Parallels

[Roger.E.Eller at sealedair.com]

>> Alex Tweedly wrote:
>>> Or, to be completely specific, .... does Parallels allow a MacBook Pro
to
>>> run high-performance graphics games, such as World of Warcraft, or Halo
III
>>> (IV ?)
>>>
> Sarah Reichelt wrote:
>> Bootcamp definitely does allow such things. My kids run all their PC
>> games on an iMac using Bootcamp with no problems. World of Warcraft is
>> a Mac game as well as PC, but my boys run Call of Duty, Halo (II I
>> think), Portal, Bioshock etc using Bootcamp.
>>
>> I don't think any virtualization software will give the same
>> performance, at least not yet.
>
Richard Gaskin wrote:
> I'm not sure whether Parallels on an Intel Mac fits the definition of
> "virtualization" per se, given that it provides a shell in which the OS
> makes native calls which for the most part are going straight to the
> processor.
>
> Parallels does provide an additional layer for integration with the host
> OS, to support copy-n-paste, drag-n-drop, folder sharing, etc. between
> multiple OSes running, but my understanding is that it's somewhat
> focused in scope and doesn't have a significant impact on performance of
> most native API calls.
>
> If someone has more complete information on that it would be good to
> learn more about the performance differences between the two.
>

Parallels on an Intel Mac is most definitely "virtualization". It is not so
much "emulation" as was required before Apple switched to Intel CPUs.
However, many devices are still "emulated" such as video cards. This is why
3D PC games can't deliver the goods unless you boot Windows natively (aka
BootCamp) which accesses the true machine's hardware. BootCamp isn't
virtualizing Windows, but instead is allowing the machine to dual-boot
Windows as a second OS.

Roger Eller <roger.e.eller at sealedair.com>