Problem Running Windows Games on Parallels

Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have installed Parallels connected to a Windows Vista BootCamp partition on a Macbook Intel Core 2 Duo w/4Gb memory installed.

When I tried to test out the Windows response rate in Parallels by running the pre-installed Vista card games, they came up very slowly and the programs were squirrelly and not really operable.

I changed the configuration in BootCamp to maximize the Video Memory at 64Mb, but it did ameliorate the running of the programs. I have not tested a whole lot to see if there are problems with other programs. I did run the Windows Open Office program and it seemed to work fine.

Do I need to change the Video Memory settings in Parallels also? What other settings and things can I possibly change or do to make the all the Windows programs work properly? The installed card games on Vista should not be too video intensive should they?
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
444
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Location
Surrey BC Canada
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini 2.5 i5/16Gb/500Gb/Radeon 6630M-256MB
Surprisingly, the card games included with Vista are video intensive, I used to run Vista on my main machine, a rather powerful desktop PC with an overkill video card and processor, under Vista EVERYTHING was slower than it was in XP Media Center Edition......suffice it to say, I will be selling my Vista upgrade disc soon lol.

Best thing I can recommend is run XP SP2 via Bootcamp.....it'll be more rewarding as far as speed goes.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
59
Reaction score
0
Points
6
First of all, what games are you trying to run on it?
Make sure this games doesn't have pretty high system requirements. Parallels won't run it well unfortunately.. I recommend you to run them thru Boot Camp. In the rest of the cases continue to use Parallels as it works perfect (IMHO).
Check this info about Parallels' 3D support.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
2,766
Reaction score
232
Points
63
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Your Mac's Specs
15" 2014 MacBook Pro, i7 2.5Ghz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD; iPad 3, iPhone 6
Ameliorate? Now there's a word you don't see every day, especially on forums.

What hardware are you running this on? You should certainly disable Aero Glass but also be aware that Parallels does not support DX9 acceleration particularly well. I don't know if disabling Aero means the built in games use a simpler graphics interface, but it might be worth a try.

First of all, what games are you trying to run on it?

It was mentioned in the 1st post, the built in Vista card games.
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
4,934
Reaction score
207
Points
63
Location
Anytown, USA
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, 4th gen Apple TV
Knowing your hardware specs would be helpful, but regardless of that the best thing to do in the end would be to get rid of Vista in go with XP. I had Vista and it ran ok through Bootcamp, but it was nearly unusable through a virtual machine (And so was OS X when VM was on). After going back to XP, everything runs very well.
 
OP
M
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I am running a Macbook 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/4Gb memory installed. None of the installed Vista games, even minesweeper, seem to work. I maxed the memory to 2Gb and the video memory to 64Mb all to no avail. It is still completely squirrelly and non-functioning.

I haven't messed with too much else on Vista, but the PDFs and the Open Office software has worked fine. I have seen no impact on the OS X whatsoever.

Thanks for the comments...
 
OP
M
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Following is the answer from a Parallels forum. Thanks again for the responses...


Vista and Standard Windows games

Problem Description:
Standard Windows games such as FreeCell, Hearts, Pinball and especially Solitaire and Minesweeper do not work in Vista guest operating system.
Symptoms:
Solitaire etc. "stops and starts erratically, even pauses/freezes" etc.
Cause:
These games require DirectX 9.x support.

Solution:
The problem will be fixed in the future versions of Parallels Desktop for Mac.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
59
Reaction score
0
Points
6
It was mentioned in the 1st post, the built in Vista card games.
msshain said:
These games require DirectX 9.x support

It is surprise for me that such games need DX9 support. :Smirk:
Yes, then it is clear why Parallels can't cope with them well..

fleurya said:
Knowing your hardware specs would be helpful, but regardless of that the best thing to do in the end would be to get rid of Vista in go with XP.

Agree. It will be better run reliable XP than still doubtful Vista.
But maybe msshain run Vista because of that card games. Then it won't solve your problem... :|
 
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
47
Reaction score
1
Points
8
And what is it necessary to do to use DX9 support games...? I do not understand what does it mean really...
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
2,766
Reaction score
232
Points
63
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Your Mac's Specs
15" 2014 MacBook Pro, i7 2.5Ghz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD; iPad 3, iPhone 6
And what is it necessary to do to use DX9 support games...? I do not understand what does it mean really...

Essentially it means the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) has to do a lot of work, because DirectX9 assumes quite a lot of things about your hardware, one of them being that you have a DX9 compatible GPU that can do things like pixel shading, vertex shading and have hardware TnL.

Now there are 2 things that will kill performance in the case of the original poster. One is that they are using a MacBook, which comes with the 'mighty' GMA950 (or maybe the X3100). The former does not even have hardware TnL (that's transform and lighting) meaning all the geometry set up calculations have to be done on the CPU. In PC the gaming world, this has not been the case since about 2001. God only knows why Intel decided to release a GPU without any TnL capabilities.

Even if they have the X3100, which DOES have hardware TnL (give Intel a pat on the back), the 2nd issue is running Vista on Parallels. Parallels does not have great DX9 support anyway, and many of the instructions are emulated via the VM. The pixel shaders for example. Essentially, the software is trying to simulate what the DX9 hardware would be expected to do, resulting in performance that is literally thousands of times slower than it should be.

Now you could blame Microsoft for requiring such insane hardware for a built in card game, or you could blame Apple for fitting the MacBook with such ancient tech, or you could blame parallels for not having advanced driver support in their VM core technology. Some especially harsh people would blame the user for trying to run Vista on Parallels, when all wisdom suggests this is a bad idea (what's wrong with XP?).

The answer is: Bootcamp + Better hardware.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top