Games on Parallels

Hi,
I have an iMac 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4gb of memory.
I plan to play this game:
http://anno.uk.ubi.com/pc/index.php
I was trying the demo and I was getting all kinds of sluggish performances. These are the suggested requirements:
suggested system requirements:
Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB (GeForce 8800 or better), 6 GB HDD, Windows XP SP3/Vista.
Now that looks like I should be able to play with no problems, so I'm thinking maybe Parallels isn't the best solution.
Any ideas?

It does work, I did it before I had Window's 7.
Use Bootcamp to separate the Mac partition (doesn't even require the xp cd), reboot the xp cd and instead of just installing it, delete the partition the mac set aside for windows. Create a new one, format it, let windows install to it. Once it boots up after install, insert bootcamp cd and install drivers.
In fact, the hardware you would use for the game, you could even go strait to the video card's website and download the exact same driver your windows counter parts use directly from the company that makes it.

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WHEN I PLAY A GAME ON PARALLELS, MY SCREEN BECOMES SMALL!!!!

If i play a game that requires a full screen, my screen automatically beomes smaller. Why is this?

Since Parallels is not an Apple product you should post your question on the Parallels forums, rather than an Apple forum that focuses on compatbility issues between Macs and Windows:
http://forums.parallels.com

Macbook lag when using Parallel Desktop

I always use Parallel Desktop since when college portal website only can be accessed by Internet Explorer, so I installed Windows Xp. The thing is it really uses a lot my RAM memory, only 20 MB of Ram is free. In Parallel Desktop configuration, I have changed the RAM slot for virtual machine, I just allocated 1064 MB Ram, and it ticked for " the best performance" or in other words I let the processor to do the adjust automatically so my Macbook can run at its best performance. I have also changed the processor in virtual machine to 2(dual-core) but still my macbook lags when I run Parallel Desktop. My HDD is 160GB and I have occupied more than of it, like 60 GB left. I have a lot of vital programs so I wonder if this thing is a major cause of this lagging problem. Any advice what should I do to speed up my macbook performance back?

If you want your Mac to run better, turn Parallels down to 1 core and bump the ram down to 512Mb. Having the RAM up high and the cores up high will allow Parallels to grab more of the resources, thus slowing down the whole computer. Limit parallels to less, you shouldn't give it 50% or more of your machine unless all you do is Window stuff.
Check your graphics config too, if your not playing games in Parallels, turn off 3D graphics and only give it 16 or 32Mb VRAM.

Installing Windows 7 Upgrade Edition on a new Macbook Pro

Hi all,
I am a recent convert to Apple after becoming more and more disillusioned with Windows for the past 10 or so years. I have ordered a shiny new 15" 2011 MBP and can't wait for it to arrive!
My issue is that I am going to need to install Windows for occassional use with certain software as well as occassional gaming. I have a legitimate copy of Windows XP (as well as ME and 98) which I am perfectly happy with - However I understand that the new Macbooks will no longer support WinXP via Bootcamp?
I am a student and have recently purchased a copy of the Windows 7 upgrade edition to rectify this, but I have now read that you cannot perform a "clean" install from the upgrade edition?
I'm afraid I am finding this all very confusing. I do own a legitimate copy of WinXP, and am eligable for the Win7 upgrade, so any help getting this installed on my new Macbook? I would hate to have to keep my ancient desktop around just for Windows, as this would defeat the object of my new purchase.
I have found the following guide;
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgra de-media.aspx
Does anyone know if this will work in my case or has anyone tried on a brand new MBP?
Thanks in advace for any advice and guidance you can offer.

