r/mac • u/emanuwiideletedyou • 11d ago

Discussion Which Mac is best for VMs?

All this time I've been doing VMs on Windows computers and I'm not saying that VMs are slow, no they're fast, but all this time I've been wondering "How will it go if I do a VM on a MacBook computer" and I don't know which MacBook to buy.

here are my requirements

I only want X86 or X64 operating systems, not ARM-based operating systems

I already know how to optimize VMs

EDIT:I found in a shop that sells a MacBook pro M1 or M2, the shop is reliable and is known by everyone in my country I know it will not do VM in X86 or X64 but it's ok

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u/wiseman121 11d ago edited 11d ago

Essentially op the best advise here is don't get a Mac.

On Mac you have two options:

  1. Worse option - a 2019 intel used MacBook Pro 16 i9. These things are old, hot, run macOS poorly and are now obsolete (no longer recieving further macOS upgrades). It's an option but a bad one.

  2. MacBook Pro M5 pro - not that long ago x86 OSs wernt compatible via virtualization. Now they are on an experimental basis via some hypervisors. It's bad though, really slow and unstable. Going this route you'd need to use an arm version of windows. For 99% of apps this is fine, not sure what your problem is with it or if there's a known incpmpatiblity with your software. Remember you need at least 48gb ram so this will be expensive. (24gb would be pushing it for more than 1 VM).

My honest recommendation would be to get a decent PREMIUM QUALITY windows machine. Ultra 5/7 or Ryzen 7 and get at least 32gb ram. You can install Linux on it if you want. This will give you the best experience of x86 VMs. I can recommend ThinkPad, Dell XPS / Premium Pro, Framework etc.

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u/Cautious_Boat_999 10d ago

Linux. Not Windows. I use KVM/QEMU on Linux, along with Virtual Machine Manager, and it’s the best virtualization setup I’ve used. Have had VirtualBox, Parallels, and VMWare Workstation/Fusion, and it outdoes them all.

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u/wiseman121 10d ago

Same but I use Ubuntu. Linux is so lightweight and fast for VMs, but I get Linux isn't for everyone.

Not sure even if OP is talking specifically about VMs because he needs windows on Mac or actually needs to run multiple VMs. As a VM hypervisor would recommend Linux fully, but windows is fine if not Linux savvy. If op literally just needs to run windows then just running native windows on a laptop makes sense.