Up to 30 per cent better Windows 10 performance: Running a Windows 10 virtual machine on ARM Insider Preview on Parallels Desktop 16.5 on an M1 Mac performs up to 30 per cent better than a Windows 10 VM running on an Intel-based MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 processor.Īnybody with a Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac license can get an automatic update to Parallels Desktop 16.5 at no additional cost.Up to 60 per cent better DirectX 11 performance: Parallels Desktop 16.5 will run on a M1 Mac and deliver up to 60 per cent better DirectX 11 performance than an Intel-based MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 555X GPU.Up to 250 per cent lower power consumption: Parallels Desktop 16.5 on a Mac with an Apple M1 chip will consume 2.5 times less power than a 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air computer.Thanks to the virtualisation approach of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac, users can take advantage of the performance improvements of Apple's M1 chip to run applications faster and more efficiently. Parallels Access and the newly revamped and simplified Parallels Toolbox, both included free with a Parallels Desktop subscription, now offer native support for M1 Mac computers. Now that Parallels Desktop supports the M1 chip, more is possible than ever! The superior performance of the M1 chip provides the world's fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, revolutionary energy efficiency, and is designed to work with macOS Big Sur3, which with Parallels Desktop 16.5 sets a new standard for a seamless Windows-on-Mac experience. But what does that get the Parallels Desktop 16 user?

In the future you'll need to license this ARM version of Windows with a specific dedicated ARM license key for Windows 10. For now you can use the free Windows 10 insider preview. Please note if you want to use Windows 10 on your Parallels, you'll need a ARM version of Windows.

With this new version of Parallels you are prepared for the future. And Macbooks with this chip now have battery life that was barely achievable before. That 'M' may well stand for 'Masterpiece' or 'Magisterial' because Apple's latest computers with this chip built in are the fastest Apple has ever built.

This new version of Parallels Desktop now supports Apple's M1 chip. Why this is a nice upgrade? We'd like to explain.

Parallels desktop 16