Hi, wanted to use Parallels Desktop on a Mac Pro (2.5GHz 28-Core, 768GB, 8TB,1xW6800X) and would like to know how much VM's with 32GB Ram can be used in parallel (simultaneously)? Best regards A.N.
Theoretically, you could run 24 VMs @ 32GB each (24 * 32 = 768). Of course, that doesn't take into account the needed memory for macOS (I like to use 2GB as a gauge), plus some extra for daemons and tools. Is your Mac Pro Apple Silicon or Intel? Apple's memory management is quite good, but an overabundance of VMs will likely result in memory swapping because Parallels itself has some overhead. My "informed guess" would be 20 VMs at 32GB each.
I'm guessing that's an Intel Mac Pro (nice/jealous) The above calculations aside, if the VMs aren't housed on an SSD, then you're going to take a big performance hit. This forced me to modify my modded Mid 2012 MBP to swap the 2 Tb secondary drive to an SSD. My Mid 2012 MBP with 16 Gb RAM can handle 2 VMs (4 core, 8 Gb RAM) before maxing out the system and I can't expect to do much of anything on the Host as I'm really pushing my luck. My 2019 MBP/Intel with 32 Gb RAM can easily handle 3 VMs (4 core, 8 Gb RAM) with moderate Host activity. Note: I'm using the basic, consumer version of the app, so I'm limited to 4 core, 8 Gb RAM per VM
Thank you for your answers. The Mac Pro will be here in 6 weeks and I will test the whole thing then and report here. THANKS!
