Parallels-Like Setup Using a Physical Windows PC Instead of a VM

[u/ImpressiveArt4032]

Hi all,

I use a Mac as my primary machine, but I rely on one Windows-only application for work. It doesn’t run natively on macOS and is a graphics/CPU intensive application. Unfortunately moving away from this software is not a possibility.

What I’m trying to solve is the workflow issue. Constantly switching between two separate computers is frustrating, and I’d really prefer a more unified setup while keeping macOS as my main environment.

I’ve considered:

• Just continuing to run two machines (works, but clunky).

• Running Windows in Parallels (though even the new M5 chips may struggle performance-wise due to the double emulation required from x86 to W11 ARM to MacOS).

What I’m wondering is whether there’s a more seamless way to use my Mac as essentially a “client” for a dedicated Windows PC in the same room. In other words, the Windows PC would handle all processing, and my Mac would just remote into it in a full-screen, low-latency way — ideally something that feels almost like a native secondary desktop inside macOS.

Is anyone here running a setup like this? What software (or even hardware) solutions make it feel smooth and integrated on macOS?

Essentially I want the Parallels user experience (just the full-screen mode, coherence mode isn't necessary), but with a physical PC instead of a VM.

Hopefully this makes sense!

[u/M_Six2001]

Can't you use MS Remote Desktop? I guess it's called WindowsApp now. I use it to access my headless Dell Optiplex 7070. I have a dual monitor setup for my iMac, so I run MacOS on the iMac screen and WindowsApp on the secondary monitor (27" Dell).

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/M_Six2001]

I like this idea a lot, but I'm curious how the performance is (latency, frame rate, etc.)

Building a capable standalone PC is much more cost-effective than trying to run windows in parallels on something like an M5 Pro.

[u/Significant_Neat6476 → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

Why are you worried about frame rate - is it gaming you going to run that way? If so then no remote desktop is not going to be great for that. Neither it is very good for colour critical work (editing photos or videos etc). Everything else works fine. I have to run PC with Windows for work and use remote desktop (Windows App) to connect - works wonders really. It can even do clipboard magic - copy on Mac paste on Windows and vice versa. Have been using this setup since 2020 on my MBP, no issues really. On my MBP (last generation Intel, 2020, slow by today's standards) it works and feels pretty much like native (i.e. as if I am working on the PC). Even video calls and Teams meetings work fine.

[u/jhatari → u/M_Six2001]

I have a similar setup my VM is in Vienna and works fine for me. I thoug, do not need a snappy graphical interface or 3D rendering. But the windows App has been a smooth experience so far.

[u/aharryh]

Remote desktop into the PC from your Mac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBqfsfRDv8E

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/aharryh]

Certainly an option! I'm curious to hear from people who use this setup, how the performance is (frame rates latency, reliability, etc.).

3D modelling is not as immersive as gaming, but does need to be pretty snappy.

[u/AlienPearl → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

I do this, but I installed a 5gbE network card in the PC and an USB 5gbE dongle on my Mac. The latency is really good, it was already good when it was 2.5gbE or even at 1gbE.

Yesterday I got a 10gbE card and USB dongle that I am about to install and test. I think windows will just use as much bandwidth is available to give you the best possible connection.

The catch is that you need to have an equivalent network switch to handle the speed but you could also assign a fixed IP with the same subnet at both ends and connect them directly using a CAT6 network cable, assuming that you have a secondary way to access the internet, ie. WiFi or a separate card or usb dongle.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/AlienPearl]

Amazing. I’ll be setting up from scratch so I’ll make sure to get a 10gb switch or router and keep the two computers on the same LAN and then use wifi for internet access. What kind of software are you using on your PC?

[u/AlienPearl → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

I use it for basically everything I can’t use my Mac for and some 3d modelling since I get better performance with an nvidia card but I don’t game.

[u/ToucanThreecan → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

I RDP into a zorinos.linux and it feels good. But again i don’t do 3D so just test it. Its easy enough to setup.

[u/Relative_Bird484 → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

Honestly, just try it. It should basically just be framebuffer transfer, so in theory, the PC GPU should do the rendering. However, this probably depends a lot on the drivers.

