I ran a test using Cinebench 11.5 to see how much performance I would loose using this software. The results where surprising and also not to good for Parallels Access. Here are the results. Real Machine Speeds OpenGL = 30.92 CPU = 6.60 Single CPU = 0.84 MP Ratio = 7.84 Parallels Mobile (the app they killed and no longer support) OpenGL = 29.82 CPU = 6.17 Single CPU = 0.84 MP Ratio = 7.38 Parallels Access OpenGL = 27.16 CPU = 5.96 Single CPU = 0.83 MP Ratio = 7.19 As you can see Parallels Access really hits your machine, even more then the Parallels Mobile app. Also running Windows 8 in a Parallels Virtual Machine runs faster than it does with Parallels Access. Its going to be a hard sell at that price a year when VNC and others don't effect the system as much as Parallels Access does.
Drop from Real Machine: 12.2% 9.7% 1.2% 8.3% Drop from Parallels Mobile: 8.9% 3.4% 1.2% 2.6% Those numbers don't seem so bad. I don't remember how well Parallels Mobile performed. Does Parallels Mobile or VNC allow you to play Full screen Flash videos with audio in Safari at acceptable frame rates? Unlike Parallels Virtual Machine, Parallels Access needs to compress video and audio and send it streaming over a network. I think if you want to run apps on your computer from you iPad then you should expect a small amount of performance loss.
The main problem is, their free version they are not supporting anymore because of access works with using less resources. Making it a better choice if they own Parallels a desktop. Plus the mobile app works on the iPhone.
