• Parallels Gaming Mode
• Parallels Desktop Gaming Performance
• Parallels Desktop 15 Gaming Performance
• Parallels Desktop Windows Gaming

The power of the Apple M1 processor has been demonstrated time and again by using the M1 Macs for cases Apple never intended, not to mention would allow. That includes running resource and graphics-intensive gaming emulators or other operating systems on top of the Arm-based macOS. Perhaps the most glowing example, and most damning for Microsoft, was running Windows 10 ARM on an Apple M1 Mac, something that can now be done officially with the latest release of Parallels Desktop.

Parallels Gaming Mode

The fact that Windows 10 ARM reportedly ran better emulated on an M1 Mac compared to running natively on Microsoft’s own Surface Pro X was particularly telling of the power of Apple’s first desktop Arm chip. That was, of course, still an unofficial method without much optimizations and access to official macOS APIs and hidden hooks. That’s the benefit of virtualization technologies like Parallels Desktop, whose newly-baked version 16.5 brings official support for M1 Macs.

Parallels Desktop Gaming Performance

New in Parallels 15 is support for DirectX 11 via Apple’s Metal technology, which should (in theory) mean a better gaming experience (if not in the same league as a dedicated Windows PC). Parallels Desktop, the virtualization software that allows you to run Windows on a Mac alongside macOS, now offers DirectX 11 support using Apple Metal, meaning it can render 3D graphics up to 15. However, that doesn't mean Parallels can't be a great asset for a gamer on a Mac. As also mentioned above, it is great for classics such as most GOG games. I found it more convenient to setup. Parallels 8 Desktop For Gaming (specifically EvE Online under Parallels) Leave a Comment / Gaming, Virtualisation / By Steve Brown / December 30, 2013 August 22, 2019 Some time ago I wrote a review on Parallels Desktop and compared it to VMWare and VirtualBox.

Parallels Desktop has long been the tool of choice for many Mac users who need access to other operating systems. With Boot Camp not making its way to the Arm-based macOS Big Sur, it is the only officially supported way to run Windows 10 on these Macs. And if Parallels is to be believed, these M1 Macs might be the best way to actually run Windows 10 on Apple’s OS.

The post boasts about the greater performance and efficiency of Parallels Desktop 16.5 on M1 Macs compared to their Intel equivalents. That includes support for DirectX 11 even when compared to an Intel MacBook Pro with a dedicated Radeon graphics card. Of course, special attention was given to running Windows through Parallels Desktop but the virtualization platform can also run popular Linux distributions as well.

It should probably be noted that the Windows 10 that runs on these M1 Macs is Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview, which means having all the limitations that this version of Windows. That said, the report also mentions x86 applications, practically games like Rocket League and Skyrim, raising hope for the gaming chops of this method.

Some time ago I wrote a review on Parallels Desktop and compared it to VMWare and VirtualBox. Since then, things have moved on in version numbers and I thought it was time to revisit.

I have a particular need of late, and this review is centered around that need. Notably, the Mac client for EvE Online developed a significant bug that made it unplayable (for me, as a Wormhole Dweller) since Odyssey came out. A graphics glitch on OSX Mountain Lion means that when scanning for signatures, one can no longer see the probe spheres in space – making it very difficult to resize them properly. So, I decided I would try to run it in a Virtual Machine. Various people had said it worked ok and I figured apart from a bit of disk space I had little to lose…

Parallels Desktop 15 Gaming Performance

Initially I ran a trial copy of VMWare Fusion 5. The performance was acceptable. Just. It wasn’t as good as the Mac client but at least my little blue spheres showed up when I was playing. The average FPS was around 10 lower than I experienced with the Mac client, so I was getting around 20fps in space – so long as there weren’t too many objects around and about 10-15fps in station. Playable, but not great. This was on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro with 9600GT.

I then decided to take a look at Parallels Desktop 8 – the previous version I reviewed here was Parallels 6 and it didn’t cope too well with 3D graphics back then. I was surprised just how well Parallels 8 does deal with Eve Online. There’s no noticeable speed decrease between the Mac client and the Parallels version. There IS however a number of other differences when playing Eve under Parallels. Firstly and primarily, the blue spheres show up correctly when scanning for signatures within my wormhole. When compared to running EvE under Wine on OSX, Parallels is without question the more reliable method. The launcher is flawless under Parallels and there’s no graphical glitches.

Parallels Coherence Mode means I can pretty much operate Eve in exactly the same way as I do the normal Mac client. The icon sits on my dock and I can move the application between desktops – which is great for running those alts while mining or doing stuff that is much better in twos. Having said that, the video performance suffers quite heavily in Coherence mode, so if FPS is your thing, you may want to stick with full screen mode.

Parallels does require a little more processor horsepower than the Mac client, though I’m not convinced it demands all that much more than Wine. It’s worth going through your Windows installation and switching off any un-necessary services (such as Windows Media Sharing, and anything else you don’t need) as some people have had high CPU usage issues with un-necessary services chewing up background processing power. I tend to find the CPU idles around 5-10% when Parallels is idle, and around 2-5% when Parallels is not running, so there’s something running in the background even though I’ve disabled lots.

The EvE online Windows client is light years ahead of the Mac client in terms of reliability, which is not overly surprising since the majority of EvE players connect from Windows boxes. Given that Parallels 8 performs well with DirectX games now (and rumour is that Parallels 9 is even better), it’s fair to say that I’d recommend playing EvE within Parallels instead of the buggy Cider client that CCP foists on us Mac users.

And of course, if you want to do other Windows based things (such as Contribtastic, Eve Isk Per Hour, or even heaven forbid something productive that requires Windows) then Parallels is well worth the price point for the convenience of not having to BootCamp the machine and allowing you to run your Mac software alongside the Windows. I can’t speak highly enough of Parallels, it ticks all the boxes.

I also feel the need to add that Parallels support is second to none. My LAN connection through Parallels was doing some very funky stuff, freezing up the main hosts networking as well. Turned out that for some reason, despite the little tick box saying not to, Parallels was sending the host computers MAC address to my DHCP server and was being given the same IP address as the host. I could run it adequately in NAT mode, but not in Bridged mode – and Bridged mode seemed to suit EvE better so I was a bit frustrated. My ticket to support received a response within a couple of hours and shortly thereafter I received a phone call from a Parallels technician asking if he could access my VM. I agreed and within minutes he had rectified the problem (I know not how) and did everything remotely. You really can’t get better than that.

Additional Info

You can find out more about Parallels at http://www.parallels.com – including downloading the latest trial version.
You can also find out more information about EvE Online at http://www.eveonline.com – if you’re looking for MMORPG this one is highly recommended!

• 9/10
  Design - 9/10
• 9/10
  Features - 9/10
• 6/10
  Cost - 6/10
• 8/10
  Ease Of Use - 8/10
• 10/10
  Customer Support - 10/10
• 8/10
  Overall Value - 8/10

Parallels Desktop Windows Gaming

Summary

Positives: Fast, 3D works pretty well, Reliable, Excellent Customer Support
Negatives: Heat – it works the CPU and GPU pretty hard
Trial Available: Yes
Price: $79.99 – $49.99 if upgrading

Website: http://www.parallels.com