[bishopazrael]

Please, only those that have used both programs need to reply.

I'm looking at statements around the web that say that VMware is faster....no no no.. Parallels is faster.... no no no... vmware.... and on and on and on. What I'm looking for is for someone who has both current versions of the software to please tell me which one you find faster. I'd like to narrow the field by adding that Im running on a current MB w/ 4gb of RAM and a new 5400rpm 160gb drive. I'll be running xp w/ service pack 2. Please don't respond if you just have one or the other and just want to say what you think. I'm lookng for someone who can say they have it and can say with certainty that one or the other is faster.
Which gives more speed doing regular mundane tasks?

Which uses less of the hardware resources?

Thanks,
Bishop

[MacosNerd]

I'd say they're both pretty close. You may get better responses if you posted this in the correct forum.

My $.02 is that fusion was faster when I tested both out, but I suspect that parallels may have caught up. I know in fusion you can utilize both cpus and parallels you cannot (at least couldn't, I don't know if that changed) This alone increases the performance of fusion.

Regardless, I think the speed difference is small at this point and go with the product you like the best. They both have good and bad points

[Cold Warrior]

I've moved this to Alt OS.

[Pierre B.]

Originally Posted by bishopazrael 

I'm lookng for someone who can say they have it and can say with certainty that one or the other is faster.
Which gives more speed doing regular mundane tasks?

Here is an answer to your question. The results are interesting and sometimes unexpected.

[ghporter]

Pierre is right-some of those results ARE unexpected. I find it very interesting that Parallels and Fusion sort of swap back and forth as to which is faster for a variety of applications. Even more interesting is how the different Macs that were tested performed, with some test numbers coming out VERY different based on both which virtualization and which computer was used. This is VERY good reference stuff!