virtual machine vs. using bootcamp as a virtual machine

[kenmarcus]

Has anyone tested out the difference is performance between running Revit on a virtual machine with Windows installed versus creating a virtual machine using the Bootcamp install of windows with Revit? When I spoke with Apple they suggested this as a setup option.This way I didn't need to have windows and revit installed twice plus anything you do in bootcamp appears in the Virtual environment and vice versa.

I am just wondering if one method is better then the other?

[saeborne]

If you're dead set on using a virtual environment like Parallels, then it's probably better to run the virtual machine from a BootCamp partition. There really shouldn't be a performance difference between the two methods you describe. The only distinction is where the Windows OS is installed... on the same drive, or on a separate partition.

Plus, if you are finding stability issues with Parallels, then you can always boot straight into BootCamp and work in Windows Natively. Here you should see a minor performance boost. The other method does not give you this flexibility.

Personally, I would choose to run Windows Natively. Adding a second layer of operating system only seems like trouble to me. That said, I love using my mac at home.

Good luck.

[jspartz]

VMs are much safer for security and offer more flexibility. Bootcamp isn't a VM, it's a dual boot option to a different partition. Performance should be equal but with less RAM available in a VM, because of overhead used by OS X being loaded and any mac programs open. When using Windows in VM, your VM will minimize the RAM used in OS X to a idle state though.

[owensharp]

Keep in mind booting into either Bootcamp or the VM (VMWare/Parallels) after you have been in the other will cause Autodesk products to think you are on a new machine and invalidate the license, bringing up the Repair License dialog ... which you can only do so many times

[Elmo]

Bootcamp all the way. Only seen issues with the Parallels.

[saeborne]

VMs are much safer for security and offer more flexibility. Bootcamp isn't a VM, it's a dual boot option to a different partition. Performance should be equal but with less RAM available in a VM, because of overhead used by OS X being loaded and any mac programs open. When using Windows in VM, your VM will minimize the RAM used in OS X to a idle state though.

Right. But you can point Parallels to use your Boot Camp partition, as a virtual machine, while running OS X. That's what the OP was asking.

[kenmarcus]

Owen,

I am not sure what is happening with the license validation for you but I have not experienced an issue with the license in 2011 and only noticed a problem with 2010 if I had an external USB hard drive connected at startup of Parallels. I know this was an know issue and it appears to have been fixed with 2011 but just to safe, I try never start up parallels with an external hard drive connected to my machine. I have been jumping back and forth between my 2 parallels VM for several months without issue of losing my licensing.

The only issue I have noticed running Revit via Parallels VM is the display of the realistic materials in 3D views does not always appear correctly. I understand this is a know issue and hopefully will get fixed. Sometimes it works fine and other times it is all missed up. I did notice that it does appear correctly if I bootup my MAC in bootcamp.

I am going to rerun some rendering comparisons between the 3 different installs and I will report back the results if any one is interested. Does anyone know if any on the preformance/rendering tests put together for 2009 was ever updated for 2011?

[kenmarcus]

By the way, I was a struggling with running Revit via Parallels at first. It was unbearably slow so I was using bootcamp all of the time because it was dramatically faster. However, then I found this post on AUGI by iru69 titled "Parallels 5 (OS X)/Windows 7/Revit 2010" which broken down all of the settings for tweaking Parallels to run at it's peak. Thanks you so much iru69. Users have also added settings for VMWare and Fusion 3 and there are comparisons on performance of the 3 installs. This was great because prior to this I was using bootcamp all the time to run Revit but after the modifications I no longer noticed much of difference and I really like to be able to jump back and forth between my MAC and Revit without rebooting. Also, I have all of my data on my MAC and only run applications on Windows so I use Time Machine to back up all of my data and don't need to duplicate information on different OS's. It also is backing up my Parallels install image.


Here is the link to iru69's post: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=110905