“According to Parallels, the new version of its software is up to 300 percent faster than the previous version, Parallels Desktop 4. The company also hired Crimson Consulting Group to do performance testing on Parallels 5 and said it was 22 percent faster than its nearest virtualization competitor [think VMWare Fusion] when running Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro,” Dalrymple reports.
“Speaking with CNET, Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov said company had three main goals when making Parallels 5 for Mac: make it faster; make it smarter and easier; and make it more powerful,” Dalrymple reports. “Parallels 5 also adds a new viewing mode called Crystal, which is similar to Coherence, where Windows completely disappears from your desktop.”
MacDailyNews Take: They ought to call it “Heaven.”
Dalrymple continues, “‘Parallels is faster than Boot Camp,’ Beloussov said. ‘Most slow downs with Windows is not because of computational problems, it’s handling drivers. We offer optimized virtualized hardware and drivers, making it faster.'”
Full article here.
More info about Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac here.
What about XP speed and performance. Why feed more money to Microsoft POS Vista/7. Stay with XP or XP Pro for as long as possible.
If it is “only” 22 percent faster than VMware Fusion, how can it be faster than Windows running directly using Boot Camp? VMware Fusion runs fine (as long as you allocate sufficient RAM to the VM), but I’m sure it is more than 22 percent slower overall, compared to Windows running directly on the hardware.
Fusion is better, simple as that.
They ought to call it “Heaven.”
Good one!
Parallels is better than Fusion, simple as that. (Hmmm. Do I smell an impasse?)
Why would anyone want Windows on their Mac, to appease someone else?
How about Crossover? Some of us like more than a couple choices.
XP is better than 7 — faster, cheaper, and just as vulnerable to attacks.
@Veronica
I have Windows on my Mac to run an occasional game and for running Microsoft Money. If there was a decent financial app in OS X (and please don’t say Quicken), I’d probably delete boot camp. I’ve tried iBank and a few others and they have a long way to go to be equal to the version of Quicken for Windows or MS Money.
@Veronica,
“Why would anyone want Windows on their Mac, to appease someone else?”
Unfortunately, yes. It appeases my boss, who pays me money, which I use to appease my wife.
Sadly, that’s where the appeasal train stops…(sigh).
guy at work, says Parallels is better than vmware. I have XP running on vmware on CentOS. I asked IT to bump up my XP image from 20 to 40G. It took weeks!
Veronica says:
“Why would anyone want Windows on their Mac, to appease someone else?”
Seriously… some of you Mac snobs need to re-think your attitudes.
But since you asked, I’ll tell you why I run VMware Fusion with Windows XP Pro on a couple of our work Macs (small business with about 10 Macs).
1) To run specialized, proprietary WINDOWS ONLY software to update our digital road sign messages.
2) To run specialized, proprietary WINDOWS ONLY software to access our alarm system and program door access cards.
3) To run specialized, proprietary WINDOWS ONLY software to configure and update the occasional router or switch that just can’t be done on a Mac (like a firmware update utility or web interface that requires IE 6 or 7).
4) To support my Windows users in preparing VPN policies and the like (also often proprietary WINDOWS ONLY software).
Sensing a trend here? Those are very good reasons I personally maintain a copy of Windows XP.
I COULD run around and contact the software vendors and cry like a baby complaining about their lack of native Mac support, but that would be a royal waste of time and a royal pain in my ass.
So please, stop the retarded comments that have no basis in reality… you just make professional Mac users like myself look bad.
HazMatt
installed , crashed all my VM’s, uninstalled and back to V4. Dont bother with it. it is crash snappy.
I would have to agree with HazMat. Being a support tech I have to have both environments for my customers. It’s not about what I want but what my customers need. I hate Microsoft and I hope the market share still decreases for them but until that happens we live in a world where Windows is still needed.
I suppose I should mention that I manage about 40 computers total, for what it’s worth. About half of them are Macs, and more would be Macs if I was dictator, but I have the grace to understand that some people just prefer Windows for whatever reason.
HazMatt
OSX is better than anything Windows, simple as that!
I load up XP Pro with SP2. Runs fast enough for my needs, so I guess VM will not make any money from me anytime soon. Nor will I upgrade to Vista or Windows 7 anytime soon either.
I’ll suck-up my version of XP pro on my iMac for as long as I can.
I only use XP just to do homework which requires IE and to capture gameplay from my game consoles with a EasyCap USB video Adapter which only works on windows.
@because
I found very cool personal finance that’s Mac native. It is called Moneywell by No Thirst software. Amazing app. I love it. I actually enjoy doing my finances. That was the last app I needed to put the final nail in the Windows coffin.
Remember the MS playbook “EEE”. It’s why no matter what I try I’ll always have to have Windows POS on my Mac. Even when it’s web enabled work flow. That’s the power of “EEE” that’s allowed to continue today.
Ignoring, the snobbish Mac supremacy posts, I’m just wondering…Since this is supposedly faster than Boot Camp, would games perform better in Parallels than in Boot Camp? I’m kind of confused.
@Veronica
“Why would anyone want Windows on their Mac, to appease someone else?”
No, in order to face reality and avoid becoming homeless. Some of us are completely on our own and have to make a living somehow so, after being laid off for more than 6 months, I was glad to be offered a job regardless of the platform.
Parallels 5 works great on my Mac. It did blue screen crashes at first. I checked with their support site, and they said to set the VM to use just one CPU until it’s running and has already installed the new Parallels Tools. Once the “Tools” are installed you can shut down, change the CPU’s back to 2 or more and everything should work fine.
This did work for me with WinXP Pro XP3, Vista Ultimate SP2, and the Win7 beta Microsoft floated out there.
I’m curious to see some testing by 3rd parties of that claim that Windows runs faster under Parallels than using Boot Camp. That’s just very difficult to believe… I wonder if they are telling half-truths and failing to mention this is only true for a select few applications.
@ Andy,
Ignoring your snobbish anti Mac user sentiment, it’s not snobbish to point out one product is demonstrably superior to another. Side by side reviews comparing OS X to Windows give the nod to Apple.
Following your poorly thought out and worded train of thought, it’s “snobbish” to say an Elise is faster than a Pinto.
He listed 4 goals, not three
that claim that Windows runs faster under Parallels than using Boot Camp. That’s just very difficult to believe..
That’s not at all surprising. Windows’ virtual memory implementation is brain-dead, and people have been running Windows in virtual machines under Linux and *BSD for years as a workaround.
I have a friend who had the contract to operate usps.gov for several years, and he was able to replace 21 hosts running Windows with three hosts (identical physical configuration) running multiple instances of Windows under VMWare on Linux. He did this to address a reliability problem; the performance increase was incidental.
-jcr