Which is better? VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 6?

Hi all
I have had my iMac i5 for 3 days now and I am starting to get the hang of it ater coverting from PeeCee....
But I have some application that I need to run in windows, mainly my pinnacle software (dazzle creator 90 and media streamer similar to apple TV).
I would like to access and run windows via the mac os but I am stuck on which software to buy. Should I et VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 6.
I would use bootcamp but from what I have read I can only run OSx or Windows XP
Does anyone here use either software and recommend which is best or if there is another similar software? I am thinking of selling the streamer to get apple tv but only if I can't get this to work...

Forgot to mention that I have found 2 different versions of parallel's 6
there is:
Parallels Desktop 6 £59.99
and
Parallels Desktop 6 Switch to Mac Edition £79.99
are these the same software?

Similar Messages

VMware Fusion 6 vs Parallel desktop 9? Which is better?

I am planning to install Windows in my Mac. Can anyone suggest which one is better between VMWare Fusion 6 and Parallel Desktop 9. I use the window only for running the internet explorer and plan to setup Windows 7 Home. Thanks

Hello jsujana,
To answer your question, a free alternative as mentioned above is not too harsh of an idea. On the other hand, if you did want to purchase VMware of Parallel right now, I would definitly suggest Parallel.
They both are very similar programs, but here is a comparrison chart for you to make the ultimate decision based on your needs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VMware_Fusion_and_Parallels_Desktop
The only reason I'd suggest one of these well known Virtual Machines over the free versions suggested above is for coherence mode.
I do want to ask, why are you doing all of this to simply run Internet Explorer?
Best of luck!

VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop Question

I have a quick question about VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 5.0 for Mac. Will a windows vista reinstall dvd run on either of these programs? Thanks in advance.

Forgot to mention that I have found 2 different versions of parallel's 6
there is:
Parallels Desktop 6 £59.99
and
Parallels Desktop 6 Switch to Mac Edition £79.99
are these the same software?

VMWare Fusion vs. Parallels Desktop for Mac + Captivate?

I'm likely to purchase a new MacBook Pro in the very near future, and wish to run Captivate on it. I've seen a few posts in this forum by folks using VMWare Fusion with mixed results. The posts are a couple of years old, so I'm curious to get the latest thoughts.
1. Which software -- VMW or Parallels -- would you recommend to run Captivate, and why?
2. Which version of Windows should I purchase?
3. What configuration do you recommend for the Mac: RAM, processor speed, hard drive speed (7200 vs 5400 rpm)?
Thanks.

HI,
I use VMWare Fusion on a souped up PC platform. I had been away from the MAC platform for over 10 years and had to allow myself time to get used to the new MAC OS interface. I found that switching between VMWare Fusion and the MAC OS was straightforward - after I got used to things. Since I don't want to invest in a new Adobe Technical Suite and a new Adobe CS4 Master Collection, I use VMWare Fusion on a daily basis.
I would much rather run everything on a real MAC, but since that alternative is not economic (nor are all features available) I am happy to run the MAC OS with my graphics card, and still have the full benefits of the graphics card when I'm running Photoshop and Illustrator from VMWare Fusion.

Vmware fusion 6 vs Parallels desktop 9

I'm going to install Windows 7/8.1 and Linux on my OS X Mavericks so I need virtualizing environment as VMware fusion or Parallels desktop?
What do you think ? Better ?

Hello jsujana,
To answer your question, a free alternative as mentioned above is not too harsh of an idea. On the other hand, if you did want to purchase VMware of Parallel right now, I would definitly suggest Parallel.
They both are very similar programs, but here is a comparrison chart for you to make the ultimate decision based on your needs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VMware_Fusion_and_Parallels_Desktop
The only reason I'd suggest one of these well known Virtual Machines over the free versions suggested above is for coherence mode.
I do want to ask, why are you doing all of this to simply run Internet Explorer?
Best of luck!

Which is better, VM Fusion or Parallels?

which one of these emulation packages are currently better and should stay on top?
does one run more window apps than the other?

Click here and select the one which best fits your needs.
(52838)

VMware Fusion vs. Parallels (with Boot Camp) -- help please!

