Graphic apps lag due to GPU?

K

kaidomac

Member
I just loaded up Paint Shop Pro 7 (a graphics app, like a lightweight Photoshop) on XP under Parallels and I'm getting a bit of lag when painting. I have a tablet and I use Photoshop, Painter, and Paint Shop Pro with it regularly. Paint Shop Pro is only available for Windows and I would really miss using it. I notice that when I paint fast, I get some serious lag behind my strokes. Is this due to (1) the weak integrated GPU being shared between OS X and XP or (2) just the fact that Parallels is a virtual machine and will never run that fast? I'm perfectly willing to upgrade to an Apple tower in the future if having a better, dedicated graphics card will mean improved graphics performance, but I need to know if it's a Parallels limitation or a graphics card limitation.
 
Parallels doesn't use the GPU, it's all emulated. I think you confidently say this is due to emulation. I'm assuming you're usinga mini or macbook, because the MPG has a great GPU.
 
VTMac said:
Parallels doesn't use the GPU, it's all emulated. I think you confidently say this is due to emulation. I'm assuming you're usinga mini or macbook, because the MPG has a great GPU.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to post that I had an Intel Mini. So the GPU is emulated on the MBP as well? I was hoping that maybe having a better video card would improve graphics performance...
 
Benchmark do not give all needed answers but here are some numbers from Fresh Diagnose (in order, respectively: type: Parallels - Native/BootCamp):

Processor
Drystones: 7137 - 6092
Whetstones: 5144 - 5397

Graphics
Random Pixels: 1,000 - 466
Lines: 251,333 - 147,333
Circles: 37,484 - 15,439
Rectangles: 78,302 - 43,653
Texts: 600,233 - 959,705
Flood Fills: 1,581,250 - 2,103,140
Draw: 30,446 - 38,536

Some results give Parallels better. Strange indeed. But all benchmarks are strange.

MacBook - 2Gbyte RAM - Intel GMA 950
 
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