rMBP... depends what you want it for. To be honest I think you'd be better going for the non rMBP version as there are some posts already on this forum about the graphics when running W7 and VMware.. basically VMWare hasn't caught up with the rMBP display (yet).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1389998/


Hope This Helps
 
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Parallels

Thanks.

I do not particularly want to use Bootcamp, hence the question. I want to use Parallels as I have a copy of it and it appears to be better than VMware from the review I have seen (the MacUpdate deal a few days ago netted me a cheap copy).

I already have a rMBP on order so that decision is made. I am buying this for many reasons, however one of the things I will need to do is use Office 2010. I could do it on my Windows PC, but I would of course like to consolidate and live the Mac dream.

So.....If anyone has any experience to my original questions it would be much appreciated.
 
You have nothing to worry about, even my 2008 base model macbook can more than handle this. Parallels runs flawlessly and so does office '10 on it. I have the 2.3/8/256 retina model and I give my windows 7 ultimate VM 4 cores and 4gb of ram and I have yet to run into any issues.
 
MadTester said:
Why bother with bootcamp?... if you want to run Windows, use VMWare or have a pc/laptop with windows on... I run windows on VMware and it is very quick. I also run Office 2010 on the Windows VM and the mac version and I have had no issues.

I don't own a rMBP... depends what you want it for. To be honest I think you'd be better going for the non rMBP version as there are some posts already on this forum about the graphics when running W7 and VMware.. basically VMWare hasn't caught up with the rMBP display (yet).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1389998/


Hope This Helps
Click to expand...

Mainly because virtual machine performance is not as great as native. I prefer bootcamp myself since the differences are obvious and annoying (e.g. UI smoothness), and I am not normally one to get hanged up on these things.

----------
trsblader said:
You have nothing to worry about, even my 2008 base model macbook can more than handle this. Parallels runs flawlessly and so does office '10 on it. I have the 2.3/8/256 retina model and I give my windows 7 ultimate VM 4 cores and 4gb of ram and I have yet to run into any issues.
Click to expand...
I think everyone has a different opinion on what flawlessly means. :)
 
i hope you realize office 2010 is not retina optimized so it'll just be a blurry mess and i doubt it'll actually get an update.
 
stevelam said:
i hope you realize office 2010 is not retina optimized so it'll just be a blurry mess and i doubt it'll actually get an update.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I want confirmation of - is it an issue?.

Most people that talk of blurry messes, appear to mean it only in relation to the lovely retina optimised software neighbouring it, where in reality it is useable. Sometimes it appears, it is generally poor, hence some direct experience of this from someone would be great to know...

Glad to hear that it generally works well on much earlier versions, hence with the latest hardware and SDD, I am crossing my fingers that all will be good.
 
Even though it won't be as crisp, I look forward to using it at 1920x1200 with work on one side of the screen and video on the other side. :)
 
Install SetResX (renamed Retina DisplayMenu) then set resolution to 2880x1800 every time you use Word. Set zoom to 200% in Word then you'll have crystal clear text.
 
theAXEDhead said:
Thanks.

I do not particularly want to use Bootcamp, hence the question. I want to use Parallels as I have a copy of it and it appears to be better than VMware from the review I have seen (the MacUpdate deal a few days ago netted me a cheap copy).

I already have a rMBP on order so that decision is made. I am buying this for many reasons, however one of the things I will need to do is use Office 2010. I could do it on my Windows PC, but I would of course like to consolidate and live the Mac dream.

So.....If anyone has any experience to my original questions it would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...


To be honest Parallels 7 and Fusion 4 (which i use) are much of a muchness... but i have been using VM Fuison4 for a long time and not had any issues.... It''s all down to personal preference :D
 
I haven't used Office 2010 under Parallels, but I can confirm that Parallels itself works great. In terms of speed and performance, it's a top tier Windows machine even under parallels - there's a bit of a graphics weakness (6.0 WEI score under Parallels) but nothing that would impact Office, only gaming)
 
RMPB 2.6 6ram

Mine under vmware works great, almost native under windows, would not say I saw any issues with it, but I am made a huge upgrade from 06 mac book. Just my opinion.
 
Installed Parallels 7, Windows 7, and MS Office Pro 2007 on my 2012 cMBP last night. Very easy installation. I hooked up the Ethernet cable to speed up the update process (lots of Office 2007 updates as expected). CDROM drive got a good workout. Installation picked up both the USB mouse and MacBook touch pad along with the Canon MG5320 wireless printer automatically.

I tested Word, PowerPoint, Access and all worked fine. I migrated from a $299 made for Walmart Compaq laptop w/ Vista that has been working fine for nearly 5 years. So I was expecting a hugh performance boost.

I have to play around with the Parallels settings to see how they affect performance. Last night I had it set to 1-CPU, 2GB memory, and faster video performance. So, as expected, the battery drained faster since I was running Win 7 with the discrete video card enabled.

I may install D3 in Parallels/Win 7 just to see how much of a performance hit it takes. I currently have D3 running buttery smooth on 1440x900 Ultra in Lion.
 
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VFC said:
Installed Parallels 7, Windows 7, and MS Office Pro 2007 on my 2012 cMBP last night. Very easy installation. I hooked up the Ethernet cable to speed up the update process (lots of Office 2007 updates as expected). CDROM drive got a good workout. Installation picked up both the USB mouse and MacBook touch pad along with the Canon MG5320 wireless printer automatically.

I tested Word, PowerPoint, Access and all worked fine. I migrated from a $299 made for Walmart Compaq laptop w/ Vista that has been working fine for nearly 5 years. So I was expecting a hugh performance boost.

I have to play around with the Parallels settings to see how they affect performance. Last night I had it set to 1-CPU, 2GB memory, and faster video performance. So, as expected, the battery drained faster since I was running Win 7 with the discrete video card enabled.

I may install D3 in Parallels/Win 7 just to see how much of a performance hit it takes. I currently have D3 running buttery smooth on 1440x900 Ultra in Lion.
Click to expand...

Excellent, many thanks for taking the time to post this. Exactly the kind of experience I was wanting to hear about. -I intend to get some D3 action going along with WOW as well, direct through OS X . I expect I will set up bootcamp as I will occasionally dip into it for gaming. I understand that you can point parallels at your bootcamp installation. Did you do this? If so did it work ok, if you make config changes to your bootcamp installation, does parallels automatically pick them up?
 
Parallels has been updated to support retina. Could someone who has it installed on their rmbp comment on how it works? Does it display at the scaled resolution equivalent (1920x1080 or what have you)?
Possible to post a screenshot showing Office running through it?

Thanks
 
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