Gaming on Parallels + Performance

S

SandroV

Bit poster
Hi all,
running Parallels latest version on a new MBA 7 Core, 8 GB, 256 GB SSD.
Two questions:
1. The Windows UI is visibly lagging and stuttering (e.g. slight mouse lag, start menu open is stuttery). Is this normal? The last time I used Parallels was on a 2012 MacBook Pro and back then performance simply wasn't there. However, the MBAs should be powerful and Parallels optimized enough - or is this an issue with the M1 only?

2. Trying to run various games inside Parallels gives me graphical glitches; see screenshots. I tried an older game (Battle for Middle Earth II) and something very recent (Age of Empires III DE). Performance on the AoE is really poor - extremely long loading times (45 sec; compared to 5 on my MacBook Pro 16" running Windows) and it's only running at around 20-25fps on low details with 1440x800 resolution. Shouldn't the performance be a bit better?

Any help :)
Thanks
 

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I've allocated 4 and 7 GB (out of the 8). Same thing. Not a RAM thing, feels more like a CPU/GPU thing here (stuttering).
Regarding the game: Anyone have any idea why I get these graphical glitches?
 
the core clock has been locked to 1.0ghz on parallel m1 windows... I don't know why parallel can't solve this, the core clock should be 3.2ghz on m1... so I think this is the reason of lagging on win, 1.0ghz is too slow
 
Yes I saw that in Task-Manager but I figured it was a bug or misreported; 1 GHz is definitely too low. Maybe a mod here that could explain or give an update on this?
 
First of all, don't look at the reported speed, just because it says 1GHz doesn't mean it actually runs at that speed. Most importantly, you need 16GB of RAM to run games decently, not so much because of the RAM given to Windows 10 but because it changes the amount of graphics RAM. My first M1 was a MacBook Pro 8/512, and my favorite games (Mass Effect 1 2 and 3), were also stuttering because of not enough VRAM. When I changed it to a 16GB M1 MacBook Air, everything runs perfectly now as with 12 GB of RAM Parallels gives up to 8 GB of VRAM, instead of 2.

Also the 7 GPU configs are more weak than the 1GPU implies.
 
Also on your 8GB mac, giving 7 to Parallels does not mean anything, you don't have 7 to give... 4 is the most you can realistically give.
 
UI is lagging noticeably with 16GB Mac mini (8 core GPU). It's not about configuration.

I've just made a thread regarding this issue: https://forum.parallels.com/threads/slow-ui.353563/
You can check it by this popular UFO Test tool: https://www.testufo.com
It's 75fps/75Hz in macOS and 40-50fps in Windows.

I use 2 monitors -- for macOs and Windows separately and this lagging is very noticeable and annoying. There was no problem with my old MacBook Pro 15" 2015 and x86 Windows, so it's definitely not 'best Windows ever run using Parallels'.
 
First of all that is a completely outdated (2017) test. I'm not even sure what it measures, on my MacBook Air 16GB M1 it gives 60 on the internal monitor, both for MacOS and Parallels (57-60). As far as Windows 10 is concerned, I can play Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 with 60 frames per sec on 1080P, all settings high.
On my previous MacBook Pro 16" i9-5500 Radeon Pro 8GB, I couldn't play them at all in Parallels, they were a slideshow, I had to boot bootcamp...
So yes they are the best Windows ever!
 
StefanosD said:
First of all that is a completely outdated (2017) test. I'm not even sure what it measures, on my MacBook Air 16GB M1 it gives 60 on the internal monitor, both for MacOS and Parallels (57-60). As far as Windows 10 is concerned, I can play Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 with 60 frames per sec on 1080P, all settings high.
On my previous MacBook Pro 16" i9-5500 Radeon Pro 8GB, I couldn't play them at all in Parallels, they were a slideshow, I had to boot bootcamp...
So yes they are the best Windows ever!
Click to expand...

This is closer to my experience. It was never possible to play a game cleanly on my MBP 16 in parallels. I always had to bootcamp. Plus it heated the room up vs the MBP 13 M1.
 
BobW11 said:
This is closer to my experience. It was never possible to play a game cleanly on my MBP 16 in parallels. I always had to bootcamp. Plus it heated the room up vs the MBP 13 M1.
Click to expand...

And I'll add, other virtualization solutions were the same on my MBP 16. It's not Parallels. Parallels always had better Windows performance than others.
 
StefanosD said:
First of all that is a completely outdated (2017) test. I'm not even sure what it measures, on my MacBook Air 16GB M1 it gives 60 on the internal monitor, both for MacOS and Parallels (57-60). As far as Windows 10 is concerned, I can play Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 with 60 frames per sec on 1080P, all settings high.
On my previous MacBook Pro 16" i9-5500 Radeon Pro 8GB, I couldn't play them at all in Parallels, they were a slideshow, I had to boot bootcamp...
So yes they are the best Windows ever!
Click to expand...

It's not an outdated test. You should spend more time on the topic before making conclusions.

BobW11 said:
And I'll add, other virtualization solutions were the same on my MBP 16. It's not Parallels. Parallels always had better Windows performance than others.
Click to expand...

Games runs much better and overall performance should be better. Apple M1 chips are great. Still, Windows UI is lagging for some reason and it's annoying.
I believe most of the users experience this lags, but not noticing. Those who used to high refresh rate monitors can see it right away.

The UFO tool is a great way to check it. It should always look like this in Parallels, if everything is fine. 60 fps and 60Hz synced or higher if you have higher refresh rate display. But it's not.
ZZ86BHW.png
 
The test is copyrighted 2017... and in my Air gives the same numbers in MacOS and Windows 10 latest Edge. Three suggestions, make sure that Parallels Tools are the last ones to be installed, also install DirectX and OpenCL+OpenGL for Arm from the Microsoft Store.
 
Also remember that Parallels always runs at 60Hz, even on my external 75Hz monitor, (at least that's what it says in the advanced display settings in Windows).
 
Parallels buffers the display and I'm not sure you will every get an accurate FPS to what is rendered. It's not writing to the GPU directly.
 
The OP is correct. The UI of Windows 10 is laggy. The mouse lags too. FPS at UFO test is only coming out to be 50FPS max.
Is there any settings or tweak we need to change in order to get full performance? Its strange that i never saw anyone on internet complaining about this issue.
 
Oddly enough Since upgrading to the final Win 10 build performance is gaming has dropped a bit. Granted I only play Elder Scrolls Online.
 
I was using windows 11 pro and gaming has been awesome.. I can't believe the smoothness,, ironically playing the same game in the Mac host pails in comparison.. if only the parallel app didn't kill the internet.. :(
 
Experiencing the same thing as SandroV when trying BFME 2 on parallels. Plays absolutely fine if you set the graphics to low-medium. If I weren't in a VM I'd have tried updating my graphics drivers. Is it something to do with this possibly?
 
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