Virtualization - Are there drawbacks to Bootcamp being virtualized?

[Parallels User]

I've searched both google and these forums and haven't found the discussion (always an either/or discussion on bootcamp and parallels and not a both discussion) so forgive me if this is covered elsewhere.

I'm going to freshly reinstall windows 8.1. I know the big advantage to bootcamp is the ability to directly boot (which I would do every so often if that was available to me). I know that my predominant use will be as a virtual machine, however. I'm wondering if there is a disadvantage to doing a bootcamp install and virtualizing it other than a resizable hard disk. Mostly interested in performance hits/increases.

 

[EllwoodN]

How virtual machine performance impacts you depends totally on how
you would be using your computer.

If you are doing anything that is very graphics intensive or heavy duty
gaming, there would be a significant performance hit as the virtual machine
does not directly leverage the computers GPU but rather emulates a GPU.

It is possible to have the best of both worlds however. You can create a
Bootcamp install and also create a virtual machine in the Mac OS of that
install. You can then natively boot into windows for those tasks that require
all the horsepower the computer can muster or use as a virtual machine for
the less demanding tasks.

 

[Parallels User]

Thanks for the response - I really appreciate you taking the time to try and help me. I fully understand what you're recommending - that is where my question stems from.

My question is, when I have a bootcamp install that I then run as a virtual machine on Mac OS X what do I gain/loose vs. a pure virtual machine install? In other words, not an either/or question but more when I do both. Do I gain anything other than the ability to boot directly into windows and do I loose anything other than an expandable hard disk and being able to suspend the vm?