I have read in an issue of Mac Format about installing Windows in VirtualBox? I'm not really sure how this differs from using BootCamp and what the advantages/disadvantages are...
Virtualization through Virtualbox (or Parallels or Fusion,) allows you to create a "virtual machine." In this virtual machine, you install Windows or Linux or whatever OS, just like you would a physical machine. But the "machine" is just some software and you view the machine as window within OSX. Think of it like a word processing program like Microsoft Word. You run Word to create documents. You can have multiple documents, but the documents can only be "run" within Word. And you can have multiple documents open at the same time and you can switch back and forth between documents without having to reboot OSX. So it is with virtualization. You can create multiple virtual machines (if you have enough hard drive space, just like Word.) You can run multiple virtual machines (if you have enough RAM, just like Word.) It's just that the "documents" are now operating systems rather than word processing or spreadsheets. The big advantage is that you don't have to reboot out of OSX in order to use Windows.
...i'm looking to mostly use windows for gaming, would this method be suitable for that as i see I would not have to restart the system.
And then we come to the disadvantage. A virtual machine has "virtual hardware". The "guest" operating system doesn't actually "see" the physical hardware directly. Instead a virtual motherboard, virtual hard drive, virtual keyboard, etc, are "presented" to the guest OS. The virtualization software must "interpret" the requests from the guest OS into things the physical hardware must do. As with any interpretation, there is a delay. Think of it like if you spoke only French and you talk through an interpreter to someone who only spoke Swahili. It works, but is slower than if you were able to speak Swahili. For most things, this is fine. The weak link is the virtual video card. A simple game like solitaire doesn't need much graphics power so the "slowness" is not an issue. But a FPS game like Call Of Duty or Crysis, where graphics performance is critical, a virtual machine often chokes. So the use of virtualization in gaming really depends on the game.
BTW, there is another technology called emulation that is similar to virtualization, but in general is slower than virtualization. Emulation is used when the CPU required for the guest OS is different than what the physical host has. For example, if you wanted to run Windows on a PowerPC Mac. This is why the Mac changing to Intel CPUs was so exciting because it allowed the use of the faster virtualization technology for Macs to run Windows.
So the decision to use Boot Camp or virtualization depends on your needs. Me personally, I work with virtual machines daily due to my work with testing servers and such. With virtualization I am able to run several virtual machines simultaneously and so can simulate a whole network all within my Macbook. My work doesn't involve much graphics tasks with games, Photoshop, video, etc, so virtualization is fine. If your game is a FPS, then you probably wouldn't find virtualization acceptable. But "simple" games it may be fine. Virtualbox is free, but Parallels and Fusion sometimes do better with certain games. Parallels and Fusion have trial versions so you may want to try them as well. If you do, when you create the virtual machines, do NOT activate Windows until you're sure you're going to purchase. The various products do NOT use the same file format so converting a virtual machine to another format is tricky. If you do activate Windows, then decide to use a different product but are unable to convert the virtual machine, it's not a big deal to call Microsoft for the reactivation, but it is inconvenient, so better to avoid activation until you're sure.

Hello everyone.. I just purchased a macbook air 13" Just have a question regarding gaming

i was wondering if my mac can handle running Rome total war gold edition ?

The MBA will run virtually any game (some on OS X and some on Windows). The question is how fast it will run. Try it and see. The HD 5000 graphics processor is impressive.
For Windows games the Parallels VM will slow down the execution of the game so you might consider Bootcamp for that. You want to dedicate all the resources to Windows while you run the game. That said, it will run under Parallels.
Be cognizant of heat and do what you can to keep the air flowing well. A laptop cooler may help. https://discussions.apple.com/message/2093137#2093137
Also check out CrossOver Games.

The best option for running Windows on a Mac?

Though I'm loving my MacBook Pro, the only thing I would like to improve is the capacity for playing games. And for that I really need Windows.
So, I have a copy of Windows XP, and I have a copy of Parallel. I've installed Parallel and Windows XP, but it's limited and I can't figure out how to make my graphics card (which is 256MB) work with it. It seems to need to use the Parallel Graphics. So, some questions:
1) Is there a way to play the best Windows games using Parallel?
2) Is there a better alternative? One of my friends mentioned Bootcamp to me. Would that be better? Is there any program that would allow me to run Windows and use the full power of my system to play the games?

For gaming... your best option is to use BootCamp. Parallels is an excellent program... and it runs Windows well under most conditions... but it is still not great for gaming (even with version 3). BootCamp is free. It allows you to boot directly into Windows making your MacBook Pro a full fledged Windows PC. Games will run just as well as they would on any similarly spec'd PC notebook. The BootCamp utility in OS X will allow you to create a Windows driver CD for all of the hardware. You will get full speed 3D, ect. Also... you can use your BootCamp installation of Windows in Parallels... So, after you install Windows via BootCamp, you can delete your previous "Parallels Only" Windows installation and go through the process of installing a new version of Windows in Parallels... you will be able to point it to the copy of Windows you have set up in BootCamp. This way... when you want to play games... you can boot into Windows and run them at full speed... but for those times you are in OS X and you just want to launch an application that does not need all the 3d power, you can launch that same copy of Windows through Parallels.

Gaming: How Did They Design Crysis and Maxed It to Run Future Hardware?

Hi. If anyone has experience creating photorealistic games, how did Crytek design Crysis I to be maxed out for future hardware. What hardware were they using in the first place to run Crysis at max in their offices when it was developed if the hardware didn't exist yet? If they used a system with multiple systems on working in parallel, couldn't consumers copy that system to add to their existing ones (or pool systems with friends just run it at max while waiting for the hardware to do so. But so far at maximum resolution, 2000+ by 2000+, hardware today still struggles with it.). This question is also for Crysis 2. Thanks in advance.
Gbu

Hi. Interesting. They didn't have any special game farm parallel rig of some sort? When they tested it in it's maximum 2000+ x 2000+ resolution at very high settings, they were actually playing and testing it at slide show framerates of 1 or 2 fps in their offices then? That's a pain to develop.

