#MacOsX : VMware Fusion 5 vs. VMware Fusion 6 vs. VMware Fusion 7 vs. Parallels Desktop 7 [UPDATED]


I will not present functionalities here; it will be just a really brief benchmark.

Configuration:

  • Hard Disk OCZ-AGILITY3 240 GB, firmware 1.15
  • Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
  • Memory  8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
  • Processor  2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • MacBook Pro 13-inch, mid 2009
  • Software
    • Hosts: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (Parallels 7, Fusion 5), Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 (Fusion 5, Fusion 6), Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 (Fusion 6, Fusion 7)
    • Guest: Windows 7

Some info:

  • VMs have 2,5 GB RAM allocated
  • VMs have 1 CPU allocated
  • Parallels was tested when disk was new, while Fusion with half of the space occupied
  • Parallels VM has optimize Windows performance on
  • Fusion VM has disk buffering disabled
  • Fusion 5.0.5, Fusion 6.0.4, and Fusion 7.1.2 were tested with Windows Aero OFF
Component Parallels 7.15106 Fusion 5.0.[1-3] Fusion 5.0.5 Fusion 6.0.4 Fusion 7.1.2
Processor: 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4
Memory (RAM): 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5
Graphics: 5.0 5.0 5.9 5.9 4.7
Gaming graphics: 4.4 4.2 5.1 5.2 4.2
Primary hard disk: 7.2 7.7 7.4 7.4 7.4

NOTE1: Fusion 5 seems to start and stop a bit slower than Parallels 7. Fusion 6 doesn’t improve, but SSD might be slower after this time than it was originally.

NOTE2: disabling Aero drastically improve Graphics performance, so do it!

NOTE3: Fusion 6 improve 3D Graphics performance over Fusion 5, but just slightly, so it is not worth an update. IMHO.

NOTE4: the combination of Mac OS X Yosemite and Fusion 7 has poor graphics performance. It is actually a big regression. I think Apple is to blame here.

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About whitehatty

Computer Engineer and Scientist interested in Computer Security, Complex Networks, Math, Biology and Medicine. "Think Different" life style. Quake 3 Arena player. NERD by DNA.

Posted on August 24, 2012, in Apps and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.

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