Why is Paratext sluggish in Parallels Desktop?

Question

I am running Paratext 9.5 on my Macbook Pro (M1 Processor) using Parallels Desktop Version 26.3.3. Paratext tends to run very slow, often glitching (showing a small window of the Paratext in the upper left of the screen). It is especially bad if I connect to Paratext live. Even when I close all other programs that are using significant amounts of RAM, the problem persists. Has anyone else had this problem? Any advice would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I have no idea why it's running so slow, but based on my own experience I think the glitch you're seeing is just what happens when PT gets taxed or overworked. I'm running a Windows 11 machine and I see the same sort of resized window in the upper left, with the program freezing for a few seconds, whenever I'm running other processes at the same time.

I suspect that it resizing is at least in some way related to high resolution monitors and scaling factors.

Comments

A Paratext developer has pointed out that running Paratext 9 on ARM Windows may well have a performance penalty, because ARM Windows has to emulate the "ordinary" x64 Windows.

Answer 2

I'm running PT 9.5 on an M1-based iMac with Parallels, and haven't seen this sort of problem. It is a bit slow at times, but doesn't have visual issues like that. I've been running this way for more than four years, and it's quite usable.

I would check what resources are available to the Parallels VM. On mine, I have CPU and memory on automatic, which it gives as 4 CPUs and 6 GB RAM (up to 3 GB for graphics). If you have less memory on your machine, you might want to try increasing the allocation and being conservative on the Mac side with what apps are running.