Update (September 4, 2015): Looking for benchmarks of the latest versions of Fusion and Parallels? Check out our 2015 updates below:

Original Article Begins Below

The release of consumer-focused virtualization software for OS X has become a yearly event, with offerings from Parallels and VMware hitting the market each fall. With this relatively rapid upgrade cycle, it’s important to take a fresh look at performance comparisons each year, with the hope of guiding consumers on which product to choose, or revealing if an upgrade is even necessary at all.

This year, we’re looking at the newly released Parallels Desktop 10 and VMware Fusion 7, but we’ve also tested VirtualBox, free software from Oracle that provides a significant level of functionality. Historically, VirtualBox’s “free” price tag has come with a significant performance hit compared to the commercial options. But, as our benchmarks will demonstrate, it may be enough to meet the needs of many users.

These benchmarks are divided into sections based on each test. You can navigate the sections using the Next and Previous buttons below, or jump to a particular section using the following table of contents:

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1. Introduction

2. Hardware, Software, and Methodology

3. Geekbench

4. 3DMark06

5. Cinebench R15

6. PCMark 8

7. Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0

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8. Handbrake Video Encoding

9. iTunes Audio Encoding

10. File Transfer Speed

11. Virtual Machine Management

12. Battery Life

13. Conclusions

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