High end games fail - which GPU does Parallels emulate?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by JonathanK8, Nov 13, 2020.

  1. JonathanK8

    JonathanK8 Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    System setup:
    iMac i7 3.8GHz, 64GB RAM
    Radeon Pro 5700XT, 16GB RAM

    Software failing:
    Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020

    I've been figuring out how to run MSFS on a 2020 iMac. My Mac easily meets the 'ideal' system requirements for the game.

    Parallels standard version is unable to run MSFS because the game requires more memory than the 8GB RAM limit that Parallels places on standard. If you upgrade to Pro, you can increase RAM to pretty much whatever you've got (typically half is recommended). Like this, MSFS will start, no problem.

    You can setup flight plans and jump in a plane. This works really well in clear skies. But if you choose clouds, even the lowest cloud settings, the game hates this. With clouds, Flight Simulator under Parallels Pro flickers badly, flashing all of the clouds on and off 2-5x per second. So 'live weather' (which is gorgeous in game using Boot Camp) is a non-option. If you (or anybody who might accidentally see your screen) suffers from epilepsy, don't go anywhere near this.

    The game developer, Asobo, explains that these flashing clouds are a known issue, affecting older graphics cards, specifically the Nvidia 7XX series. Asobo are not aware of this problem occurring with any other range of graphics cards. And all recent GPUs have no problem at all.

    Does anybody know if (1) does Parallels Pro directly address the graphics card in my iMac, or is it creating its own virtual GPU emulator?, (2) if Parallels Pro is emulating a GPU, does anybody know when this was last updated? it seems to be emulating a virtual Nvidia 7XX. Which is pretty old now.

    This would explain why Parallels is starting to struggle with the current generation of Windows games. Please update this, so that Parallels can cope with current games...
     

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