How do u change A MacPro's prefs & settings with a x1900xt card

I've looked everywhere. The newest driver for the ATi card will not install on a Intel mac.
I'd like to be able to change my prefs when i want since I'm getting terrible results from my SpyderPro calibration unit.
Is there anyway to do this please? System Prefs simply does not have anything but the basic ability, i.e., rez, color profile etc.
Thanks

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Parallels actually presents Windows with a "virtual" graphics card that it then interprets and sends off to the real graphics card. Windows, run with Parallels–not native, never actually communicates directly with your graphics card. This allows you to do things like run things in a window, change the size of the window, even run the MacOS at the same time. Otherwise Windows would expect to have exclusive control of the card, which it doesn't have when you're using Parallels.
This is the same reason that things like graphics acceleration under Parallels is such a problem and it becomes very difficult to play games using Parallels. Unfortunately this also means that you won't be able to use the ATI utility to any success while using Parallels. I'm actually surprised it even runs, it should just quit saying something to the effect of "You need to have an ATI card to run this utility..." If it does run, I'm sure it's just allowing you to adjust things that any graphics card can do, but it is changing the settings for the virtual graphics card not the real one.

Upgrade processor macbook pro 13"

I have a basic (no add-ons) macbook pro 13" mid 2012 that is nearing it's 1st birthday. Although there is nothing wrong with the performance (with less than 4 applications running), I have found that I am playing a lot of high graphic games latelly that run slow and poor quality. I am already rapidly increasing my RAM from 4GB to 16GB for parallels, and I was asking here if there was any way to upgrade my Processor speed, (also, what is a GPU compared to a CPU?). I have also found that my computer heats up a lot with high performance use, and I would also like to know if I can upgrade the fan?!
If you could tell me if this is at all possible as well as the price and anything else I can do to aid it, I would be grateful.
just curiosity, does any one know how much would be required to play high performance windows games through parallels aswell?!?! Has it ever been done before?

You can't upgrade the processor. It's soldered to the logic board and you would have to replace your logic board with another one which is compatible with the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
A GPU is a graphic card (in the case of the Mid 2012 MacBook Pro, the Intel HD Graphics 4000), and the CPU is the processor of your computer.
Respecting to the fan, it's normal that your Mac heats up when you are doing heavy tasks with it. If fans turn on automatically when it happens, there's nothing else to do. Your Mac is working correctly.
Respecting to Parallels, the problem is not how much RAM you can assign to the virtual machine but the GPU. The performance on a virtual machine is much worse when you want to do tasks that involve your graphic card. In this case, I would recommend you to install Windows with Boot Camp, onto a second volume of your hard drive. See > http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

Combat Arms on a Mac??

I'm thinking about purchasing a Mac laptop but I need to know if I would be able to play Combat Arms smoothly via parallels or BootCamp.
Specs to play the game are as follows.
MINIMUM
OS....................Windows 2000
CPU...................Pentium 3 - 1GHz+
MEMORY................256Mb RAM
VIDEO CARD............GeForce 2 MX
DIRECT X..............Version 9.0C or later
HARD DISK SPACE.......2.0 Gb
INTERNET CONNECTION...Cable/DSL
RECOMMENDED
OS....................Windows XP or better
CPU...................Pentium 4 - 2.4GHz+
MEMORY................512Mb RAM
VIDEO CARD............GeForce FX 5600 or better
DIRECT X..............Version 9.0C or later
HARD DISK SPACE.......2.0 Gb
INTERNET CONNECTION...Cable/DSL
So again my questions are
(1) Can I play the game via parallel software or BootCamp?
(2) Based on the system requirements listed above, which Mac laptop(s) would be able to handle the game smoothly?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Eric

1) the previous generation macbook? or current aluminum unibody macbook?
2) going to run XP Pro SP3
3) yeah i thought so, thanks for confirming!
so the previous "non aluminum unibody" macbook would run it okay? The reason i ask is because from what i understand the new macbook has insanely better graphics than the one before...
thoughts?

Can I play games on my MacBook Pro by using an external graphics card and using windows via a software called "Parallels Desktop" or do I have to use Boot Camp (I have both installed)

Can I use Windows Parallel to play games? I mean will it not get enough power? Like I clearly remember that I read some where one my system that the Paralels is getting only 1 GB of my ram. I have the mid 2012 MacBook Pro, the $1500 one.

You shouldn't use Parallels to pay games. If you want to play games you need to install Windows via Bootcamp so that it has access to all the resources available.

Parallels or a PC for Games?

