Parallels has announced the release candidate for the next version of Parallels Desktop for Mac. The final version of Parallels 3.0 is expected to arrive in the next few weeks and will bring support for 3-D graphics as well as two major new features — SmartSelect and Snapshots.
The graphics improvements should be welcome news for gamers as Parallels 3 will offer support for both DirectX and OpenGL graphics in the virtual machine. At the moment Vista's Aero interface is still not supported, though the Parallels site says it's in the works.
Gaming Using Parallels VM On Mac Posted on March 2, 2016 by prsgame in gaming, Mac, Uncategorized, xbox Following on from my post regarding Steam Gaming on the 2015 Macbook Pro, there was a part of me jealous that I couldn’t play some of the older Windows games on Steam, that I had missed out on over the years. Gaming on a Mac may be more restrictive than with a desktop PC running Windows, but if you choose the right Mac hardware, and are willing to pay for it, you’ll be able to play most games without. Home Forums > Parallels Desktop for Mac > Windows Guest OS Discussion > Parallels 10 and Gaming Discussion in ' Windows Guest OS Discussion ' started by MacGamer, Aug 24, 2014. So along with a new Macbook Pro that came with Parallels Desktop 9, I was thinking woo who, I can run window programs and download games that are solely for windows. To my surprise, I seem to have.
While it remains to be seen how well graphics intensive games perform under the new features, at least Mac gamers will have another possible option.
Of the two major new features the most interesting is SmartSelect which allows users to map files on the Mac desktop so that they automatically open in Windows apps. For instance you can set all your .doc files to open in Microsoft Word 2007 and the virtual machine will launch whenever you double clicking a Word document.
Having to manually launch Windows apps and then open files was the main reason I abandoned Parallels a while back, so I'm look forward to testing the new version when it officially arrives.
https://groovetree891.weebly.com/best-price-for-parallels-13-for-mac.html. The other noteworthy new feature is Snapshots, which offers the ability to save the state of a virtual machine and roll back to the saved state whenever you get a virus, er, need to.
There are an additional 50 or so new features in the new release, as well as about a 100 bug fixes, which you can peruse in the release notes.
If the announcement alone has sold you, Parallels is offering version 3 at the discount upgrade price of $40 until June 6. After that it'll be $50 to upgrade and $80 for a brand new copy. We'll be sure to give the full rundown when the public release arrives.
Screenshots from the Parallels site:
Overview
With Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac and later you can play Windows games that require DirectX 11. If you upgrade to Parallels Desktop 15 from earlier versions, DirectX 11 will become available automatically in Windows after installing new Parallels Tools.
Parallels for mac copy files from os x. Play many favorite games including:
![Parallels Parallels](/uploads/1/3/3/2/133274285/968014109.jpg)
- Madden 19
- FIFA 19
- Anno 2205
- Railway Empire
- Space Engineers
- Frostpunk
- Risk of Rain 2
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
- Mark of the Ninja: Remastered
- Crysis 3 and many more.
Requirements
System requirements for DirectX 11:
- macOS 10.14.4 and later, macOS 10.15 and later
- Parallels Desktop 15 and later
- Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7
![Parallels for mac gaming Parallels for mac gaming](/uploads/1/3/3/2/133274285/632244081.jpg)
Tune Windows for Best Performance
To ensure that your Windows virtual machine shows the best performance, please follow the steps below:
- Shutdown Windows virtual machine
- Open virtual machine's configuration > click 'Change..' button > select 'Games only' profile > click OK.
Note: This profile changes macOS and Windows sharing settings. If you want to enable Shared Applications and Shared Profile, visit Options tab > 'Sharing' and 'Applications' settings respectively.
Performance Disclaimer
Most of DirectX 11 games are hardware stressful applications, thus their performance is directly related to Mac hardware (GPU, CPU and hard disk).
Note: macOS 10.15 Catalina is recommended for the best graphics performance (due to improved Apple Metal performance).
To check what Processor and Graphics your Mac equipped with, go to > About This Mac > System Report.. > Graphics/Displays.
It is recommended that your Mac has a dedicated PCIe graphics adapter:
Parallels Mac For Students
Note: Alternatively, you can use an external graphics processor with Mac. Learn more..