More information about each benchmark application or test can be found on its respective results page.Īs is standard practice here at TekRevue, all tests, unless otherwise noted in the results, were performed three times for each Windows installation, and the results were averaged.
For all platforms, all features that could possibly impact performance, such as error logging or an expanding virtual disk, were disabled.Īll operating systems and testing software were updated to their most recent versions as of the date of this article. The VirtualBox VM was also configured to its maximum supported hardware level, with matching CPU and RAM, but with only 256MB of graphics memory, the most it allows.
#Parallels vs vmware 2015 windows 10
Unfortunately, the latest version of Boot Camp requires the use of a 64-bit version of Windows, so we were forced to use 64-bit VMs as well in order to maintain consistency between the platforms.Īs for our virtualization software, we used the latest available version of all applications, which at the time of publication is Fusion 8.0.0, Parallels 11.0.0, and VirtualBox 5.0.3, which is admittedly a test build but is required to provide Windows 10 compatibility.Įach of our Parallels and Fusion Windows 10 virtual machines was configured for maximum performance, with 8 assigned virtual CPUs, 12GB of RAM (the maximum recommended amount in order to ensure that enough is reserved for OS X), and 1GB of graphics memory configured for each platform’s most advanced DirectX and OpenGL graphics support. Regarding our decision to use the 64-bit version of Windows, it’s true that the 32-bit version can be easier to virtualize and therefore may offer slightly better performance in certain circumstances.
#Parallels vs vmware 2015 pro
Our guest operating system for all tests was Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, which was installed separately in four configurations: native to the Mac’s hardware via Boot Camp, in a virtual machine powered by Parallels 11, in a virtual machine powered by Fusion 8, and in a virtual machine powered by VirtualBox 5. We’ll revisit El Capitan once it launches later this year and we’ll let you know if it provides any performance boosts that would alter the benchmark results reported here. Our host operating system for all virtualized tests was OS X Yosemite 10.10.5, the latest publicly available version as of the date of this article. Even though both Fusion 8 and Parallels 11 support OS X El Capitan, we’re reluctant to perform tests on beta software where bugs or future changes could play a factor in skewing the results.