OS X Parallels for Gaming ?

[Washac]

This is simple, I can buy Parallels for $80 and get lesser performance or Windows 7 for $60 and get the best possible game experience over a spectrum of games on my 2011 MBP (see signature). Dealing with windows does require more effort but I'm willing to put out the effort for a better frame rate or possibly still play a game, that parallels can't handle.

I recently settled into Parallels because of all the aggravation I was getting with windows under Bootcamp. Before I settled into parallels I did set up windows under bootcamp again but found that windows ran really sluggish with trails all the screen when I dragged a window etc, this does not happen in parallels and it did not happen the first time I set up Bootcamp.

I'm happy, mainly because I prefer playing the older type games anyway. What does not run well enough under Parallels or a wrapper, Wine/Crossover nor has a Mac dedicated version I can live without. A bit of online investigation and a visit to The Porting Team site etc soon tells me whats going work and what is not.

 

[Ainze]

Glad you have a nice system worked out. Have fun.

 

[insane79]

This is simple, I can buy Parallels for $80 and get lesser performance or Windows 7 for $60 and get the best possible game experience over a spectrum of games on my 2011 MBP (see signature). Dealing with windows does require more effort but I'm willing to put out the effort for a better frame rate or possibly still play a game, that parallels can't handle.

+1
Spot on, i have been gaming via bootcamp on my late 2012 iMac & loving it, only regret is "wish i did it earlier & not wasted money on mac only games lol"
Just bootcamp with windows 8.1 & you won't believe the machine capabilities in gaming on windows

Happy Gaming!!

 

[Huntn]

I recently settled into Parallels because of all the aggravation I was getting with windows under Bootcamp. Before I settled into parallels I did set up windows under bootcamp again but found that windows ran really sluggish with trails all the screen when I dragged a window etc, this does not happen in parallels and it did not happen the first time I set up Bootcamp.

I'm happy, mainly because I prefer playing the older type games anyway. What does not run well enough under Parallels or a wrapper, Wine/Crossover nor has a Mac dedicated version I can live without. A bit of online investigation and a visit to The Porting Team site etc soon tells me whats going work and what is not.

If you want to avoid Windows and Parallels covers your needs, then I would not criticize what works for you.

 

[alvindarkness]

Out of curiosity, what useful work would you be doing while playing something like Assassin's Creed 4? I could understand that you might want some sort of turn-based strategy game running in a window to play in your downtime between checking emails or whatever, but a giant action adventure that demands dozens of hours of undivided attention is a different matter.

I keep the Mac side of things exclusively for work and reboot into Windows for games. The boot-up process is under 15 seconds - in fact the slowest part of it is shutting down OS X, if I don't just hit the reset button.

Agreed. Although there is a useful purpose to mixing the two. You could be downloading Assassins Creed Unity in parallels while doing work, ready for a reboot into bootcamp later in the day when you want to unwind and actually play it

About the only time I parallels into my gaming/windows partition is to download new releases in steam.

 

[imacken]

This is simple, I can buy Parallels for $80 and get lesser performance or Windows 7 for $60 and get the best possible game experience over a spectrum of games on my 2011 MBP (see signature). Dealing with windows does require more effort but I'm willing to put out the effort for a better frame rate or possibly still play a game, that parallels can't handle.

You still have to buy Windows to run in Parallels! Not quite sure what your point is.

 

[Washac]

You still have to buy Windows to run in Parallels! Not quite sure what your point is.

I sort of know what he means, I run windows under Parallels rather than a dedicated partition/drive. Running windows under Parallels does not seem to
be so envasive to what I want to do. Also I do not get all those pop up messages all the time under Parallels as in, this grapihics driver needs updating, that graphics driver needs updating etc etc etc, why ? I do not really know.

 

[Huntn]

You still have to buy Windows to run in Parallels! Not quite sure what your point is.

When I posted, I had forgotten this! I was thinking Parralels either included Windows or was emulating it. My mistake. At least I was correct on the performance comparison and it turns out Parallels is more expensive than my initial post (having to buy both, not one or the other).

I'll admit that if you are doing work that requires both Mac and Windows at the same time, Parallels is the solution. But is there any reason a gamer, especially if Windows has to be dealt with anyway, and want to play AAA Windows games with the best performance should choose parallels?

 

[Irishman]

Before anybody jumps in, yes I know and understand Bootcamp is the better option and have used it but want to give Parallels a fair shot before I possibly return to Bootcamp.

So my question is can anybody suggest or recommend any Parallels settings to get the best out of it for gaming ?

You're essentially asking "you think I can get this horse drawn buggy up to 88 MPH?"

Nope.

 

[Ainze]

You're essentially asking "you think I can get this horse drawn buggy up to 88 MPH?"

He's trying to get the best out of it, not a specific speed. Please try to be helpful and constructive. That's why we're all here.

