To enable DirectX or not to enable DirectX, that is the question..

I see that enabling DirectX is an optional flag. Are there performance impacts of having it enabled? Does 3D performance come at the expense of memory or slowdowns in day to day apps like Office? If you're running Windows as your guest, should you always leave it on?

Or is the switch just there for other operating systems?

 

C'Mon Parallels folks, just a simple one liner, is it better from a performance standpoint to have DirectX always enabled? Or should it be turned on just for gaming?

 

One point worth noting ... if you have an application running that is using the 3D support you can't suspend the VM. You get a message box up if you try, and you have to quit that app. I don't know if this will affect any apps that don't strictly need 3D but use it for eye candy if it's available.

 

If you don't need 3D hardware-accelerated graphics inside the VM, it is recommended to keep this option off.

 

What was the reason behind your recommendation?

 

No any reason except for "Don't change things if they work for you".

 

Is there any speed impact from having it on even if it is not being used?

 

Well if there is no reason, why is there an option? There has to be a reason why its togglable. Is there any risk to my other apps by having this checked?

 

Of course there is a reason, they just don't want to tell us.