Does Parallels Desktop use OpenGL?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by White fox, Oct 25, 2007.

  1. White fox

    White fox Member

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    Does Parallels Desktop use OpenGL and in that way gets a speed improvement when ran on a Mac with a separate graphics card?
     
  2. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

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  3. White fox

    White fox Member

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    I didn´t mean if it could virtualize OpenGL, I mean´t if it used it to handle the virtual machine windows.
    Could I expect slower responsiveness from the VM specified below if it was ran on a MacBook(with Intel GMA 950)?
    I was also thinking of the improved OpenGL performance included in Leopard. Will Parallels run faster or is the screen refresh already threaded to the other CPU core?
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2007
  4. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

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    Oh! Sorry, I entirely missed your point. I would imagine that it does, but I do not know for sure.
     
  5. Stacey M

    Stacey M Parallels Team

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    Hello,

    within VM Parallels do not use OpenGL, but emulate it. So unfortunately it is unlikely that the speed will improve, because Parallels can use only limited amount of video memory.

    Best regards,
    Stacey
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2007
  6. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

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    Stacey, but the actual Parallels application for the OS X side... Doesn't that use OpenGL?
     
  7. White fox

    White fox Member

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    I´m sure it does, but so do all other applications including Mac OS. The answer was regarding the VM window that is used. As Parallels Desktop is threaded, one thread obviously already handles the VM window update. OpenGL can´t be used for that task.
     
  8. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

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    Ah. Makes sense now.
     
  9. Xenos

    Xenos Parallels Team

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    White fox, you are right. And to avoid misunderstandings here I'd like to emphasize that Parallels Desktop uses OpenGL both for better VM windows performance and for 3D graphics support.

    Best regards,
    Xenos
     

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