Parallels today announced their Parallels Desktop 17 for Mac update. The new version brings support for Windows 11 and macOS Monterey, as well as many performance improvements and new features for devices based on Apple M1 chips.
What's new in Parallels Desktop 17
Parallels have partnered with Apple to provide incredible performance and stability, which are now also available for Apple's M1 devices. Version 17 allows creating the macOS Monterey virtual machine prototype that runs on a Mac with an Apple M1 processor.
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The main innovation in Parallels Desktop 17, of course, is support for Windows 11 and macOS Monterey. The latter can act as both the main and guest operating systems. The release of both systems is scheduled for the end of 2021, but now you can install preliminary versions of them in a virtual machine.
Performance improvements
In terms of performance improvements, Parallels says Windows, Linux and macOS systems are now 38% faster to resume on all supported devices. Also, it renders OpenGL graphics six times faster. 2D graphics performance on Windows improved by 25%.
In addition, on devices with Intel processors in macOS Big Sur virtual machines (or newer), the network connection speed is 60% faster than before. Macs with Apple M1 chips now run 33% faster on Windows 10 on ARM. Also, drive data transfer is now 20% faster. The similar for graphics processing with DirectX 11, that is now 28% faster.
Additionally, Parallels Desktop 17 introduces an improved display driver that improves the responsiveness and usability of the Windows user interface. It also provides higher frame rates in many 2D games such as Foregone and Smelter.
The software comes with improvements made to the Coherence mode. It will allow you to run Windows and Mac applications at the same time without even opening a Windows virtual machine window. So, users can no longer be distracted from important tasks, since the shutdown and logon screens will now be displayed in a separate window that can be easily minimized.
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