Hello. I have just reinstalled Mac OS X (Leopard) on my MacBook and am looking to install Windows XP SP2. I will be installing a Boot Camp partition -- I know that much -- but I also want to use Parallels or Fusions so that I have the option of running the Boot Camp partition within OS X. Somehow, over my years as a Mac user, I have acquired both of these applications (Fusion and Parallels), and I was wondering if anyone has any information on the differences between the two. Two questions:
1.) As I just mentioned, I'm just looking for any information on the differences between the two apps -- what features one offers that the the other doesn't -- why I might want to choose one over the other -- and so forth.
2.) Since I have both apps, would it be possible to have both installed at the same time? In other words, could I have both Fusion and Parallels installed on my computer, and then, when it comes time to open Windows, choose which app I want to open and use? (not sure there'd be any point to this, but just in theory, could it be done?)
Thanks in advance -- any info in regard to either question is much appreciated.

Thanks for the replies. Although I've never used Fusion before, I've installed Parallels with Boot Camp partition three or four times before on this computer, and it has always worked great for me, so I know I want to use Boot Camp. And as far as the application goes, sounds like I'll be using Parallels, mainly because it's what I'm used to. That Wikipedia link was exactly what I was looking for -- I had checked Wikipedia before I posted the topic here, but I didn't find that comparison page. Anyways, they look about the same (Parallels and Fusion, that is) for anything I'd be concerned with, but where there were any differences, they seemed to work in favor of Parallels (except for Linux-related features, in which Fusion seemed to have the upper hand, but I don't use Linux). So, again, thanks for taking the time to respond -- much appreciated. Have a good one.

VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop Benchmark Comparison

This is a quickie benchmark of VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop using Super PI, PC Mark 05, and Passmark.
VMWare Fusion 36932
Parallels Desktop 3094 Beta 2
Notes:
Both virtual machines were allocated with large 10+ GB virtual disks and 640MB of RAM. The VMWare CPU was configured with two processors. The Parallels CPU was configured with 1 (two is not available). VMWare reported the CPU as 1 physical, 2 logical processors running at 2.66 GHz while Parallels reported 1 physical, 1 logical processor running at 9.6 GHz (the combined speed of all four cores on the Mac Pro). The max observed CPU utilization in activity monitor when running under VMWare was 200% and max under Parallels was 173%.
I chose not to compare 1 VMWare CPU vs. 1 Parallels CPU. While Parallels does not support SMP or multithreaded processes on multiple processors the CPU utilization on the Mac went well above 1 core (173%). For this comparison, I wanted to see results of max processing based on what the two vendors have delivered, as opposed to benchmarking the underlying "virtual or hypervisor cpu" on a 1:1 basis. This explains why VMWare was 2x faster than Parallels on some CPU tests.
Both of these products are beta. VMWare is running in debug mode (can not be turned off in this beta).
Caveat emptor on these stats. This was an unscientific exercise to satisfy my curiosity. Some of the extraordinary differences are highlighted with <--.
Platform:
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7300GT
Disk 1 - OS X, 73GB Raptor
Disk 2 - dedicated disk where each virtual machine image was created separate from the OS or any OS-related virtual memory files.
VMWare and Parallels guest OS: Windows XP Professional, SP 2
Comparison Benchmrk
VMWare Fusion 36932 and Parallels Desktop 3094 Beta 2
Super PI Parallels VMWare
512K 8s 9s
1M 20s 21s
4M 1m 57s 2m 03s
PC Mark 05 Parallels VMWare
CPU Test Suite N/A N/A
Memory Test Suite N/A N/A
Graphics Test Suite N/A N/A
HDD Test Suite N/A N/A
HDD - XP Startup 5.0 MB/s 19.54 MB/s <--
Physics and 3D Test failed Test failed
Transparent Windows Test failed 69.99 Windows/s
3D - Pixel Shader Test failed Test failed
Web Page Rendering 3.58 Pages/s 2.34 Pages/s
File Decrypt 71.73 MB/s 67.05 MB/s
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines 179.92 FPS 111.73 FPS
HDD - General Usage 4.82 MB/s 42.01 MB/s <--
Multithread Test 1 / Audio Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / Video Encoding Test failed Test failed
Multithread Test 2 / Text Edit 152.85 Pages/s 138.48 Pages/s
Multithread Test 2 / Image DeComp 5.91 MPixels/s 35.4 MPixels/s <--
Multithread Test 3 / File Comp 3.22 MB/s 6.03 MB/s
Multithread Test 3 / File Encrypt 19.0 MB/s 33.26 MB/s <--
Multithread Test 3 / HDD - Virus Scan 27.91 MB/s 25.49 MB/s
Multithread Test 3 / Mem Lat - Rnd 16MB 5.34 MAcc/s 6.63 MAcc/s
File Comp N/A N/A
File DeComp N/A N/A
File Encrypt N/A N/A
File Decrypt N/A N/A
Image DeComp N/A N/A
Audio Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / File Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / File Encrypt N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / File DeComp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / File Decrypt N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / Audio DeComp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / Image DeComp N/A N/A
Memory Read - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 4 kB N/A N/A
Transparent Windows N/A N/A
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines N/A N/A
Graphics Memory - 128 Lines N/A N/A
WMV Video Playback N/A N/A
3D - Fill Rate Multi Texturing N/A N/A
3D - Polygon Throughput Multiple Lights N/A N/A
3D - Pixel Shader N/A N/A
3D - Vertex Shader N/A N/A
HDD - XP Startup N/A N/A
HDD - Application Loading N/A N/A
HDD - General Usage N/A N/A
HDD - Virus Scan N/A N/A
HDD - File Write N/A N/A
Processor Intel Core 2 9653 MHz Processor Unknown 2661 MHz
Physical / Logical CPUs "1 Physical, 1 Logical" "1 Physical, 2 Logical"
MultiCore 1 Processor Core Multicore 2 Processor Cores
HyperThreading N/A N/A
Graphics Card Generic VGA Generic VGA
Graphics Driver Parallels Video Driver VMWare SVGA II
Co-operative adapters No No
DirectX Version 9.0c 9.0c
System Memory 640 MB 640MB
Motherboard Manufacturer N/A Intel Corporation
Motherboard Model N/A 440BX Desktop Reference Platform
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows XP
Passmark Parallels VMWare
CPU - Integer Math (MOPS) 112.35 230.31 <--
CPU - Floating Point Math (MOPS) 280.46 588.33 <--
CPU - Find Prime Numbers (OPS) 446.37 676.99 <--
CPU - SSE/3DNow! (MMPS) 2118.56 4737.13 <--
CPU - Comp (KB/s) 2994.16 5952.34 <--
CPU - Encrypt (MB/s) 18.09 36.27 <--
CPU - Image Rotation (IRPS) 598.21 1184.41 <--
CPU - String Sorting (TPS) 2118.81 3672.59 <--
Graphics 2D - Lines (TPS) 220.71 25.15 <--
Graphics 2D - Rectangles (TPS) 189.74 61.8 <--
Graphics 2D - Shapes (TPS) 39.54 13.71 <--
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text (OPS) 190.39 75.88 <--
Graphics 2D - GUI (OPS) 439.77 63.72 <--
Memory - Allocate Small Block (MB/s) 2533.83 2526.21
Memory - Read Cached (MB/s) 1960.5 1906.27
Memory - Read Uncached (MB/s) 1871.79 1826.08
Memory - Write (MB/s) 1687.81 1545.43
Memory - Large RAM (OPS) 60.99 46.37
Disk - Sequential Read (MB/s) 102.11 76.45 <--
Disk - Sequential Write (MB/s) 58.33 50.9
Disk - Rnd Seek + RW (MB/s) 51.4 40.4
CPU Mark 711.08 1432.72 <--
2D Graphics Mark 743.31 176.5 <--
Memory Mark 599.94 580.38
Disk Mark 766.11 606.7
PassMark Rating 557.27 637.35<br>

Thanks for posting these numbers - it's an interesting comparison.
I would expect the final VMWare fusion performance numbers to be quite a bit better than that of Parallels - they have almost a decade's worth of experience more than the Parallels folks in this arena, and a much larger development team to boot.
Once VMWare Fusion is released to the public, I think that you'll see a clearer distinction between the two products. VMWare will continue to appeal to the professional customer, with a more robust feature set and corporate-friendly features (and a correspondingly higher price tag); Parallels will fall more into the consumer/VirtualPC-replacement market. It will be interesting to see how Parallels will be affected when (and if) VMWare player is ported to OS X.
Interesting about the Parallels performance stats on a native partition - looks like almost enough reason to avoid the bootcamp partition approach altogether. Sharing a native windows installation with a VM in parallels is a pretty scary situation in any case, as the two environments have entirely different hardware configurations. Do-able, but there is some black magic involved (if you want to see an example of what I mean, try to move a windows installation from one machine to another w/different hardware sometime - it ain't pretty); I wouldn't try this in a production scheme unless I had REALLY good backups.

