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riptideMBP

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 29, 2011
260
0
Hi, I have a windows 7 installation that I will use solely for games (mostly FPS), and I was wondering what the optimal parallels virtual machine settings would be to virtualize the bootcamp partition for times when I want to do a little gaming but cant reboot (specs in sig). I generally have about 4 gigs of free ram, so should I assign 4GB, or might I somehow see a performance boost in windows from assigning less ram. Also should I give it 1, 2, 3, or for of my "CPUs"? Any tips would be much appreciated
 
You're not going to be able to game in Parallels. Stick to Bootcamp. I use Parallels for little things that don't require much computing power (business programs, DVD Shrink, etc.), but for gaming I use Bootcamp. I'm on a 2010 27" i7 iMac and I don't/can't game (modern games anyway) using Parallels.

Besides, starting up W7 in Bootcamp takes the same amount of time as starting up W7 in Parallels...

FWIW though, I give Parallels 6 (or 8 - can't remember) GB of RAM (out of 12 total), and 4 CPUs.
 
I've been toying around lately with Parallels and found that the 3D acceleration is a nice bonus with Windows 7.

For anything in gaming, I would stick with Direct X 9 level games. I ran a benchmark on my Virtual machine with my 13" late 2010 Nvidia equipped MacBook Pro.

Using 3D mark (2003 iirc), my system benched at just under 8000 running the full test. I need to get the newer release but it's most likely going to choke.

Overall, I'm very impressed with Parallels 6.0 running Windows 7 at native speed on my 27" ACD. Great software and worth the money!
 
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