The last time I posted results was a few months ago. I’ve still been testing all three. Recently I completed network transfer tests. For these tests, I used Vista Ultimate SP1 with Parallels 3 and Fusion 2.

This time the MBP was configured with 4GB of RAM. I had 2GB allocated to the VM. Fusion had both cores selected, and Parallels was set to be optimized for the VM. I also disabled App Sharing in Parallels as it created massive performance issues in previous tests. I did not install MacFuse as Fusion prompted.

Network transfer time benchmarks between Apple Boot Camp 2.1, Parallels 3 and Fusion 2

Doing the math, Parallels seems to cap out at 100Mb with the large file transfer.

Initially I did not run these network tests. For some reason, the network driver Apple supplied did not support gigabit. However, they updated it (in 2.1 I believe) and that gave Windows Gb access. I’ve verified that both Fusion and Parallels are configured to use gigabit. (I didn’t check Boot Camp because the throughput is evidence in itself.)

As you can see, nothing really substitutes running natively. In some circumstances, it may actually be faster to reboot and use Boot Camp than it would to try and make a transfer via Parallels or Fusion. For all but writing to the remote server, Fusion was faster than Parallels.

One issue I noticed but didn’t run scientific tests on, was the amount of time it takes to delete files over the network. Both Fusion and Parallels took quite a bit longer to delete files than Boot Camp. For example, it took roughly 20 seconds to delete the 2028 files (56.9MB.)

What’s next?

I’m struggling to find 3D applications that run under all three solutions. Fusion 2 seems to fair better than Parallels 3. For example, FarCry (1) does not display even remotely correctly in Parallels. Oddly enough, it’s actually listed on their site as a game one can play under Parallels. I’ve asked Parallels about that, but did not receive a response.

Adobe turned me down to get a test version of Photoshop. Unfortunately, the trial version does not like virtual machines and promptly ends the trial.

I’ve got about a dozen images setup for the testing. They have all been fully loaded with apps and I will continue to run tests on them.