Windows 11 ARM officially supported by M3 Macs running Parallels Desktop

AppleInsider

Parallels Desktop has been officially authorized by Microsoft to run ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on Macs with M3 processors.

Parallels Desktop brings ARM Windows 11 to Mac

ARM versions of Windows 11 were already authorized by Microsoft to run on Parallels Desktop for M1 and M2 Macs in 2023. However, Apple revealed the M3 processor family in October and that authorization needed to be updated.

According to an updated support document from Microsoft, all three M-series generations are now authorized to run ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise via Parallels Desktop 18 and 19. To be clear, this isn't the full version of x86 Windows that run on Intel PCs, nor is this version able to run 32-bit ARM applications.

While the $99.99 Standard Edition can manage four virtual CPUs and 8GB of vRAM, the Pro and Business versions go up to 32 vCPUs and 128GB vRAM.

The $199.99 per year Pro Edition also includes a Visual Studio plug-in for remote debugging, virtual networking tools, automation elements, integrations with Docker and others, and premium phone support, among other factors.

For $149.99 per year, Business Edition includes the Pro Edition's features, allowing employees to download preconfigured versions of Windows to their Mac, per-user licensing, a centralized administration and management tool, and unified volume license keys for mass deployment.

Each piece of hardware and virtual machine will need its own unique Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise license.



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moiety

Or you can download UTM for free:

https://mac.getutm.app/

And make your own Windows 11 ISO for free:

https://osdump.com/

22july2013

I've always been worried that Microsoft will terminate sales of World of Warcraft for MacOS. But this would be a reasonable way to keep it running on Macs. I see that WoW has been available for years already on Windows for ARM. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EY3mTD-VuU which has only 551 views after 1 year.) Could someone please test the frame rate of WoW running on Windows 11 for ARM on an M3 iMac using Parallels at full screen resolution?

anome

I was unaware it wasn't approved. I've been running it on my M3 MBP since I got it last year, and it's been pretty stable.

dewme

VMWare Fusion 13 runs Windows 11 ARM extremely well and comes with a host of features to make it easier to install Windows 11 into a virtual machine. It supports hardware accelerated 3D graphics on all Macs including Apple Silicon ones. It’s also free for personal use. I’ve been using it for over a year on my Mac Studio with no issues. Very impressive piece of software.

Marvin

moiety said:

Or you can download UTM for free:

https://mac.getutm.app/

And make your own Windows 11 ISO for free:

https://osdump.com/

It's also possible to install the Windows ISO that Parallels downloads in UTM and the free VMWare Fusion Player, it's in ~/Library/Parallels/Downloads.

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=fusion-player-personal-13

UTM and VMWare allow full use of the CPU cores, while entry-level Parallels is limited to 4-cores.

However, the GPU drivers in VMWare and UTM are really bad compared to Parallels. UTM is practically unusable for 3D, VMWare is usable but less than half the performance of Parallels.

https://youtu.be/Mqn1yoV_OW4?t=678 (VMWare)

22july2013 said:

I've always been worried that Microsoft will terminate sales of World of Warcraft for MacOS. But this would be a reasonable way to keep it running on Macs. I see that WoW has been available for years already on Windows for ARM. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EY3mTD-VuU which has only 551 views after 1 year.) Could someone please test the frame rate of WoW running on Windows 11 for ARM on an M3 iMac using Parallels at full screen resolution?

Native M1 performance is ~40FPS for 1080p Ultra:

https://www.macgamerhq.com/apple-m1/world-of-warcraft-m1-mac/

5K is 7x the pixels of 1080p.

M1 Max, which is 3x M3 can manage 4K Ultra at 60-70FPS. 5K is ~80% more than 4K. M3 iMac should only run 5K Ultra ~20FPS natively. M1 iMac shown in the video below. At 18:20, it says native 5K is ~20FPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhcJzKCcpMQ

In Parallels, that can drop to 10-15FPS. If it was M1 Max, it might be ok as it's 3x faster.

I doubt Microsoft will drop native support. In general, buy Pro M-series or higher for decent gaming performance.

22july2013

I doubt Microsoft will drop native support. In general, buy Pro M-series or higher for decent gaming performance.

My Plan B, if you are wrong about Microsoft's future, is to run "WoW for ARM 11" running in Parallels on macOS. I'm still curious if it will run as well as "WoW for Apple Silicon." The sources you were citing were either for "WoW on Apple Silicon," or for "WoW on Windows ARM 10 on non-Apple Silicon," whereas I am looking forward to seeing a measurement of "WoW for ARM 11 in Parallels on macOS".

ym415

I've given up on Mac virtualization when Mx chips came out - bought an inexpensive Intel Windows mini PC and now remote desktop into the mini PC - run Wintel apps on native Intel Windows.  Why suck up Mac processing resources on virtualization/emulation? And why deal with Windows on ARM, hoping that your legacy Wintel application runs OK on WinARM and then having to pay for virtualization software subscriptions or underwhelming free ones?