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Parallels, VMware, Boot Camp...what do I want?

EvilYoda

EvilYoda

Lifer
Despite having a 2010 MBP before this rMBP, I never really concerned myself with Windows on the laptop as I had a PC at home. Now that I'm on the road for work considerably more than before, I think I want to try running Windows occasionally. That said...which implementation should I go with?

It's mostly just to play around with as I don't have any programs that I can't find on OSX (yet). I guess the biggest reason would be light gaming for Steam titles that aren't available on the Mac (and also so I don't have to deal with the key mapping issues that I mentioned in my other thread).

So for me...does it really matter what I choose?
 
I'd suggest installing a bootcamp partition for where the GPU is required, VMware 5 doesn't offer great virtualised GPU performance from my experience.

From there you're able to access that bootcamp partition using either Parallels or VMware for any other windows related stuff you require, whilst still being within OS X. I'd definitely recommend Parallels over VMware, although it does cost slightly more, you get what you pay for.
 
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Use bootcamp. Then you can use vmware 6 to make a vm out of your bootcamp partition if you just want to log in quickly into windows instead of fully rebooting.
 
Sounds like it's Boot Camp and then VMware/Parallels...so would there be any benefit to actually booting into Windows at that point?
 
EvilYoda said:
Sounds like it's Boot Camp and then VMware/Parallels...so would there be any benefit to actually booting into Windows at that point?
Click to expand...

Yes, the VMs virtualise the GPU by nature, so you get really shoddy 3D performance, booting into Windows resolves that.
 
Bootcamp + Parallels is what I use. Parallels will do just about everything except very demanding 3D. For that you can boot into Windows and take advantage of native performance.
 
Same as others; I use bootcamp and VMWare Fusion 5 on my rMBP and both serve my needs well.

I'm curious what people like better about Parallels vs. Fusion?

I'm very happy with Fusion, but I've got the choice of upgrading to Fusion 6, or upgrading an older version of Parallels I have to the latest for Mavericks support. (Upgrade cost is the same either way).

I haven't used Parallels since version 7, so I'm wondering what's changed.
 
I tried both Parallels and Fusion Pro 6 before settling on vmware. I just find VMware less bloaty than Parallels and it's pretty damn fast.
 
I find there's an issue with running the VM from a bootcamp partition where the VM doesn't think I have activated Windows, quite annoying but a few clicks resolve the issue.
 
Zaap said:
Same as others; I use bootcamp and VMWare Fusion 5 on my rMBP and both serve my needs well.

I'm curious what people like better about Parallels vs. Fusion?

I'm very happy with Fusion, but I've got the choice of upgrading to Fusion 6, or upgrading an older version of Parallels I have to the latest for Mavericks support. (Upgrade cost is the same either way).

I haven't used Parallels since version 7, so I'm wondering what's changed.
Click to expand...


Parallels is better at gaming. That's why I use it, that's the only reason I use windows to be honest besides occasionally using Winrar.
 
manly said:
You probably already have, but just read the latest Ars review. It covers all the bases.
Click to expand...

I read their review last night- very in depth. I'd probably be happy with either, but I'll probably just stick with Fusion.

JAG87 said:
Parallels is better at gaming. That's why I use it, that's the only reason I use windows to be honest besides occasionally using Winrar.
Click to expand...
I find I'm using Windows less and less on any of my systems, I mostly do everything in OSX. But there's a few apps (like MP3Tag) that I just can't live without on Windows. Luckily it works perfectly for tagging files on the Mac side even running in a VM. The only PC games I occasionally play I just native boot Windows 7. (One of the few reasons I even keep it on my rMBP.

I tried playing SupCom FA in Fusion once, and it actually ran far better than I ever would have expected, but still I'd rather just spend the 15 seconds or so rebooting into Windows.
 
EvilYoda said:
so would there be any benefit to actually booting into Windows at that point?
Click to expand...
Gaming. Both VMware and Parallels provide some hardware graphics acceleration, but at the end of the day, your physical GPU is always going to be better.

TheStu said:
Fusion offers their own thing much like Coherence, I recall it being pretty decent as well.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's called Unity.

I don't think I can really give a logical justification for why i prefer VMware to Parallels. Both offer pretty much the exact same thing. I just have always liked Fusion better.
 
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If you don't mind logging in and out, go with Bootcamp. It'll give you the greatest gaming performance. If you want to run a VM in tandem with OSX, then go with Parallels, its faster than VMWare.
 
joshhedge said:
I find there's an issue with running the VM from a bootcamp partition where the VM doesn't think I have activated Windows, quite annoying but a few clicks resolve the issue.
Click to expand...
I'm using this setup (bootcamp partition + Parallels, sometimes using Parallels, sometimes booting directly into bootcamp), and it's almost perfect, but I always need to reactivate Windows and Office and I'm somewhat concerned I might run out of reactivations at some point, which is the reason why I mainly use Bootcamp nowadays.

Has anybody figured out how to stop the reactivation nonsense?
 
amyklai said:
I'm using this setup (bootcamp partition + Parallels, sometimes using Parallels, sometimes booting directly into bootcamp), and it's almost perfect, but I always need to reactivate Windows and Office and I'm somewhat concerned I might run out of reactivations at some point, which is the reason why I mainly use Bootcamp nowadays.

Has anybody figured out how to stop the reactivation nonsense?
Click to expand...


Yes, a KMS activator. And I don't care if I get a warning for discussing piracy. If you paid for a license you should be able to use the software without burdens. If that's not the case, I'll work around it, don't care what the method is. But that's just me.
 
EvilYoda said:
Despite having a 2010 MBP before this rMBP, I never really concerned myself with Windows on the laptop as I had a PC at home. Now that I'm on the road for work considerably more than before, I think I want to try running Windows occasionally. That said...which implementation should I go with?

It's mostly just to play around with as I don't have any programs that I can't find on OSX (yet). I guess the biggest reason would be light gaming for Steam titles that aren't available on the Mac (and also so I don't have to deal with the key mapping issues that I mentioned in my other thread).

So for me...does it really matter what I choose?
Click to expand...

Just like other people have mentioned, you should run BootCamp and Fusion...

I personally have that setup... I mainly have BootCamp for my son cause he's into playing Steam games.. And I "fused" the BootCamp drive with Fusion... So instead of creating a Windoze image (taking up 50+gigs), I can log into the BootCamp partition....
 
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