I have an iMac G5 (non-intel) with MS Virtual PC for Mac -- I bought the software primarily to use the PC version of Quicken since the Mac version is less than adequate. However, the response time is very slow and I found it unpractical. How is the response time w/Parallels? Is their a benchmark comparison vs. Virtual PC? Also, I understand that Parallels desktop will only run on an intel mac- please confirm - thanks!
parallels is MUCH MUCH faster than virtual pc on a g5. it actually runs _faster_ doing photoshop work than my p4 2.8ghz PC. ..make sure you have 2 gigs of ram and you'll be pleased.
Windows under Parallels is a tad slower than Windows running natively via Bootcamp, but it is infinitely much faster than Windows under Virtual PC. Virtual PC is nigh unusable, but I use Parallels every day at work. And you're right, Parallels only runs on an Intel Mac.
It runs at near native speed. In otherwords, if you purchased a Dell with the same processor (or installed BootCamp), it will run most apps at about the same speed - sometimes faster due to its cache implementation. Here is a series of benchmarks I ran on the release candidate a short while ago. http://forum.parallels.com/thread2451.html
