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Parallels 3.0 vs VMWare Beta4


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Has anyone tried both of the new releases yet?

 

Up to now, I have been a Parallels guy but given that VMWare is still free and the new Windows integration with shadows looks awfully nice!

 

Should I switch? Is there an easy way to migrate a Parallels VM to VMWare?

 

Any downsides to VMWare? Which is more stable and runs faster?

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VMware wins this round.

I'm currently installing a fresh copy of XP in VMware atm.

 

3D support didn't live up to all the hype it made in parallels 3.0

very dissappointed in it.

Even VMWare beta 3 was better playing 3D games.

 

esp. Now that VMware has that Unity thing going (which is meant to be almost exactly the same as coherence - except individual windows apps now works with expose!!!! )

 

will update here once tried VMWare's new stuff.

 

Parallels 3.0 is a bit unresponsive on my machine. Perhaps i need to make another fresh install.

Will update once i get around to doing it.

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Thanks wingk1314,

 

I will look forward to your report, very curious myself but I don't want to go again through the hassle of installing XP, activating and going through all the update {censored} and then re-installing all my Windows apps.

 

No easy way to transfer a VM from Parallels to VMWare?

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That's funny, I tried both Parallels and VMWare, and Parallels flet a lot better to work with (total oposite of you guys). Faster, with better integration (coherence is great). I'll tryout both new release and see if VMWare is now better :lol:

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Parallels was very slow for me. But I guess thats coz my CPU is slow. At running games, I found Cider was faster. Havent tried VMWare yet.

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For me parallels sucks, no 3d, but in vmware I have the 3d options like dx and ogl, in 3dmark2001se I got 32xx marks on my pentiumd 3,3ghz and gf 5900xt, its 17% of the real native xp score :o

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I updated my license to latest Parallels major version and I'm a bit disappointed about the lack of 3D support: I tried 3 games, Defcon that works; 3dmark2006 (it didn't) and The Moment of Silence, that doesn't work. Now... does I have to figure out the only supported games were the ones published by Parallels?

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For me I am loving the new Parallels 3.0. Haven't had a lot of time to test 3D yet, but the few programs I did use (Second Life and IMVU) run MUCH better then on earlier versions of Parallels, and was about equal in performance to VMWare.

 

What really sets Parallels apart is all the new features (including cross OS application compatibility) that were included in 3.0. I have barely scratched the surface playing with these and I am already blown away. In general performace terms, I would say Parallels 3.0 versus Parallels build 3138 (last final pre-3.0 build) there is roughly about a 30-40% performance increase in my Windows XP VM.

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Hi Here is my take on Parallels 3

 

Huge speedup when accessing data on your mac from windows, the network driver used to be only 10 Mb now 1 Gig. This makes a huge difference in speed when copying files to windows or accessing mac shares.

 

Can see a big improvement in the speed of screen redraws. Windows feel fast now.

 

Will run more benchmarks and tests soon.

 

Cinebench 9.5 Results

 

Parallels 3

 

Cinema 4D Shading Test 334 (5.19% Slower)

OpenGL Software Lighting Test 713 No textures (59.89% Slower)

OpenGL Hardware Lighting Test 426 No textures (87.81% Slower)

 

MAC Native

 

Cinema 4D Shading Test 355

OpenGL Software Lighting Test 1778

OpenGL Hardware Lighting Test 3495

 

Lightwave 9.2 Only reports OpenGL 1.1.0 GDI Generic from Microsoft not 1.5 as they claim

 

Tried to run 3D Mark 2003 , said hardware can not run any of the tests, will try 2001 if I can still find it. I guess this means its not DirectX9 compatible as they claim. Ok found 2000 on an old backup cd. Installed but stops when you want to run and say you need DirectX 7 hardware to run the test.

 

Installed an old DX8.1 game Soldier of fortune Double Helix II , runs fine 100% playable , will look for something more current. Interesting thing is it reports my graphics card as a Nvidia Geforce 1 I have a 7600GS

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VMWare Update:

 

Ok, after using VMware for a while i found some flaws (not sure if it's just me and my windows?) -

 

1) Upgrading to the new beta broke the VMWare tools support. No matter what I do i couldn't upgrade/install the tools. (tried to manual copy the file but couldn't drag drop... perhaps should have tried using USB ... doh! ) EDIT: Had to do a fresh XP install

 

2) there program itself has very solid features. I found the 3D performance to almost double in some games. However, many of the features aren't very well implemented into the program.

For instance, Unity. When ever you want to use that mode, you'd have to click on the button (or menu) to turn it on. I couldn't find ANY automatic feature like parallels.

 

3) there are still some bugs left over by previous versions (which parallels had aswell in 2.5 - not sure aobut 3.0). For instance, some of my Direct3D games won't run from the dock. (they ran once or twice.. then they stopped working for some odd reason?)