VMware Fusion or Parallels for running Windows 7 on a portable HD?

So I have a shiny new MBP 13" with the Haswell chip and I'm trying to totally replace my Dell PC laptop in everyday life. I cloned my Dell's HD to a USB 3.0 portable HD and am looking at either VMware Fusion 6 or Parallels Desktop 8 to create a VM to run Win7 off of that portable HD. I only have a 256Gb SSD in my MBP, so I don't want to fill it up with all my Windows stuff.
Here are my two questions:
1 - Is this possible to do?
2 - Based on how I want to use this, does anyone know which VM platform is bes, Fusion 6 or Parallels Desktop 8?
Thanks!

Niether. First try Oracle Virtualbox. It is free and runs all OS as good as the paid for virtual machine software programs.
EDIT:
Sorry I did not at first read your whole post.
You can use any of the 3 virtual machine software programs for running most all versions of Windows on your Mac and they all work quite well. But you can not use a version of Windows that came on your Dell PC on any other computer, whether in a virtual machine or installed directly to the hard drive of that computer (Mac or PC), as that version of Windows is tied to your Dell PC and will only work on a Dell PC. It is illegal to put it on some other computer than the one it came on.
So to run Windows on your Mac, Natively or in a virtual machine, you will need to buy a retail copy, or a System Builders OEM copy, of the version of Windows you want to use.

Which is better (Boot Camp) or (Parallel / VMware Fusion)???

Hi guys,
I want to install Windows along OS X...
now what is better?
to install Windows via Boot Camp or via Parallel / VMware fusion??
and if through one of the virtual machine softwares, which is BETTER?? the Parallel for Desktop or the VMware fusion one???
Thank you

Guitarcal wrote:
I use both boot camp and vmware fusion. A neat feature of vmware fusion is you can access your boot camp partition as a virtual machine from vmware. This way, you can have both. I believe parallels might also let you do that but I have never used it. This has been helpful to me if I need to access a file from the boot camp partition quickly and easily without rebooting my computer.
I agree with dwb that xp is probably going to be the best os to run through a virtualization software.
I honestly don't think you can go wrong with either parallels or vmware fusion. There is also a FREE software package created by sun called VirtualBox.
Here is the link to there home page: http://www.virtualbox.org/
I hear and read that it is excellent as well.
Hope this helps.
I just installed parallels and you can use your bootcamp partition for the vm with parallels as well. Its pretty slick. Use it for light applications with parallel, reboot to bootcamp for graphics intensive ones.
Cheers.

Parallels vs. Fusion - Which is better (lighter) on my Mac?

Can someone give me insight into which is cleaner on my Mac?
Which one works better with the mac?
thanx

LukeD wrote:
Having just gone from Parallels Desktop to Fusion 3, I can tell you that Fusion 3 is much easier on the system.
I own both of them and have since they came out. I haven't used Fusion as much because the early versions had bugs that would take 100% of my CPU, even when Fusion wasn't actually running. Plus, Fusion advertised accelerated graphics but, after purchasing, informed me that my Macbook didn't qualify for that.
Fusion puts its program files where they are supposed to go. Parallels Desktop puts the files all over the place, which makes it very difficult to uninstall.
Both programs put files where they are supposed to go. Both put the application portions in /Applications and the system portions in various system folders. Because both rely on system extensions, both need to be uninstalled using provided uninstallers.
Parallels Desktop relies on third-party software. Fusion does not.
Considering that both Parallels and Fusion are 3rd party software, what's the difference?
I am of the view that Fusion is far superior to Parallels Desktop in every aspect.
I am very suspicious when people claim that Fusion is far superior to Parallels. I have them both and I can state for certain that they are pretty much equivalent. Fusion did have some serious bugs in early versions but those seem to have been fixed.
I use and prefer Parallels. I have 8 Parallels VMs that I use on a regular basis to do everything from web site development to writing embedded software. It has never failed me - not even once. Fusion has failed me on a number of occasions when I've tried to get some value out of a license that I purchased, but didn't use.

