You can see more detail on page 165 of the Parallels manual:
http://download.parallels.com/v3/en/GA/Parallels%20Desktop%20for%20Mac%20User%20 Guide.pdf
The display driver installed in Parallels is the only one that you can use. When you are running Windows using Parallels, the software needs to do some things to allow Windows access to the hardware. If you really want to get the best performance for gaming, you should be using BootCamp which allows Windows to run natively... with optimized display drivers.
Parallels Desktop 13 introduces a number of new features, including support for the latest Mac and Windows operating systems. We’ve already begun testing the new version and will have benchmark. OS X Parallels for Gaming? Discussion in 'Mac and PC Games' started by Washac. I'm a gamer and tried Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion. Hey guys in this video we'll be looking at Parallels 13, which in case you don't know is a Virtual Machine Manager, allowing you to run Windows on a Mac, Linux on a Mac, a Mac on a Mac. I saw a YouTube video of someone playing BattleField 4 with Parallels Desktop on the same model MacBook Pro I have, and the game seems to play fine. I wish to play DayZ and Overwatch, my question is: Will Parallels Desktop gaming effect my laptop's performance or lifespan (heat, etc.)? Home Forums > Parallels Desktop for Mac > Windows Guest OS Discussion > Dota 2 in Parallels Desktop 13. Discussion in 'Windows Guest OS Discussion' started by AlexanderK9, Jan 29, 2018. Windows 10 Gaming profile / 8 GB RAM / 2 GB Vram / Vsyn ON / DirectX 10. Click to expand.
I have a late 2012 MacBook Pro 13' non-retina display and I use Boot Camp to dual-boot windows and Mac. I recently came across an application called Parallels Desktop for Mac that promised faster and better performance to what I was experiencing when natively loading Windows using Boot Camp.
I have used this software for a couple days and I love it, however I notice a big problem when it comes to gaming on it. What I am seeing is that when I play a Steam game (I.e. Skyrim or Fallout: New Vegas), when it tries to detect the default video settings it sets it to ultra high quality. This would be fine but the problem is, the game does not load at all unless I manually set it to low quality, yet, when I play the game natively, I can get away with using medium quality. My question is, what can I do to actually get the game to play at ultra high quality?
grg♦1 Answer
Parallels will rarely be as fast as natively booting Windows via Bootcamp, especially when you're gaming. You're much better off ditching parallels and going back to bootcamp for gaming. By running the VM, you're limiting the amount of resources that are available to OS X and your VM environment; thereby, making each run slower. On some machines where a faster processor and large amounts of RAM are available, may speed it up, but it will never be as smooth as running it natively.