Running Bootcamp/Parallels questions.

[Jelokin1]

Which is better if I want good graphics performance in windows? I have the Sandybridge 15" MBP Base model. Would a virtual machine program be worse cause the GPU is also supporting OSX as well as the windowed Windows? Also, it would probably be window 7 I would be running.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paperlantern]

For 3D, there is no substitute for the game running in an OS that is physically booted on the machine. VM can _NOT_ hold a candle. If you will be doing any type of gaming in the Windows box. Boot Camp it.

 

[Jelokin1]

thats what i was thinking. thankyou.thankyou.thankyou.

 

[Red Storm]

What about games that don't require much if any graphics? I tried playing Age of Empires II in a Virtualbox Windows VM and it crashes upon launch. Is there a known setting I need to enable/disable for this to work? Was hoping to get it working with a free VM solution.

 

[Paperlantern]

Does Age of Empires use any kind of 3D acceleration? Ive never played it so I do not know if it is drawn or modeled graphics on that one. Chances are it is looking for some kind of hardware acceleration that it isnt finding. You CAN enable that in Virtual Box if memory serves. There should be a "Enable 3D video acceleration" or "Enable 2D acceleration", depending on what kind of graphics AoE is... check the appropriate box.

 

[Red Storm]

It's an older, 2D game. I did have both 3D and 2D acceleration checked in Virtualbox settings. I guess I'll play around with the settings some more and see what happens.

 

[manly]

You could try Wine:

http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/

 

[Red Storm]

You could try Wine:

http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/

Hmm, I'll give that a shot. Age of Empires seems like it should work with WINE, I just hope Gameranger will...

 

[DivideBYZero]

Parallels is supposed to have 3D acceleration, and I have it running on a SandyBridge MBP, but not tested it. As others have said you'll only really get decent performance from an OS that in natively installed.

 

[Red Storm]

I didn't know Parallels had a trial mode, so I downloaded it and it does allow me to play Age of Empires virtually just fine. Only problem is Parallels costs money, whereas Virtualbox is free. I guess that's the tradeoff.