Importing and Running x86_64 (Intel) Virtual Machines on Apple Silicon Macs

Starting from version 20.2.0, Parallels Desktop for Mac (in Pro, Business, and Enterprise editions) enables you to import and run virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs that were originally created on Intel Macs and include versions of operating systems designed for x86_64 processors. You can also create new x86_64 virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs.

Note: This functionality is offered as an early technology preview, is only available on Pro, Business, or Enterprise licenses, and comes with a number of limitations. For the latest state of the feature, please refer to this KB article.

At this point, the feature may be most useful to advanced users and software developers looking to boot into their existing Windows 10, Windows 11, or Linux virtual machines to extract old data, test a feature, or launch an app that has known issues running on Windows on Arm.

What x86_64 operating systems you can expect to launch on Apple Silicon Macs

You can expect the following x86_64 systems to run on Apple Silicon Macs with Parallels Desktop for Mac 20.2.0 or newer:

• Windows 10 and 11 (except Windows 11 builds 26100 and newer, which require support for SSE 4.2 instruction set)

• Windows Server 2019 and 2022

• Various Linux distros, with the following in mind:

  • The virtual machine must have EFI64 enabled.

  • Modern distros may experience performance issues.

  • We recommend that you try distros with lightweight environments like XFCE for better performance.

Only 64-bit versions of the supported operating systems can be launched.

Attention: Only virtual machines that emulate EFI/UEFI bootloaders are supported. This is not a problem for Windows 10 (unless it's a very old virtual machine that's been upgraded from Windows 8 or earlier) and definitely not a problem for Windows 11. However, some x86_64 Linux virtual machines may still operate off legacy BIOS. Refer to the same KB article for instructions on recreating them with EFI64. Windows 7 or BSD systems are not supported.

Even if you don't have an Intel Mac on hand, you can still create and run an x86_64 virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac, albeit with some limitations. Read this subchapter for more details.

What to expect when running an x86_64 virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac

1. Really slow speeds:

   • Based on your hardware, expect the boot to take anywhere between 2 and 7 minutes.

   • Overall slow responsiveness, to the point that we don't recommend opening and using more than one application at once.

2. Limited Windows functionality:

   • In its current implementation, our emulator does not support employing more than 1 virtual CPU core. Independent of your previous settings, importing an x86_64 virtual machine to an Apple Silicon Mac system will reduce the core count to one.

   • Assigning more than 8 GB of virtual RAM is not supported.

   • Parallels hypervisor is not supported, and therefore, nested virtualization cannot be used. This may affect certain functionality, e.g., WSL2 in Windows.

   • The resource draw on your Apple Silicon Mac will be significant. E.g., a single-core Windows 10 virtual machine with 4 GB of virtual RAM will occupy around 8 GB of your Mac's physical RAM.

   • No support for external USB devices.

   • No support for sound devices.

   • Updates may fail to install.