One of the most frequent questions we've been getting recently is "Should I upgrade to Parallels Desktop 8 or VMware Fusion 5?" Even though these new versions shipped several weeks back, we generally like to wait a bit as the updates for virtualization software that follow a major release often make a difference.

We decided to put the new versions to the test on both a MacBook Pro as well as a MacBook Air (the SSD vs. hard drive make a difference). As with all of our benchmarks, this comparison is only about speed, and not about features.

For VMware Fusion, we tested and compared version 5 to version 4.1, the previous version. See the results at http://www.mactech.com/2012/12/19/vmware-fusion-5-vs-41-should-you-upgrade

For Parallels Desktop, we tested and compared version 8 to version 7, the previous version. See the results at http://www.mactech.com/2012/12/19/parallels-desktop-8-vs-7-should-you-up...