From the reviews I;ve read about half favour Parallels and about half favour VMWare. I'm inclined to go with VMWare, but want to know what the killer features are of each and why one is better. I'm new to virtualization so was hoping one of the more knowledgeable members could point me in the right direction.
I use Parallels on my iMac and Macbook Pro. It seems to run fine on my iMac but kind of causes my MBP to become a little sluggish and fans to get pegged. I was speaking with someone that runs several VMWare VMs on their Macbook without any problems at all. They mentioned my MBP should have more than enough resources to handle several VMs.
Does VMWare generally perform outstandingly better than Parallels on Macs?
Here are my machine specs (both running OS X 10.10.3):
iMac3.2 Ghz Intel Core i516GB DDR3 RAMNVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 RAM500GB SSD w/25GB free spaceVM is allocated 2GB of RAM
Macbook Pro2.7 Ghz Intel Core i716GB DDR3 RAMIntel HD Graphics 4000 1024 RAM500GB SSD w/47GB free spaceVM is allocated 2GB of RAM
2 Answers
Parallels on Mac has a better performance. It integrates with OS X in a way which is not possible with VMware. I am using parallels with multiple VMs without any problems or sluggishness. I have allocated 3 GB RAM to each VM. Check how many CPU cores you have allocated to your VM.
PratikPratikWe're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.
Which Is Better Parallels Or Vmware For Mac
I have run both VMWare & Parallels on 11' MacBook Airs - and on my current 12' MacBook.
(with 2, 4, then 8gb). Then only performance problem I have had - which is ongoing - is when I switch to retina mode in the VM (on my 12').
This is substantially slower - especially on Parallels - often locking up for 5-10 seconds. I don't know if this is a driver thing - or if retina displays just require a lot more horsepower which lower end macs (and even higher end laptops) just don't have.
I may try a new high-end MacBook Pro to see if this fixes it.
niiconiico