VMware Fusion vs Parallels Desktop 3.0

i want to run Windows XP or Windows Vista on my mac.
which among VMware Fusion and Parallels would be a much better program/software to buy?
what are the pros & cons of each?
should i buy now or would waiting for Leopard's release (with a new Boot Camp version) be much better?
thanks.

I have Parallels installed on my wife's MacBook and I have Fusion installed on mine. I think if you are using it in a home environment, Parallels would be better as it's snazzier in it's implementation. But for a work type environment, I would recommend Fusion. VMWare has lots of experience with virtualization, and if you have a Linux/Windows VM that is already built and configured, it would be quite easy to just port it over to Fusion to run.
Fusion is probably playing a bit of catch up with Parallels but eventually it will get there, and I expect them to overtake Parallels.
Both software has free trials, and I would recommend that you download both and try them out to see which one you would prefer.

Parallel Desktop vs VMware Fusion

Hi Guys,
I do not know if this is the right forum to post this in, but I cant find any forum about this topic. I post it in this forum because I use this forum most. Parallel Desktop or VMware Fusion, which is better. And I was wonder if I bought either of them, do they have the other OS' disc inside or I had to buy one. And how many people the software is licensed to? My school is encouraging me to buy Parallel Desktop.
Any replies is appreciated
Regards
Kwok-Ho Wan
9 April 2008

1. Nope wrong forum, try here for Tiger http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=160
2. Neither Parallels or VMware include an OS, and if you need the latest and greatest (crappyiest) from Microsoft (VISTA) you'll need to get the full standard edition (i think) as a minimum otherwise face the wrath of the MS legal engine.
3. I use parallel desktop and an old copy of Windows 2000 Professional, so I can run me finance app.
Good luck...

Parallels v/s vmware fusion, your verdict.

please help me narrow down on one of them before purchasing. i have used the demo version of both. i found vmware better in speed. but i haven't fully known and/or explore all its features. so give me ur take on either or both.
thanks
Neerav

See the following:
Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak 2 or Vista. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not yet fully developed for the Mac - some features are not yet implemented - but it does work otherwise.
6. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion.
Boot Camp is only available with Leopard. The Boot Camp Beta that was used with Tiger has expired and is no longer available for use. So contrary to the other poster's comment, Boot Camp isn't truly "free." You must purchase Leopard to get it.

PC Gaming: Bootcamp vs. Parallels vs. VMWare Fusion

Hey guys,
First time Mac owner in just 5 days. Excited!
I'm currently on a Windows 7 laptop, but with my MBP coming, I'd like to move 100% to the MBP. I'm still a PC gamer though, so I was wondering if anyone had any experience running older games on Bootcamp/Parallels/VMWare Fusion.
Generally, I still play old stuff like Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, MVP Baseball 2005, NBA Live 06, Madden 07, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Need for Speed, Red Faction, Max Payne 2, etc.
My specs are as follows: 2.0GHz quad-core, Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM @ 1333MHz, 500GB hard drive @ 5400-rpm, Intel HD Graphics 3000, AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5.
I'd like to try and avoid Bootcamp if possible, just because I'm not big on having to reboot to jump from OSX to a game. Would Parallels/Fusion be able to run these smoothly? After reading some of the forum posts, some people are struggling a bit running both operating systems, but 8 GB of RAM should be enough to handle both, no? Is it possible for the RAM to die/burn out from being overused by multitasking like this?
Thanks,
Marc

Bootcamp is the easiest and best performing way to play windows games. When Running Parrallels or VMware... you are using virtulization software and cannot utilize the true performance of the machine. BOOTCAMP will be your best method of running demanding games that are made for WINDOWS.
However, as an alternative you could try using wineskins or steam. Wineskin will allow you to run windows games on your mac. Anyway, booting into windows is not all that bad it takes maybe 1 minute. You won't burn out your ram, but I don't think virtulization should be used to play games because you just won't get the performance you need to run graphically intensive games.
SO JUST INSTALL WINDOWS USING BOOTCAMP and your machine will operate like a PC and have better performance than the virtulization software.

Which is better? VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 6?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for