I have an iMac from 2011 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 / 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3:
I thought that instead of buying a new windows machine that it might be more prudent to get parallels with Win7 or something in order to play the game Wolfenstein from 2009, but I'm not sure if my graphics car will be good enough?
http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=64&game=Wolfenstein
I would also like to play the one just released as well, but am not sure about the 32/64 bit thing. Can the Wolfenstein from 2009 run on Win in 64 bit mode, can I even have Windows in 32 bit on Mavericks, which is 64bit?
I am also unsure if my graphics card (AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB) will work with the new wolfenstein?
Alternatively would it not just be less hassle to get an all-in-one MSI PC machine to play them?
Thanks

Hi Hamper,
You're right, before buying a PC let's try with your iMac: you can use actually Parallels with both Win7 32 bits and Win7 64 bits without problems (I use currently Parallels with OSX 64 bits and Win7 32 bits).
The only difference you will see with using 64bits is that your Win7 will not be limited with 4GB RAM use (the 32 bits version will). Note: think about configuring Parallels to put at least 8GB memory for Win7 to run.
So the best way for you is to get one license from Win7 (32/64 bits, you'll get 2 DVDs in the box), install these two OS on Parallels and see how Wolfenstein 2009 is running. Try the Win7 32 bits first, since this game is likely to be design for 32 bits OS, so it should run better on it. Wolfenstein 2009 will be able to run also on a 64 bits environment, but with lower perfs due to compatibility mode needed to run.
If your framerate is not good enough, you can try to dual boot your iMac with Win7 32 bits or 64 bits (using Bootcamp is nice and easy to implement - Note : for Win 7 32 bits dual boot use Bootcamp v4, for Win 7 64 bits use Bootcamp v5. It avoids the OS virtualization and consequently brings more performance.
Now for newest games it is quite difficult to say if your graphic card will work fine. 512MB is quite light for new games as they recommend at least 1GB Graphic Card. If you focus on Mac Games version, that should be fine, since they are normally optimized for it. For PC Games with heavy needs (FPS / RTS / and everything dealing with anti-aliasing, etc), well, your Graphic card won't enable you to play in "Ultra" settings.
One thing to have in mind, while playing heavy 3D games, keep an eye on the temperature of your components, since the thermal dissipation is the key: meaning that your workstation components will go to high temperature and if the air flow is not enough your performance will decrease to a suitable operating heat level. This is typically the case of laptops and all-in-one workstations, where the output air flow is not enough to evacuate the heat by playing new 3D games, so your framerate drops to the ground. You have pretty nice free widgets for OSX to monitor your components heat level.
And finally if your iMac Graphic Card is not powerful enough to play recent games my advice comes with 2 options:
Option 1: do not play current 3D games;
Option 2: build a Minitower PC config with good fan system, for a cost of 600 to 700$. You should focus on Graphic Card for a budget of around 150$ (Radeon or nVIDIA chips), it should run all new Games in Good Quality. Before buying a PC Graphic Card, search on internet its benchmarks on games: the memory capacity is sometimes not a good indicator i.e. nVIDIA GT (bad perf) vs GTX (good perf) versions
And by the way, nice iMac you have, enjoy!

Leopard, Parallels and Games

Anybody here running any games by using Parallels? Like COD4? I am so sick and tired of having to reboot into Bootcamp to play games. I wish Mac and game companies could just get along and release the same games on Mac that are on PC....ARGH!!!

Hi,
since Parallels and Fusion have only support for DirectX 8 and experimental support for DX9 at the moment, you don't have another possibility than using BootCamp.
Maybe we see improved gaming capabilities with Parallels and Fusion in the (not so far) future.
Regards
Stefan

How do I get my game to work in Parallels?

I purchased parallels to run programes in Windows XP and I upgraded to Parallels 3.0 to have the ability to play DirectX games. I loaded Empire Earth II Platimun Edition. When I put the disc in to play I get a popup message to insert the original disk. It is the original disc. I have 2 copies of the game and put the other copy in (original also) and received the same request. Has anyone succeeded in playing Empire Earth? How did u do it? I imagine my next hurdle will be networking EE in a LAN party.
Thanks for any help.

You should visit the Parallels Support Forum for help with this issue.
http://forums.parallels.com
You might also check with the manufacturer of the game for support.

Bootcamp or Parallels for windows games?

I only use Bootcamp generally to play windows games on my Mac. It is a pain to have to constantly reboot each time to play the game and then switch back to my Mac side and vice versa. I just learned about Parallels for mac. Is it worth it to change to this system to avoid the rebooting? Basically the most important concern: Will the games run as well using Parallels as they do on the Bootcamp only version?
Thanx for any help?

Hi,
Parallels (and VMWare Fusion, too) have only support for DirectX 8.1 with experimental (limited) support for DirectX 9.
Since almost all newer games rely on at least DX9 and DX10, if the hardware supports it, these games simply won't run in Parallels/Fusion.
Nonetheless Parallels/Fusion are great applications for running Windows alongside OSX, but they are not very suitable for gaming in Windows.
Stefan

Games on Parallels

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