I wrote a few tips in an early post (#5) to get the best performance for gaming. It may not be perfect but it's a good start, and tweak things a bit to see if it helps. A couple of things I didn't mention; tune Windows for speed, and any other settings that optimise where the speed goes (e.g. Adaptive Hypervisor). Most of those particular settings should be quite clear though.

Are there any other settings you were wondering about?

 

[antonis]

You might see a game's performance jumping up or diving dramatically down by switching your virtual machine between windowed mode and fullscreen. This seems to be a very important factor for games performance when running inside parallels/vmware and varies much from game to game.

In that context, if a game is performing very poorly, you can try the following variations:

1. Configure the game itself in windowed mode.
2. Reduce the virtual machine's resolution to match the wanted game resolution and configure the game to run in full screen mode (that in fact will be the size of the parallels window).
3. Run your entire virtual machine in full screen mode and increase/reduce the game resolutions from there.

Mind that plenty of games, when running inside parallels, they have considerably worse performance in windowed mode in comparison with full screen, although the former uses a lower resolution.

So before you give up playing a specific game inside parallels, be sure to try the above. You might be surprised by some of the results.

 

[Washac]

You might see a game's performance jumping up or diving dramatically down by switching your virtual machine between windowed mode and fullscreen. This seems to be a very important factor for games performance when running inside parallels/vmware and varies much from game to game.

In that context, if a game is performing very poorly, you can try the following variations:

1. Configure the game itself in windowed mode.
2. Reduce the virtual machine's resolution to match the wanted game resolution and configure the game to run in full screen mode (that in fact will be the size of the parallels window).
3. Run your entire virtual machine in full screen mode and increase/reduce the game resolutions from there.

Mind that plenty of games, when running inside parallels, they have considerably worse performance in windowed mode in comparison with full screen, although the former uses a lower resolution.

So before you give up playing a specific game inside parallels, be sure to try the above. You might be surprised by some of the results.

Thanks for that, yes, I sort of follow your tips already

 

[H2SO4]

Thanks for that, yes, I sort of follow your tips already

Go for it. I’ve been parallels gaming for ages. I mix all three types with varying levels of success dependent on the game you’re playing and the apps you have open in the Mac OS and your hardware.

Again, ignore the naysayers, they are full of it. If you are a Steam gamer it’s great. You can go in and out of the same game without losing your place on the Mac, Parallels and Boot Camp.

Ainze put it best over the page.

 

[Rodan52]

So, I can see this is an old thread but it is on topic for me and I'd love to see what changes have taken place with parallels now at version 15. I am fast running out of options to run recent games on my 2015 MBP and would like to ask how practical is it for me to install Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac in order to play PC versions of FPS on macOS Catalina.
I have pretty much exhausted the supply of 32bit Mac games like Rage and Bioshock so what I am looking to do is play games from the same period that were unavailable on the Mac platform at that time like Halo. So the question is, if I instal parallels will I still find that my MBP is limited due to system specs?
Maybe I need to accept that there is no real answer to my situation.
I take on board what people have said about Boot Camp, it is probably the best option for my purposes but I have tried it before and the permanent memory allocation is problematic. I only have 500Gb to play with and that is simply not enough for my needs.
It's hard to accept the fact that I can no longer play new games because there are none on the App Store that I like, 32bit games are now no longer an option and the newest 64bit games I do like will not play on this device due to system specs.
Yes, I have considered purchasing a dedicated gaming laptop but its a big outlay considering I do not wish to become a Windows PC user for any other reason.
Nor can I justify upgrading this MBP when Mac games are so limited anyway.

 

[TopherMan12]

So, I can see this is an old thread but it is on topic for me and I'd love to see what changes have taken place with parallels now at version 15. I am fast running out of options to run recent games on my 2015 MBP and would like to ask how practical is it for me to install Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac in order to play PC versions of FPS on macOS Catalina.
I have pretty much exhausted the supply of 32bit Mac games like Rage and Bioshock so what I am looking to do is play games from the same period that were unavailable on the Mac platform at that time like Halo. So the question is, if I instal parallels will I still find that my MBP is limited due to system specs?
Maybe I need to accept that there is no real answer to my situation.
I take on board what people have said about Boot Camp, it is probably the best option for my purposes but I have tried it before and the permanent memory allocation is problematic. I only have 500Gb to play with and that is simply not enough for my needs.
It's hard to accept the fact that I can no longer play new games because there are none on the App Store that I like, 32bit games are now no longer an option and the newest 64bit games I do like will not play on this device due to system specs.
Yes, I have considered purchasing a dedicated gaming laptop but its a big outlay considering I do not wish to become a Windows PC user for any other reason.
Nor can I justify upgrading this MBP when Mac games are so limited anyway.

You've brought this up already and plenty of people, including myself, tried to help answer, but you ignored the thread. Why not continue discussing this in the thread you started yourself?