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Abdulhaq

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2013
218
14
I have a mid 2011 Mac Mini with 1 TB 5400 rpm SSHD (the hybrid hard disk). I am upgrading the memory from 4 gb to 16 gb. At the moment I do not want to invest in a SSD. I would like to know that with 16gb ram and a SSHD (which has its own memory) if I will be able to run El Capitan and Windows 7 in a virtual environment smoothly. Also I would like to know between VMWare and Parallels which is the better virtual environment.
 
I have a mid 2011 Mac Mini with 1 TB 5400 rpm SSHD (the hybrid hard disk). I am upgrading the memory from 4 gb to 16 gb. At the moment I do not want to invest in a SSD. I would like to know that with 16gb ram and a SSHD (which has its own memory) if I will be able to run El Capitan and Windows 7 in a virtual environment smoothly. Also I would like to know between VMWare and Parallels which is the better virtual environment.
!6 Gbs will be plenty for a VM. I use Parallels and it works very well. A lot of people use VMware and they seem to like it. You should have no trouble using either one with Win 7 or El Capitan or even the Sierra Beta.
 
What needs to be done to support graphics in a VM?

I have both VMware 8, and parallels 10 or 11.

Whenever I ran a OS X VM (and it's been a while now) 3D graphics tanked the GUI. I mean finder, web browser were very sluggish.
 
I have never had any problems with Parallels.

OK,
I'll give it another go.
I may have been using GT120 at the time in my Mac Pro 4,1.
I also tried it on a 2010 Mini with the factory spinner drive.

Now I have a 2011 Mini with a SSD, I'll give it a shot there.
 
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