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Conclusion Both VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop for Mac are excellent products, and both allow you to run Windows XP and Vista quite well. In the end, your decision as to which product you should take into account what's most important to you: speed, footprint, graphics capabilities, features, user interface, OS you want to run, and more all come into play. While the Vista "penalty" that we saw in prior tests is now mostly gone (presumably because both Vista SP1 made improvements as well as both of these virtualization products), we would advise that you stick with Windows XP given how much better it runs overall (not to mention how much less annoying it is). When it comes to whether you should use multiple processors or 64-bit virtual machines that depends on your use. If you have a real need for either, and can articulate a reason for it, than use them. They do work well. That said, if you don't have a specific need, then don't bother, it's not worth it; just stick with Windows XP on a single virtual processor. Many people have the feeling of "more is better," but clearly when it comes to RAM in the virtual machine, that is not necessarily the case. More RAM means longer virtual machine launch times, suspends and resumes. For most users, 1GB of virtual machine RAM will work best. Use more than that only if you really know you need it. And, here's how things look in general terms for each of the test suites that we ran:  Figure 19: Chart: Performance Winner in Each Test Suite In the majority of overall averages of our tests, Parallels Desktop is the clear winner running 14-20% faster than VMware Fusion. The one exception is for those that need to run Windows XP, 32-bit on 2 virtual processors, VMware Fusion runs about 10% faster than Parallels Desktop. And, while both products these days have very little CPU footprint, Parallels Desktop had a surprisingly small RAM footprint, which was actually typically lower than the amount of RAM configured for the virtual machine. Presumably, once Windows actually needed more of the allocated RAM, the actual footprint on the Mac would increase. Finally, for gamers, experiences will differ with each game. In our tests, MacBook users will have a better experience with Parallels Desktop, presumably because of the lower end graphics capabilities of the hardware. Beyond that, you should look at each game and what the feedback from users from both the Parallels and VMware communities. One thing is clear, given the track record, expect Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion to both keep getting better and better. |
