NOTE: This should work for all games, but the procedure for loading up directx level 7 is different for each game. I was able to increase my FPS from 12 to around 50 in Half Life 2 by forcing directx level 7 to be used rather than the default 8.1 that parallels seems to have used for their adapter. The graphics also appear to be very good under level 7 close to 9 in my opinion. To begin: In your steam menu, right click on the game, click properties, then launch options and in the blank field type: -dxlevel 70 exactly as you see it in bold with a space between the 70 and dxlevel. This made the frame rate much smoother, but its obviously not a "real fix". I can't gurantee this will work for everyone else, but so you guys know. I'm on the original Imac Dual Core Intel 20 incher with 2 GB of RAM. My VM for parallels is on an external firewire drive. I did some research and it appears that all of our macs with the X1600 Radeon and up has a DirectX hardware level of 9.0c (could be wrong), but it appears they do. So hopefully Parallels will give "true native" support and access to the X1600 through their software. Let me know how your experiences go.