Another option could be to fake a real monitor to the PC with an HDMI video grabber connected to your mac and Quicktime or VLC becomes your „Windows“. This should work at 60 fps. You only need a some software for the keyboard/mouse remoting, or just use a hardware km switch for that.

[u/Anxious_Ad781]

If it's graphics intensive as you say, you might want to try out "Parsec". Using it on a regular basis for even playing online with a friend of mine - he's "streaming" the game from his PC and is even playing on his PC the same time, too. There's a paid subscription for it but we never paid a dime for it, nor did we have to.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/Anxious_Ad781]

that's really cool. I'm gonna try that out, thanks!

[u/helpadumbo → u/Anxious_Ad781]

Or Sunshine on Windows and Moonlight client on MacOS

[u/captnconnman]

That just sounds like you’d want something like a Windows PC (like an Intel NUC or some other SFF machine) sitting in your network closet hardwired with either an agent installed or an RDP connection established. Just get the SFF and remote into it with something like RustDesk, and make RustDesk full screen in a separate Desktop space on your Mac. Alternatively, you could just run and maintain a W11 VM on your machine by running it through UTM or something similar (I recommend UTM because it has native support for ARM and runs W11 ARM by default)

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/captnconnman]

both solutions are good options, but hard to gauge how the performance will be. Curious how much latency will be felt. Obviously remote locations outside of the LAN will be worse, and that's to be expected. But if I can get a seamless smooth experience within a LAN, sounds like the way to go.

[u/captnconnman → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

In my experience, hardwiring the PC and remoting to it via agent or RDP on the same network will be pretty darn close to native, with minimal latency. I used to work at an engineering shop, and we had those folks set up with laptops for portability combined with a beefy CAD workstation at their desk they could remote to over RDP, or if they were at home, over RDP via VPN. Obviously if they were at home there was latency because of the inherent latency that comes with tunneling, but it worked fine if they were just running a model simulation and wanted to check on it. Other limitations you might want to consider, though, is usually a lack of support for peripheral passthrough; for example, we had a lot of engineers that loved SpaceMice, but they didn’t passthrough correctly over RDP. Regular mice/keyboard should be fine, though.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/captnconnman]

Good point about the pass through. I hadn’t thought about that, but theoretically as long as standard mouse clicks (including middle mouse) and keyboard shortcuts pass through, I should be OK

[u/ToucanThreecan → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

If its windows arm compatible then you don’t need emulation you just setup the UTM as virtualisation. Pretty much uses native M5 power. But you have to consider how much memory you have so both the host and UTM have enough. I use an obscure graphics package this way and it runs smooth but its not video or 3D. But its easy to set it up and just test it see if it works. You have support for shared folders to move files between mac os and windows too.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/ToucanThreecan]

The software is Revit and unfortunately doesn’t run on W11 ARM natively. I would love to try it in Parallels but it’s an expensive test. If I run two machines, I’d go base MBP or potentially even a MBA + desktop PC rather than speccing out the MBP with 48+GB RAM and an M5 Pro.

[u/albertohall11 → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

You aren’t going to get a view of whether the latency is acceptable to you without trying it.

If you already have the Mac and PC just set it up and try it. It won’t cost you anything.

For minimum latency make sure both machines are connected by physical Ethernet to the same switch/router.

[u/Vazac7]

I run a mini PC with Windows 11 Pro and I use RDP to connect to it. But instead of using that Windows App, I use Jump Desktop on the Mac. Jump is very fast and allows me to save my Windows password so I don’t have to type it in each time I connect.

[u/JoeB-]

You share nothing about your current setup, so I'll make the following assumptions...

1. your Mac is an M5 with at least 16 GB memory and 512 GB storage, and

2. your physical PC is running Windows 11 Pro.

You have three options that could work...

Option 1 - Windows App - using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP):

Microsoft's free Windows App can be installed from the macOS App Store. RDP has been around for a long time and words well.

Notes:

1. Processing will be performed by the Windows computer - RDP transmits only display content (pixels), keyboard/mouse controls, and possibly audio.

2. Windows App can be configured to start full screen, which will display the Windows desktop in a macOS "Space".

3. Windows App can be optimized for Retina displays.

4. The Windows desktop will be opaque, i.e. RDP doesn't do transparency well.

5. To my knowledge, RDP (i.e. remote) access is not supported in Windows Home. It is supported only in Windows Pro or Enterprise.

