Parallels Desktop not optimised for MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Pro & Max?

G

GeoffreyZ

Member
I've read recently on another forum that a Parallels Desktop owner contacted Technical Support regarding support for the new MacBook Pro M1 Pro & Max models and was told that currently, Parallels Desktop V17.1.0 only supports Intel and M1 Macs.

Is this true? Does this mean that in a future update we will be provided with optimised support for the new MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon?

Thank you
 
GeoffreyZ said:
I've read recently on another forum that a Parallels Desktop owner contacted Technical Support regarding support for the new MacBook Pro M1 Pro & Max models and was told that currently, Parallels Desktop V17.1.0 only supports Intel and M1 Macs.

Is this true? Does this mean that in a future update we will be provided with optimised support for the new MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Hi, Parallels Desktop 17 works stable on new MacBook Pros, as good as on the "regular" Apple M1 chip, and even better. Obviously, no one was ready for the new displays, but please rest assured that we will optimize virtual machine usage in full screen on these new Macs in the future product updates.
 
Thank you Dmitry!

One suggestion I would like to mention (although I have no idea if it's technically possible) : For gaming purposes on specific Windows 11 ARM guests with macOS Monterey as the host, I'd like to assign 24 of 32 GPU cores to the virtual machine in order to maximise frame rates. Currently the options we have are assignment of CPU cores and shared memory without any mention of GPU core sharing, which I've seen on Intel MacBooks, where we can define how much memory is made available to the GPU in the virtual machine.
Also, many users have reported that games fail to start because they claim the GPU isn't recognised, which I'm sure your team will be able to quickly solve.

Again, thank you for your prompt reply and I look forward to a future update!
 
GeoffreyZ said:
Thank you Dmitry!

One suggestion I would like to mention (although I have no idea if it's technically possible) : For gaming purposes on specific Windows 11 ARM guests with macOS Monterey as the host, I'd like to assign 24 of 32 GPU cores to the virtual machine in order to maximise frame rates. Currently the options we have are assignment of CPU cores and shared memory without any mention of GPU core sharing, which I've seen on Intel MacBooks, where we can define how much memory is made available to the GPU in the virtual machine.
Also, many users have reported that games fail to start because they claim the GPU isn't recognised, which I'm sure your team will be able to quickly solve.

Again, thank you for your prompt reply and I look forward to a future update!
Click to expand...
Thanks, Geoffrey! Please note that Parallels Desktop doesn't support DirectX 12, and this may be another reason for games failing to start. As for assigning a specific number of GPU cores, macOS Metal API does not allow applications to control GPU cores assignment and utilization. Parallels Desktop just sends requests to Metal API and macOS decides how to allocate resources among GPU cores.

By the way, there's a nice wiki site with the list of games that users checked in Parallels Desktop on M1 Macs: https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/M1_Parallels_Windows_compatible_games_list, if you are interested in particular titles, check out this resource.
 
Hi, I have installed Windows Client ARM64 Insider Preview - Build 22483 in my new Macbook Pro 14" with M1 Pro chip using parallels
Version 17.1.0 (51516) and macos 12.0.1 (21A559).
Windows 11 is really buggy, I cannot use the start button and the search, settings doesnt load properly. Is there a workaround or will we have to wait for a fix from parallels?
A reinstallation didnt help at all.
 
AndreasK37 said:
Hi, I have installed Windows Client ARM64 Insider Preview - Build 22483 in my new Macbook Pro 14" with M1 Pro chip using parallels
Version 17.1.0 (51516) and macos 12.0.1 (21A559).
Windows 11 is really buggy, I cannot use the start button and the search, settings doesnt load properly. Is there a workaround or will we have to wait for a fix from parallels?
A reinstallation didnt help at all.
Click to expand...
YES! Thank god I am not the only one that has this issue. I tried contacting support but they never got back to me. I have the exact same specs and update and have the same issue. Plus it crops in my screen so I have thick bezels on a 2021 MacBook...
 
Vic3 said:
YES! Thank god I am not the only one that has this issue. I tried contacting support but they never got back to me. I have the exact same specs and update and have the same issue. Plus it crops in my screen so I have thick bezels on a 2021 MacBook...
Click to expand...
+1
I have also the same specification and the same problems!!!!!
 
I am having the exact same issue. I have a MacBook Air M1 so I was thinking that my computer isn't strong enough... I have two tickets but no response just yet.
 
AndreasK37 said:
Hi, I have installed Windows Client ARM64 Insider Preview - Build 22483 in my new Macbook Pro 14" with M1 Pro chip using parallels
Version 17.1.0 (51516) and macos 12.0.1 (21A559).
Windows 11 is really buggy, I cannot use the start button and the search, settings doesnt load properly. Is there a workaround or will we have to wait for a fix from parallels?
A reinstallation didnt help at all.
Click to expand...

