PC Gaming - VMware or Parallels?

[MacDann]

I have looked through the forum, but haven't seen a clear-cut explanation of which would be better for gaming, VM or Parallels.

This is for a youngster in the family, and it's not bleeding edge games, so I'm not worried about having spectacular performance.

I will be doing this on a 17" C2D iMac with 1G of RAM.

Thanks in advance for the info...

MD

 

[nospamboz]

I have looked through the forum, but haven't seen a clear-cut explanation of which would be better for gaming, VM or Parallels.

[Note: Assuming MS Windows gaming.]

At the risk of hyping a "rival" website:

http://www.macworld.com/2007/04/features/windows_intro/index.php

Bootcamp seems the best for gaming, but VMWare is catching up.

http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/faqs.html#games

HTH

 

[MacDann]

I went ahead and installed Boot Camp, and I have been very pleased with the performance on the Windows games we have installed so far.

Thanks!

MD

 

[IscariotJ]

I created a thread on VMWare's beta forum ( Games That Work ), which is a sort of list of the titles that work/don't work, and some workarounds. It's not perfect ( it is beta, remember ), though some of the issues from beta3 are promised to be fixed for beta 4.

To give you an idea of what it is currently capable of, I'm playing X2 on my CD-based MacBook ( I was supposed to be trying more, but got sucked in ). One guy is playing Morrowind on his C2D MBP.

The list of supported games isn't exhaustive, but it is getting to the point where playing under a VM is a viable option.

 

[jasdelta]

I created a thread on VMWare's beta forum ( Games That Work ), which is a sort of list of the titles that work/don't work, and some workarounds. It's not perfect ( it is beta, remember ), though some of the issues from beta3 are promised to be fixed for beta 4.

Could you kindly provide a link for this forum, so I might take a look at the list?

Many thanks.

 

[jasdelta]

I went ahead and installed Boot Camp, and I have been very pleased with the performance on the Windows games we have installed so far.

MacDann,

I am considering buying a Mac Pro, but would still like to run some of my PC Games, such as Tiger Woods Golf, FSX as well as some productivity apps. Can you give me an idea of your experience so far using Boot Camp and the performance results of your system? Are you running XP or Vista?

Many thanks for your input.

Jim

 

[CyberPrey]

I am considering buying a Mac Pro, but would still like to run some of my PC Games, such as Tiger Woods Golf, FSX as well as some productivity apps. Can you give me an idea of your experience so far using Boot Camp and the performance results of your system? Are you running XP or Vista?

I know you were not asking me, but I run boot camp on my Pro.. WinXP..

windows runs very well on my mac pro, and I have not run into any issues on pretty much anything at all...

 

[jasdelta]

I know you were not asking me, but I run boot camp on my Pro.. WinXP..

Mac Pro - 2x2.66ghz, 2gb RAM, 3x250gb 1x300gb HD's, X1900XT, Acer AL2032 Monitor

Can you give me an idea of some of the windows apps you are running in XP? Just curiouis but why did you shoose an Acer 2032 monitor over Apples?

Thanks for your feedback...

Jim