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Virtual PC: Windows vs. Mac

Z

zvitali

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2003
37
0
I am thinking about buying Virtual PC for Mac, but not sure about its performance. I read many threads and people are split about half-half on this issue. So I decided to download a 45-day trial version of Virtual PC for Windows and see for myself. Actually I was really surprised at how speedy it was. Definetely more than enough for me. It may as well be as fast as my normal Windows XP. However, I am not sure if Virtual PC for Mac is as fast as the Virtual PC for Windows. Did anybody make any such comparison? Any ideas are appreciated.
 
Using VPC on a Mac is pretty slow since you have to emulate an x86 processor and all the hardware that isn't native to the Macintosh platform. As for performance with programs, it will run Office and simple programs like that, but if you are doing something that takes a lot of muscle, it won't do much for you.
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Using VPC on a Mac is pretty slow since you have to emulate an x86 processor and all the hardware that isn't native to the Macintosh platform. As for performance with programs, it will run Office and simple programs like that, but if you are doing something that takes a lot of muscle, it won't do much for you.
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Yep. Running VPC on a PC there is no emulating! Thus speed is (or should be) similar to native.
AFAIK VPC on a PC is only usefull for being able to startup another Windows OS, without actually restarting the PC.
VPC on a Mac, however, is (ofcourse) to be able to run a Windows app on your Mac.
A totally different usage.
Comparing the two.... Apples and oranges (as ever)
 
I can only speak for myself, but I got VPC with winXP on it, and it was too slow to be usefull. Just clicking the start button, you would think I had asked it to calculate pi to the last digit. I put win98 on it and that helped a little. Then I turned off virtual memory, and that helped a little more. I wouldn't recommend it for anything more strenuous than playing minesweeper, but that's just me. BTW, I am running an 800 Mhz imac w/ 768 Ram, OSX 10.2.7.
 
Originally posted by MacsRgr8
somekind of P2P sharing app, maybe ??? ahum ;)
Click to expand...
Nope nothing there...




What??? Why is everyone looking at me like that? It's not like I would have actually downloaded it.:p:D
 
Well, I tried running Widows 2003 .NET Server from Virtual PC and it was just too slow.

I then tried FreeBSD and it was very quick so that's what I'll do for my FreeBSD needs.

Next I tried Windows XP instead of 2003 .NET Server and I was very surprised to find out that the performace isn't bad at all. I'm actually running Visual Studio .NET 2003 on Windows XP from Virtual PC on my Mac and I have to say it is much better than I could have hoped. I have also installed IIS as well as Visio Pro and they all run fine. I have already moved all my .NET projects to Virtual PC and I'm very happy with it. Beats the hell out of having to switch computers.

I have a 17" Al PB with 1 GB RAM and running Mac OSX 10.2.6
 
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