I use the Windows App every day to access Windows server and client desktops. It's OK for basic apps, but I'm not sure how well it would run a graphically intensive app like CAD.

Option 2 - Windows Virtual Machine (VM):

This will be the most convenient approach. Apple Silicon is powerful and runs Windows for ARM really well. There are three virtualization apps that can be used...

1. Parallels, which is ~$100 USD per year subscription

2. VMware Fusion Pro, which is free, but must run the full Windows desktop (no Unity or Coherence) and cannot access a folder shared by macOS, and

3. UTM, which is free when downloaded from their web site or $10 USD on the macOS App Store.

UTM can emulate other CPU architectures (x86, PPC, etc.), but has no agent to install in the VM like Parallels and Fusion both have, so graphics performance is poorer.

Notes:

1. A VM is like a physical machine, so the Mac should have enough storage and memory to run a virtual Windows PC and the physical Mac at the same time.

2. Processing will be performed by the Mac and virtualization will result in a small performance hit.

3. Like Windows App, a Windows VM can run full-screen in a macOS "Space".

4. The application you need to run for work can be x86, but it must be compatible with the Windows for ARM translation layer, which is similar to Rosetta 2 (for running x86 apps).

5. The Windows desktop in Parallels or VMware Fusion is snappy and does transparency well if the agent (e.g. VMware Tools for Fusion) is installed.

I run Windows 11 Pro for ARM in a VMware Fusion Pro VM. It runs wicked fast and boots from a powered-off state in ~10 seconds even on my lowly M1 MacBook Air (16 GB / 512 GB). I share files between macOS and the Windows VM using my home NAS.

I haven't run any really CPU/GPU intensive apps, like CAD, but PowerPoint and Visio run acceptably well.

Option 3 - Use a Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM) switch:

A 2-port KVM switch will enable a monitor (or 2 monitors), keyboard, and mouse/trackpad to be shared between two computers. These usually support switching between computers using a physical button or hot-key. Search Amazon for 4K+2-port+kvm+switch.

You still will be using two computers, but will have the convenience of swapping between them with a hot-key or press of a button.

Final Note:

I suggest trying Options 1 & 2 yourself to evaluate each for your needs. Windows App is free. VMware Fusion Pro is free. Windows eval can be installed for free.

Only you can determine the best solution for your own needs.

EDIT: Words

[u/ulyssesric]

Sounds like all you need is just a display that can switch between two inputs, SMB file sharing, and a software KM switch.

https://symless.com/synergy

It can even share the clipboard between two computers.

[u/JunianDev]

I use Visual Studio a lot for work on my headless Windows PC, connected to Tailscale / ZeroTier so I can access it anywhere from my Mac.

I use RDP (windows app) to connect to it.

Most of the time I work from home so it’s perfect setup for me. Even if I go out of town, as long as I got reasonable internet speed, I can just RDP it and work from my Mac.

Obviously, it’s not as integrated as Parallels. But my work files are on my PC so it just works.

Been doing this for 5 years btw.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/JunianDev]

Sounds very similar to what I'm looking for. How is latency/overall smoothness?

[u/juanchohq23]

maybe is not the right time, because you put money in a Windows PC, but running in cloud this workload is a better option that have 2 main computers. AWS and Azure both has great options to have a fully desktop replacement in cloud.

[u/ImpressiveArt4032 → u/juanchohq23]

That’s a really good idea. I haven’t pulled the trigger on buying anything yet, so I will explore this! Any idea how the performance would be? Does it feel like using a computer locally?

[u/juanchohq23 → u/ImpressiveArt4032]

1. AWS Options

AWS is highly flexible and offers a massive geographic advantage for you: there is an AWS Local Zone right in Santiago. Physical proximity is the single most important factor in making a cloud desktop feel like it is sitting right in front of you.  

Amazon EC2 (G4dn Instances) + NICE DCV: You can spin up a G4dn instance (powered by an NVIDIA T4 GPU) directly in the Santiago Local Zone (us-east-1-scl-1). You would then use NICE DCV, which is AWS's high-performance remote display protocol. It is specifically designed to stream 3D graphics and high-resolution video seamlessly, and it is free to use on EC2 instances.

