Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

yarjarrar

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2008
83
0
California
Hi, I have parallels desktop and I downloaded half life 2 with steam, and it is EXTREMELY laggy. The video and audio lags a lot. I have the latest model of the 15" macbook pro with Geforce 8600 and 4GB or ram. with my tech specs I should be able to run half life 2 no problem right? So why is it so slow and how can I fix it?
 
Parallels is not the ideal platform for running 3D grfx demanding games, like HL 2, Quake 4 etc.
Yes, DirectX 9 is "enabled" but, Parallels software still has to do more than simply use your grfx card directly. It can't use the grfx card the way a normal non-virtualised Windows environment can.

TBO, the only real way to play those demanding games, is to use Boot Camp. That way the grfx card is used directly, using the normal Windows drivers... just like a "normal" PC.

You MBP will do very, very well using Boot Camp. :)
 
I currently have Boot Camp set up for gaming but Parallels reads my boot camp drive. So for easy things I can open Parallels and for bigger things (games) I just restart. But it's always the same settings. If you do this it's pretty simple. Set up Boot Camp. Then boot OS X, open Parallels, and create a new VM with the custom settings, choose Use Boot Camp :). If you decide to do this I'd be happy to help, I just recently did it.
 
Yes, please help me. That would be great. Ok. I'm trying to set up boot camp, and I have windows xp as a file on my hard drive, instead of on a cd, and the boot camp assistant says I have to insert a windows disk. So how do I install it if I have windows as a file instead of on a disc?
 
Well, Boot Camp lets you install Windows on your Mac just as you would have done on a stand-alone home-PC, so you actually do need a CD (or DVD) to install Windows from.

If you can burn that Windows-file (image?) to a CD you should be ready to to.
If it is an .ISO file, Disk Utility should be able to burn that to a CD for you. :)
 
Yes, please help me. That would be great. Ok. I'm trying to set up boot camp, and I have windows xp as a file on my hard drive, instead of on a cd, and the boot camp assistant says I have to insert a windows disk. So how do I install it if I have windows as a file instead of on a disc?

Unless the file is an ISO you can't. Buy Windows. Repartition your hard drive. Run Boot Camp assistant. Insert Disk. Install Windows. Install Boot Camp drivers. Play game.
 
Also, once you are done with setting up Boot Camp you can copy your files from your Parallels drive to your Boot Camp drive. Just I think your Boot Camp drive needs to be in FAT format.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.