How does the performance of Parallels Desktop for Mac 5 compare to VMWare Fusion 3? How does the performance compare for productivity applications? How does it compare for games?

For the answer to this question, there is no better option than to devour the brillantly detailed special feature from the always excellent MacTech.

The entire feature is eight pages long and absolutely should be read in its entirety for the complete perspectives and test results provided by Neil Ticktin and the rest of the hard working MacTech team.

However, the publication ultimately concludes:

In the majority of overall averages of our tests, Parallels Desktop 5 is the clear winner running 30% faster than VMware Fusion 3.0.1 with Windows XP, and 43% faster with Windows 7. And, the difference is even more apparent when looking at graphics. If gaming, graphics, and 3D are your thing, you have no choice. Parallels Desktop 5 has so much better graphics support, and is so much faster in most of the comparisons, there's simply no contest.

For gaming in particular, you may also enjoy this video clip from MacTech, which illustrates the performance difference between the software programs quite dramatically:

Both systems are identical MacBook Pro "Core 2 Duo" 2.66 15" (Early 2009/Unibody) models operating MacOS X 10.6.2 "Snow Leopard" and virtualizing Windows XP. The Mac on the left is running VMWare Fusion 3 and the Mac on the right is running Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.

If you like extremely detailed performance analysis, it is highly encouraged that you subscribe to MacTech to show your support of the publication.

Site sponsor Other World Computing sells the latest versions of Parallels Desktop for Mac and VMWare Fusion.

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