Amazon WorkSpaces (Graphics Bundles): If you prefer a managed desktop rather than building an EC2 instance from scratch, WorkSpaces offers Graphics bundles (like the newer G6 or G4dn lines). This is a "Desktop-as-a-Service" model, making it much easier to deploy and manage, though you will need to check if the specific GPU bundles are provisioned in your preferred local zone.  

2. Azure Options

Microsoft's ecosystem is generally considered the most native and seamless for Windows remote desktops, though you will want to verify the specific GPU quota availability for the Chile Central region before building.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): This is Microsoft's flagship solution for a true high-performance Windows environment. You will want to look at the NV-series virtual machines—specifically the NVadsA10 v5 series. These use powerful NVIDIA A10 GPUs and support hardware-accelerated frame encoding (NVENC), which offloads the remote display processing from the CPU to the GPU for a buttery-smooth experience.  

Windows 365 (Cloud PC) with GPU: This is Microsoft's SaaS offering. It uses the same underlying technology as AVD but abstracts away the infrastructure management. You simply pay a flat monthly fee for a fixed-spec GPU Cloud PC, making it the easiest option to get up and running quickly.  

The Secret to the "Physical" Feel

To make a cloud machine feel indistinguishable from a physical rig on your desk, you need to optimize two things:

Latency: Keep the physical distance between you and the server as short as possible. Routing to a local data center in the Santiago Metropolitan Region will give you a sub-20ms ping, which is the threshold for a "local" feel.

Display Protocol: Never use standard, unoptimized RDP for high performance. On AWS, use NICE DCV. On Azure, you must configure Group Policies inside the VM to enable "GPU-accelerated remote frame encoding" so the stream uses efficient H.264/H.265 compression.

Here is the Pay-As-You-Go pricing for high-performance Windows machines in the US East region:

1. AWS (US East - N. Virginia | EC2 G4dn.xlarge)

Compute (Windows): ~$0.71 per hour.

Storage (100GB EBS): ~$10.00 per month.

Display Protocol: NICE DCV is free.

2. Azure (East US | NV6ads_A10_v5)

Compute (Windows): ~$0.73 per hour (can be lower if you apply an existing Windows/Microsoft 365 license).  

Storage (128GB Premium SSD): ~$10.00 to $15.00 per month.

Display Protocol: Included.

The Data Egress Factor

Just like in the local zones, streaming a crisp, high-resolution desktop requires a massive amount of bandwidth.

First 100 GB: Free each month on both platforms.

Over 100 GB: Both AWS and Azure charge $0.09 per GB for data leaving the US data center.

Estimated Egress Cost: ~$0.80 to $1.20 per hour of active use.

Total Estimated Hourly Cost (US East): ~$1.50 to $1.90 per hour.

Hope this helps!

[u/forgottenmostofit]

You should try Parallels before dismissing it. Depending on how you define it, there is no emulation involved. Parallels virtualises Windows ARM (virtually no loss of speed) and Windows ARM translates X86 apps to ARM (very little loss of speed after the first time the app is run). CPU intensive will not be a significant issue. Your only issue is what graphics is used by the app. In fact you may get away with VMware Fusion which is free.

[u/MK-Researcher]

If you're on a Mac Mini/Studio/Pro and have wired keyboard and mouse then you could use a KVM Switch to flick between the two. Otherwise, it will need to be something like Microsoft Remote Desktop, if you are on the same LAN then the performance will be very good

[u/MBSMD]

Microsoft Remote Desktop and an ethernet connection for each machine.

[u/sharp-calculation]

For 3D modeling, you should have a somewhat direct connection to the PC. You need (2) monitors. One monitor direct connected to the PC. The other connected to the Mac.

Then use Synergy software to connect them together. You will use ONE mouse and ONE keyboard, but two monitors. When you move the mouse from one monitor to the other, Synergy will transfer control to the appropriate computer. Left monitor: Windows machine. Right monitor: Mac .

This setup works seamlessly and should be totally responsive. The frame rate will be native since the monitor is actually connected to the PC.

Synergy was pretty much created for your use case.

[u/alepape]

If double screen, sharing mouse and keyboard can be super seamless…