Virtual PC 7 Preview?

[MacRumors]

MacBidouille claims to have seen a demo of Virtual PC 7.0 for the Mac.

The software was apparently demoed for French resellers by Apple and Microsoft representatives.

New features include: Better support of Peripherals (especially USB), notably faster than previous version, should support dual processor as well as G5 based systems. The most notable new feature however is native support for graphic cards. This will reportedly allow video operations to be handled natively rather than through emulation.

 

[Rob Nance]

Native video card support sounds potentially awesome. I doubt I'll be able to play Half Life 2 on my dual G5, but I might be able to keep my PC in the closet a little longer as far as some less intensive games.

I'm really looking forward to this release.

 

[phampton81]

I know everyone hear scoffs at the idea of playing video games on the mac, especially through VPC, but this may make it possible to play a few not so new games on the mac that aren't ported already, I see this as good news.

 

[Thanatoast]

hallelieuah! i'm not a hardcore gamer, so i don't need huge amounts of power, but a enough to run a few older games would be nice. hope this pans out!

 

[crap freakboy]

hope this is true, Half-Life on a mac would be the dogs.
unfortunately I'll need something a little faster than this old sawtooth....bolo anyone?

 

[aafuss1]

Native video card support sounds potentially awesome. I doubt I'll be able to play Half Life 2 on my dual G5, but I might be able to keep my PC in the closet a little longer as far as some less intensive games.

I'm really looking forward to this release.

I wonder if the Windows version of VPC would be updated with Native video card support , just like the Mac version will have.

 

[Veldek]

It’s good to see that most of the new games, especially the top ones are ported to the Mac. But there are some older ones which don’t need much horsepower. For them, VPC 7 seems to be ideal. So, I’m looking forward to it!

 

[nsb3000]

True Virtual PC?

What I would like to know is whether it will still be a true "virtual PC", or whether we will be limited to running just Windows on it.

Otherwise, it sounds like Microsoft has added some nice features...

EDIT: Compensated for dyslexia

 

[windowsblowsass]

I wonder if the Windows version of VPC would be updated with Native video card support , just like the Mac version will have.

umm there is no windows version it wold be pointless to emulate a windows machine on a windows machune

 

[legion]

umm there is no windows version it wold be pointless to emulate a windows machine on a windows machune

Maybe you should double check that...
There is a windows version and the point is for software developers who need to test against multiple systems or who don't want to corrupt their original system. Also, you can install Linux in VPC for windows (multiple distros.)

Time to think bigger..

 

[legion]

What I would like to know is weather it will still be a true "virtual PC", or weather we will be limited to running just Windows on it.

Otherwise, it sounds like Microsoft has added some nice features...

whether not weather (unless this really is about the chance of rain or overcast skies)

 

[nsb3000]

umm there is no windows version it wold be pointless to emulate a windows machine on a windows machune

Completely incorrect. The windows version is used to create virtual test machines, with different operating systems, different configurations, that you can run all from one machine,.

See this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/

 

[denm316]

This is great news, however I would be much more excited if the earlier rumor did not say that it was delayed till the second half of 2004. Everything relating to my Mac is always delayed.

 

[Masao[RY]]

hmm

If VPC7 has native card support, I may just buy it. Although on the article page, it says DirectX will not be supported? How would that effect games? Also couldn't this be an excuse for companies not to be porting games to the mac? I just dread hearing, "We no longer support the Macintosh platform, but you might be able to run X game via VPC7."

 

[Flickta]

Too good to be true. I think this comes straight from the rumor of native vid-card support in the now dead realpc. There are so many games (the ONLY reason to have a pc somewhere in the house) which would play ideally on the mac (vpc processor will be fast enough for any games released prior to 2001-2002, eh?)... I just can't believe it.

 

[BornAgainMac]

umm there is no windows version it wold be pointless to emulate a windows machine on a windows machune

I disagree.

1) There are some programs that will not run on the newer versions of Windows and you have to use something old like Win95. (Think of it as our classic)

2) Some Windows programs don't get along when installed on the same machine

3) Great for testing a program on a fresh copy of Windows and restoring Windows is easy

4) A image of Windows can be copied to another machine running Virtual PC

I think Virtual PC makes Windows better than Windows, it is mainly speed that you lose.

 

[Vanilla]

forget games, if this means I can run PC specific Business applications (e.g. Actinic e-commerce software, Microsoft Project etc.) effectively on a G4 PowerBook, without the sensation of wading through treacle I will be overjoyed and will look forward to a ritual demolition of my remaining PC Desktop.

 

[Snowster]

Runs all X86 operating systems

What I would like to know is whether it will still be a true "virtual PC", or whether we will be limited to running just Windows on it.

Otherwise, it sounds like Microsoft has added some nice features...

EDIT: Compensated for dyslexia

I saw a demo where they had Windows 2 and Windows 3.0 installed in Virtual PC 7. You can even create a disk image without any os, and it shows the same error message in 'dos' as it did with older versions. If I understood it correctly there will be different versions of VPC7 and one of them will be sold without an os.

-Snowster

 

[Mercury]

Holy crap; that would be amazing. It's what RealPC kept promising, and well, where are they?

With native graphics support, I'm going to bust out all the legacy games. I always wanted to play XWA and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter...

Not to mention 90% of the rest of the games out there.

 

[stingerman]

Native video card support sounds potentially awesome. I doubt I'll be able to play Half Life 2 on my dual G5, but I might be able to keep my PC in the closet a little longer as far as some less intensive games.

I'm really looking forward to this release.

Not only a native video drive, but native DirectX. It's a three-fold benefit: 1. Less work on the system, systems graphics need not be emulated.
2. Much faster graphics since they will be run through the GPU hardware.
3. Much more processor time to emulate the x86 since graphics are out of the way.

In addition, if it takes advantage of dual GPU's, than it has better threading support, which will mean an even greater boost. Who knows, maybe VPC will be the future core of the new Xbox2, especially if MSFT ports Win32 as well. I imagine it shouldn't be so hard for them to port Win32. Especially with third parties like the Darwin Wine project doing it.

 

[amberashby]

Will Microsoft sell VPC on its own, or must you buy Office Pro or Windows XP bundled with it?

I already have XP professional for my PC. Can I buy VPC all by itself and install my windows versions on it?

Thanks.

 

[SpaceMagic]

I personally cannot wait for VPC7... I have a G5 and im dying to try it out.
DirectX on the Card will be fantastic, it'll mean speed . Im not so sure about the reports use of conditional clauses... 'it should...' 'it will...'

 

[hvfsl]

I am really looking forward to this. I have some PC software that requires a dual monitor setup to work. Hopefully I will be able use my PowerBook G4 instead of a PC laptop for this, in future.

 

[PPC970FX]

HL2

HL2 will come in a year or more. Hehe I have a poster "gaming 2003 HL2"

And I will be able to play CS on a mac But mac have som bad graphic cards. Realy bad graphic cards. The best is 9800Pro, and that cost a lot.

Hm can you start the PC in VPC and go inn the BIOS to overclock the G5??

 

[Veldek]

Hm can you start the PC in VPC and go inn the BIOS to overclock the G5??

You could only change any emulated parts, not the real hardware.