 

4) Some programs in Unity doesn't work very well in expose. (see screen shot - notice the RocketDock program)

picture1nw5.th.jpg << notice RocketDock (yeh there's some graphics glitches in the program too.Mainly the alpha transparencies which were both VMWare and Parallels still havn't fixed. And the performance could be better).

 

picture2xu5.th.jpg << notice what happens to RocketDock.

 

5) Drag drop of files doens't work in Unity for me. I have to go back to Single Window View to drag drop files.

 

6) there is a litte gfx delay when you have mulitple windows/programs open in Unity (not a big deal - only happens when you drag something).

 

7) Things in Unity mode are abit buggy and I'm not digging the file launcher at all. It's ugly and inefficient in my POV. The start menu actually appeared once in Unity mode. But then it disappeared the next time i ran the V. machine. :huh:

 

 

that's about it.

Hmm..

after reading these, I might go and do a fresh install of XP on parallels soon.

 

oh! and somethings i definately wished Parallels have:

Shadows in opened windows/apps in coherence mode! I know i'm picky :P

 

and 3D performace really need to improve. 3D performace in VMWare in my case is pretty amazing (For DX8.1 games only) :D

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1) Upgrading to the new beta broke the VMWare tools support. No matter what I do i couldn't upgrade/install the tools. (tried to manual copy the file but couldn't drag drop... perhaps should have tried using USB ... doh! ) EDIT: Had to do a fresh XP install

Worked for me...

 

2) there program itself has very solid features. I found the 3D performance to almost double in some games. However, many of the features aren't very well implemented into the program.

For instance, Unity. When ever you want to use that mode, you'd have to click on the button (or menu) to turn it on. I couldn't find ANY automatic feature like parallels.

I hope it will be implemented in the next beta.

 

[...]

 

5) Drag drop of files doens't work in Unity for me. I have to go back to Single Window View to drag drop files.

Yes, that's annoying :rolleyes: . I'm using the sharing feature when I want to copy files from OS X.

 

6) there is a litte gfx delay when you have mulitple windows/programs open in Unity (not a big deal - only happens when you drag something).

Probably will be fixed.

 

7) Things in Unity mode are abit buggy and I'm not digging the file launcher at all. It's ugly and inefficient in my POV. The start menu actually appeared once in Unity mode. But then it disappeared the next time i ran the V. machine. :rolleyes:

They should definately (sp?) implement something like what Parallels did. I also noticed that the Applications menu doesn't get updated after installing an application. Any way to force it to update?

 

[...]

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I tried a few D3D games on Parallels 3.0 last night and none of them worked. Granted none of them were on the 'tested' list, but they weren't too demanding either. Does anyone gave any success stories?

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Guys remember, Parallels does not support Direct X 9 fully. It is much more stable at 8.1. That means the latest games the require directx 9 are not going to work quite right. Older games requiring dx 8 should run much better.

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wingk1314:

Thanks for your report. I couldn't resist the temptation and I tried VMware Fusion Beta 4 myself with a fresh Windows XP install, the whole updates and my software. I agree with all you said on your report, I encountered many of the problems you mention.

 

In addition, when working with Fusion, after a while Exposé and Dashboard for some reason stopped working on my machine. This happened several times. Unity is still buggy and while I had good performance on the Virtual Machine I think that I'm sticking with Parallels for now.

 

I will save the Fusion VM on a DVD and I may give Fusion another try on the next build if they fix some of the Unity bugs and it stops crashing Exposé and Dashboard on my machine.

 

Thanks to all who reported!

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ok so I tried Parallels 3.0 and I'm not pleased at all. Everything feels slow and unresponsive and the 3D support is no support at all. None of the game I've tried work, even some very old one like Deus Ex (Unreal T engine).

I'm trying VMWare right now...

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Update #2: Parallels 3.0

 

OK. So I didn't like this version after i upgraded from 2.5. The 3D gfx didn't work 90% of the time. I decided to give it another chance and did another fresh install. To my surprise, the 3D performance was alot better.

 

I havn't noticed much differences in coherence. Accessing shared folders are a little snappier.

I wonder why they have to make a network drive for accessing the VM files? I find it a bit sluggish.

And finally accessing some DirectX games from the dock works now.

 

The new smart select feature is not so useful for me since 95% of the apps i use has an OSX version/equivalent. But it works so that's a plus.

 

In my opinion. For full time use, go with parallels as it's less buggy and the features are well implemented.

VMWare just isn't ready for it yet although on my machine VMware's performance is better than parallels. Parallels wins in productivity and ease of use.

 

EDIT:

Has anyone tried CS1.6 yet?

I've tried it, but can't get it to run in OpenGL mode. It just hangs while loading.

DX mode has way alot of gfx glitches :)

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Is it possible to lock the windows screen resolution, like 800x600 in parallels / vmware?

vmware does not have dx8.1 options, lack of pixel shader, but parallels has it (has own some dx files), so there is the speed difference! 3dmark2001se confirms the lack. I played farcry on parallels and gta3, ignition, f1-2001 on vmware

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