recommended memory allocation for parallels on a macbook?

[chriswaar]

i'm going to be putting 2x1gb sticks into my macbook and i was wondering what the best allocation of memory for parallels is? Is 1gb for windows and 1gb for osx sufficient, or is there a better setup? right now i have 512mb in my macbook, and 176mb is allocated to windows, and that's a bit sluggish on both os's.

also, i'm a bit confused about the two different places you can change the memory allocation in parallels. i'm guessing one is for parallels and one is for the individual VM. am i correct? and could someone explain this further?

 

[joem]

I experimented with my 2GB MBP and found that setting memory in Parallels preferences to 1GB, and allocating 768 MB to Windows seemed to be about the performance sweet spot. If I wanted to run two VMs at the same time, I'd up the total allocation to about 1.2 GB and 512 MB for each VM.

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) since this was not a controlled experiment.

 

[luomat]

512 is not enough for OS X. It's criminally stupid for them to even sell it with 512. It just isn't enough.

You want at least 1gb for it to work nicely.

The good news is that XP needs only 512 mb of RAM to run nicely.

In fact PCWorld (or one of those) did a test which proved that the difference between WinXP and 256mb of RAM and 512 was DRAMATIC and the difference between 512 and 1GB was almost nothing.

So I'd allocute 512 to WinXP and leave the rest for OS X which will let it work very nicely. If you find WinXP running slowly, try upping it to 1gb but I doubt that you will see much of a difference.

 

[ehamburg]

512 is not enough for OS X. It's criminally stupid for them to even sell it with 512. It just isn't enough.

I disagree, if you are talking about the base configuration and an light usage pattern for a current model Mac. It is not "criminaly stupid" for Apple to sell such a configuration, although I may have come closer to agreeing when Apple was selling 256MB base configurations; it is about Apple selling an "adequate" base configuration at an appropriate price point to be competitive. Do you need more memory if you are going to run multiple native OS X memory intensive applications and Parallels simultaneously? Of course you do. I have a PowerMac dual G5 with 4GB and a MacBook Pro with 2 GB, because I need that much memory for my style of use. On the other hand I, just bought a MacBook with the basic 512MB configuration for my mother and, for what she will use the computer for 512MB memory is perfectly adequate.

BTW, I am finding that configuring Parallels with 1248MB reserved and 256MB for and XP Pro VM is working well for me. I had tried the VM with 512MB and 384MB and I really don't notice much if any difference in performance when using 256MB. As time goes on, I may need to adjust up, but I use Windows only when I have to. Using native Mac apps and interchange of file formats with my clients who use Windows works 80-90% of the time.

Of course your mileage may vary …