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VMware Fusion 13 Now Available With Native Support for Apple Silicon Macs

Marx55 said:
VirtualPlayer? Where is the web link for it? Thanks!
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Looks like there isn't a version for Mac.
www.vmware.com

Fusion and Workstation | VMware

VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion desktop hypervisors are the industry leaders in local virtualization. Learn how VMware’s local virtualization solutions provide an easier way to build, test and deliver any app for any device or cloud.
www.vmware.com www.vmware.com
 
AlexisV said:
Depends what you want to do, but it doesn't support DirectX 12 on Apple silicon for some reason, which was kind of one of the points of Metal3.
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Last I heard, Parallels Desktop doesn't support DirectX 12 either.
 
Veeper said:
I can’t wait to start arguing with my engineering staff again about how this time they should be able to boot/run their x86 VMs. :rolleyes:
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VMWare Fusion 13 on an M1 or M2 Mac cannot run x86 version of Windows. It has to be the ARM version of Windows. You can run x86 apps on an ARM version of Windows.
 
Jeaz said:
Last I heard, Parallels Desktop doesn't support DirectX 12 either.
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Looks like VM does support 12 either looking at their anouncement.

3D Accelerated Graphics + OpenGL 4.3​

For Graphics, Fusion 13 sports OpenGL 4.3 in Windows and Linux VMs on Intel, and in Linux VMs on Apple Silicon.

On Intel, Windows continues to enjoy DirectX 11 graphics, and Fusion continues to support eGPU devices for incredible performance using some of the fastest GPU’s available.

On Apple Silicon, Fusion can deliver OpenGL 4.3 with blazing fast 3D hardware acceleration to arm-based Linux virtual machines with Linux kernel 5.19 or greater.
 
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I’ve been using both Parallels and VMware for the past 10 years. Jumping between the two and now I use them both simultaniously.
What I have found, and this is just my opinion of course, is that Parallels is better for running Windows, and VMware is better for running Linux.
 
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Okay, I'm being thick. The Windows 11 ARM Preview downloads a file with a .VHDX extension, but VMware Fusion only detects .iso files. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong...?
 
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Everyone is talking about windows or Linux. Has ANYONE tried this for running MacOS VMs? Parallel's 18 support for MacOS VMs sucks. Pretty much all configuration (even disk partition size) is hardcoded at the time you create the VM. Even changing the size of the virtual screen requires that I quit the VM, edit a hidden configuration file, and then restart it. Parallels tech support knows NOTHING about how to run MacOS VMs. (I had to figure out the screen size thing myself, they insisted even that was hard-coded.)
 
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If I buy Parallels one time licence, and new MacOs comes next year, would Parallels work then? I need access to Windows just to run one simple program. Is it enough with VM player free version?
 
WilliApple said:
Finally, competition for Parallels who charges a monthly fee. I hope they sorted out the major problems that VMware Fusion 13 Beta had.
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You do not have to pay a monthly fee for Parallels.
There is the simple option to buy:

Parallels Desktop Standard Edition​

For Home & Student Use
From
$99.99

I love Parallels as they were the first to enable easy Windows virtualisation on a Mac.
VMware Fusion is good, but are 2nd best IMHO.
 
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Yoms said:
Cannot wait for law enforcing Apple to allow side loading apps on iOS / iPasOS so that VMware releases Fusion Player for iPad.

Et voilà, macOS on iPad (with mouse + keyboard of course). Topic closed.
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Without specific APIs released by Apple, virtualization would not be possible even if you could side load apps
 
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TheDailyApple said:
It’s true. I bought 11 when it came out, but starting with 12, they named the standard version “player” and made it free for personal use. The pro version doesn’t have many features your average home user would need, so player is all you really need.

My guess is that since (I believe) VMware makes most their money from enterprise clients and large infrastructure deployments, they were never making much money from home users anyway. Plus people who start with VMware products because they’re free are likely to us VMware products when they need a paid solution.
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Player historically let you run pre-built VMs but not create your own. Interesting if that has changed.
 
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Kevrani said:
Okay, I'm being thick. The Windows 11 ARM Preview downloads a file with a .VHDX extension, but VMware Fusion only detects .iso files. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong...?
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You either need to get a windows 11 arm install dvd from https://uupdump.net/ (note you have to get 221H if you are on a mac - 222h won't create media), or you have to convert the VHDX file from microsoft using other tools. Tips here: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/F...-Apple-Silicon-Tech-Preview-22H2/ta-p/2893986

Windows 11 works, and the intel emulation works surprisingly well. Unfortunately for vmware tools, there's limited support right now, but I expect that to change now that 13 is out.

