I've just installed Parallels 8 on my MBP retina and have some problems. It running slower and at much higher CPU temperature than it was with #7 but main problem application SW is not working properly. Some like Firefox can see full resolution but everything is extremely and annoyingly small but some like my main Windows SW of interest Altium CAD doesn't work properly. It can't see full resolution and picture is obviously very bad. 3D features are not working properly either with DirectX 10 or 9. Even if I disable full resolution in Parallels settings Altium 3D still has a lot of artifacts and CPU still running hot with Windows with a loud fan noise. With Parallels 7 everything was working just fine. I'm not sure why did I pay $50 and degrade my system. This CAD SW is my primary tool and I can't afford such a system behavior. Thanks P.S. Rolled back to version 7 and no problem in 3D but CPU is still running hot!
update After reboot with Parallels 7 it looks fine so far. $50 and more than 2 hours spent for nothing. You guys shouldn't release it in such a raw conditions. Better be do it a month later than like this. From SW quality like this you market share only go down not up. Speed to the market is nothing, quality and stability is much more important.
I have the same problem as you. I am using Altium as well and I have a lot of display artifacts and flicker in 3D but as bad in 2D mode. I am running the system on a Hackingtosh and thought that the problem was related to this. However as you said it works great under Parallels 7. My upgrade was not worth it and I have to switch back to Parallels 7 until this problem is fixed.