Boot Camp VS Parallels

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I am looking at Parallels to use Windows on my machine, but I was wondering if there was a noticable difference between Boot Camp and Paralles. Anyone have any opinion on which wil perform better, or which one is easier to install/use? I do like the idea of not rebooting, but does it cost you performance?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Boot Camp is where you use Windows just like you would on a PC. Parallels is when you have Mac OS X running, and then Windows running in a window and/or being able to switch between them without having to restart.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    zoczoc Posts: 77member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Digital Disasta


    I am looking at Parallels to use Windows on my machine, but I was wondering if there was a noticable difference between Boot Camp and Paralles. Anyone have any opinion on which wil perform better, or which one is easier to install/use? I do like the idea of not rebooting, but does it cost you performance?



    Parallels will run most applications just fine enough, and you'll be able to cut and paste between mac and windows apps, and that's great.



    But keep in mind that there is no 3D support in parallels : You won't be able to run intensive 3D apps or games.



    The best solution is to use both : dual boot for games, and parallels for win32 desktop and office software.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    When you don't want run games but stuff like office, go parallels. With enough memory (I have 2 GB on my core duo 20" imac) it is as fast as any recent P4 pc. I.e. fast enough for allmost anything apart from games.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zoc


    The best solution is to use both : dual boot for games, and parallels for win32 desktop and office software.



    Would I need two seperate Windows licenses to do that? Or can I just use the same license?
  • Reply 5 of 8
    Well, in that case I'll just use Boot Camp I guess. I'm really starting to wonder how this is going to work with the new OS. Will you still need to install bootcamp, or with you be able to run Windows applications in OS X, or what? Boot Camp right now seems to be the best option being that I am using 3D Max and Cinema 4D (which, when the new release comes out, I want the Universal Binary R10). I need to see how CS 2 runs under Rosetta...I herd that if you have enough memory it runs fine, you just can't let it go 10 or 15 mins without being untouched. I will have 4 gigs of ram, I don't know if that is going to be enough, but I hope so. Adobe really needs to release the UB of CS already!!
  • Reply 6 of 8
    joeyjoey Posts: 236member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iBang


    Would I need two seperate Windows licenses to do that? Or can I just use the same license?



    Yes, you will need two licensed copies of Windows to run in both Parallels and BootCamp. Hopefully, someday, Parallels will allow us to use an installation under BootCamp so this isn't an issue. Right now, if you install and activate Windows in Parallels, if you try to install it in BootCamp, you will not be able to activate it because it was already activated on the Parallels "machine"... and visa-versa.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    robmrobm Posts: 1,068member
    Hey - I've got a question on this !

    What happens with keyboards switching between the OS's?

    Or is this a completely dumbass question/non-issue ?

    Probably, but curious minds want to know - well, one anyway.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joey


    Yes, you will need two licensed copies of Windows to run in both Parallels and BootCamp. Hopefully, someday, Parallels will allow us to use an installation under BootCamp so this isn't an issue. Right now, if you install and activate Windows in Parallels, if you try to install it in BootCamp, you will not be able to activate it because it was already activated on the Parallels "machine"... and visa-versa.



    That sucks . I was just thinking about this since I will be working in an envorionment where people mainly use PCs. It would be really nice to not reboot when I need Windows. I will probably just settle on Parallels, but I know some of my older (but still fun) games will have to go .
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