FWIW, Fusion is rock solid stable, and blazingly fast. Able to run 2x the number of VM's concurrently I was on my max'd out intel machine.
 
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I should give this a try. Use to use Fusion over parallels to develop for work until I bought the m1. Had no option but to use parallels. Have an M1 Max\64gb RAM, and run windows 11 doing desktop and full stack development of a no-code platform. I have a desktop version and web version so I am using visual studio developing a .net\WPF desktop version that runs just fine on same VM and develop our web version using visual studio code, node, IIS, .net\c# backend. No problems once you get past the joining insider stuff and enabling all the correct features. I have no performance issues but I do have an m1 so not sure how much that matters in this type of computing.

The ONLY issue I have is SQL server. New versions only come in x64. So no 32bit emulation. But I solved that running a containerized version of SQL Server Edge in Docker on the macOS side. It actually works really well. My no-code platform connects and generates databases with no problem using entity framework and all generated applications successfully work with the containerized sql edge too properly loading and saving data.

Such a fun amazing time for technology lovers!!!
 
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Tried using Windows 11 for ARM after finally figuring out how to register for a free personal use copy of VMWare Fusion 13, installing Homebrew and QEMU, and then converting the Windows 11 ARM64 Insider Preview image to something VMWare could read, but in the end it seems VMWare couldn’t use or didn’t have access to my wifi adapter :confused:

I played around with the settings a bit but no dice. Surely I must have been doing something wrong, for clearly I am a noob….
 
Bengt77 said:
If your family member uses Windows, why would they be better off virtualising it on a Mac? Just let them continue using a PC. A PC isn't that scary, really.
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They actually want to move to a Mac, but having the ability to run Windows for certain functions (non-games) would be a plus for them.
 
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Hodas said:
Everyone is talking about windows or Linux. Has ANYONE tried this for running MacOS VMs? Parallel's 18 support for MacOS VMs sucks. Pretty much all configuration (even disk partition size) is hardcoded at the time you create the VM. Even changing the size of the virtual screen requires that I quit the VM, edit a hidden configuration file, and then restart it. Parallels tech support knows NOTHING about how to run MacOS VMs. (I had to figure out the screen size thing myself, they insisted even that was hard-coded.)
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This goes a long way to explain why parallel can do things that VMware doesn’t seem to be able to do: by hacking into all sorts of things to achieve the desired support.
Kottu said:
If I buy Parallels one time licence, and new MacOs comes next year, would Parallels work then? I need access to Windows just to run one simple program. Is it enough with VM player free version?
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If your simple program isn’t demanding, VM Player should work. I have no idea about the parallel licensing model, but I assume you can’t keep using the same one time license next version of macOS comes out.
 
I know it's not optimised for it at all, and I also know the usual replies that suggest I don't do it, but I just have to know: how well can VMWare Fusion 13 run graphic-intensive Windows games? Like, my high-end MacBook Pro 16" Late 2016 was able to run Red Dead Redemption 2 pretty competently in BootCamp (ugh, except in snowy weather—I hate snowy weather in video games!), but that's running in a dedicated PC space on a Mac with an Intel chip. How well would RDR2 or something similar run virtualised in Fusion?
 
Whaleyland said:
I know it's not optimised for it at all, and I also know the usual replies that suggest I don't do it, but I just have to know: how well can VMWare Fusion 13 run graphic-intensive Windows games? Like, my high-end MacBook Pro 16" Late 2016 was able to run Red Dead Redemption 2 pretty competently in BootCamp (ugh, except in snowy weather—I hate snowy weather in video games!), but that's running in a dedicated PC space on a Mac with an Intel chip. How well would RDR2 or something similar run virtualised in Fusion?
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You can expect PowerPoint performance on nearly all settings unless you play it in 480P. And even then it would still be horrendously slow. M1 M2 is powerful, but not powerful enough to emulate RTX 4090 + i9 13900K At full speed.

If it runs faster than that, then great news.
 
WilliApple said:
Finally, competition for Parallels who charges a monthly fee. I hope they sorted out the major problems that VMware Fusion 13 Beta had.
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...1. Parallels has pay-once / use forever plan (which I use)
2. VM Ware seems to be unable to run OSX as VM
 
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