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No Stupid Questions (Developer Edition) @programming.dev Howard Do @programming.dev

Why UTM VMs so slow compared to Parallel Desktop on my Intel MacBook

Hi, I'm using a MacBook Pro 2018, and I'm dipping my toes into virtual machine, tried VirtualBox and then moved to QEMU with UTM after some recommendation on YouTube saying KVM is just better.

However, my Windows 10 virtual machine created with UTM is so slow and laggy. Then I tried the Parallel Desktop, which is propriety and the performance is so much better. Why is that?

I don't want to use a propriety paid program for VM, so I want to ask how to improve performance on UTM or any open-source alternative that gives the performance on par with one on parallel desktop.

Thanks for your help!

2
2 comments

  • UTM doesn’t have GPU acceleration support. Parallels does.

    You are NOT currently going to get performance parity with Parallels from anything. It’s the best of breed product for the platform and they have a fiscal interest in staying that way.