I think I have pretty much the same issue as you and my configuration seems to be similar as yours. After the initial installation of Windows 11 I was expecting to get a window from which I could update Windows but it never appeared. I tried to manually open the settings menu but when I clicked on the button in the bottom bar nothing happened. I shut everything and rebooted but I got the same result. FYI, my laptop is brand new; I only made the update of the Mac OS and then installed Parallel Desktop 17 following the steps from the website. So, conflicts with other apps or particular setups seem to me unlikely.
 
Hi guys, sorry to hear that you experience this issue. Can you please check if updating Windows 11 to build 22489.1000 (rs_prerelease) helps? Simply go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > check for updates.
 
Dmitry@Parallels said:
Hi guys, sorry to hear that you experience this issue. Can you please check if updating Windows 11 to build 22489.1000 (rs_prerelease) helps? Simply go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > check for updates.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately it is not possible to call the "Settings" or the "Search" or something like that. So, I don't have an idea how to "Check for updates"....
 
Dmitry@Parallels said:
Hi guys, sorry to hear that you experience this issue. Can you please check if updating Windows 11 to build 22489.1000 (rs_prerelease) helps? Simply go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > check for updates.
Click to expand...
Now I was able to Update Windows 11 to build 22489.1000 and it seems to be better.....
 
Hi Dmitry

I am currently running that Build on my MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max after updating from the original Insider Preview installer.

I'm not experiencing the same issues as the others reported here, but am unable to select a display resolution matching the macOS default. However, when connected to an external display at its default 1920 x 1080 resolution I'm not having any issues other than with graphics performance, which is no better than what I'd experienced previously with my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 model. I would have expected higher frame rates in the Windows games I play, one running in Direct 3d8 and the other in Direct 3d11, but so far haven't seen any improvement.

Is there a workaround we can apply to force a display resolution of 1512x982 or will we need to wait for an update to Parallels Tools?

Thanks for your help!

Geoffrey
 
RalfH2 said:
Unfortunately it is not possible to call the "Settings" or the "Search" or something like that. So, I don't have an idea how to "Check for updates"....
Click to expand...
Oh, right.. It's good that you managed to open it!

For the others, to open Windows Update, press Cmd+R and type ms-settings:windowsupdate > hit Enter.
 
GeoffreyZ said:
Hi Dmitry

I am currently running that Build on my MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max after updating from the original Insider Preview installer.

I'm not experiencing the same issues as the others reported here, but am unable to select a display resolution matching the macOS default. However, when connected to an external display at its default 1920 x 1080 resolution I'm not having any issues other than with graphics performance, which is no better than what I'd experienced previously with my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 model. I would have expected higher frame rates in the Windows games I play, one running in Direct 3d8 and the other in Direct 3d11, but so far haven't seen any improvement.

Is there a workaround we can apply to force a display resolution of 1512x982 or will we need to wait for an update to Parallels Tools?

Thanks for your help!

Geoffrey
Click to expand...
Hi Geoffrey, please send a technical report via the Help menu, I will check your configuration and maybe suggest some settings adjustments to boost gaming performance.

In regards to the display resolution, I would need to ask you a few questions to understand the situation better:
  1. Do you use Windows in full screen?
  2. Have you checked and toggled Retina resolution settings? (View > Retina resolution) Try using "Best for external displays" and let me know how it goes.
  3. Do you want to control Windows display resolution manually?
 
Hi again Dmitry!

Thank you for your suggestion regarding my display resolution issue.

I had previously selected "Scaled" in the Graphics settings. When I changed to "Best for external displays" I was told to sign out of my Windows virtual machine. I then changed the default scale to 100% (I believe it had been set to 125%) but wasn't able to find a custom resolution of 1512 x 982, so I restarted the machine and this solved the issue. The desired custom resolution was then provided in the drop-down list and all is well.
 
Dmitry@Parallels said:
Hi guys, sorry to hear that you experience this issue. Can you please check if updating Windows 11 to build 22489.1000 (rs_prerelease) helps? Simply go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > check for updates.
Click to expand...
Hey Dimitry,

One part of my problem is that, since the settings menu (see the image to make sure we're talking about the same menu) doesn't open in Windows 11, I can't update... at least from there. Is there another way to do it; keyboard shortcuts for instance?
upload_2021-11-3_12-23-35.png -> this button doesn't open any menu!
 
Oh, sorry Dimitry, I just saw that you suggested using Cmd+R to open a window and use the "ms-settings:windowsupdate > hit Enter" command.
However, when using that method, I get the following error:
upload_2021-11-3_12-38-2.png

Best.
 
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