Test: Windows 11 on M1 Macs

David Lee

28.6.2022

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Windows 11 on a Mac with an Apple processor: it works. But how well? I ran an experiment using two Macs at different performance levels.

I’ve been a Mac user since late 2020. Nevertheless, my old PC still has its place below the desk. I can’t completely do without Windows. Now I want to know if a Mac can also handle Windows duties and whether I’ll only need one device for everything in the future.

Since Apple stopped using Intel processors for Macs, Windows no longer runs natively on them. The company’s own processors have a completely different architecture: they’re based on ARM instead of x64. Virtualization software Parallels provides a remedy. However, it doesn’t run the «normal» Windows, but Windows on ARM. A variant made for this processor architecture. Windows programs for x64 processors are emulated within this system.

Since Windows 11, 64-bit applications can finally be emulated in this way. In other words: since Windows 11, you can run any Windows application on a Mac in the M processor family. However, only through two degrees of separation: emulated within a virtualised system. I’m interested in whether programs are still fast and stable enough for occasional use. With the goal of occasionally doing something on a Mac that can normally only happen on Windows.

Mac Studio, take over!

My Mac Mini isn’t suitable for Windows virtualization. Its 8 GB of RAM is quite enough for normal operation, but Windows 11 needs that much working memory just on its own. There’d be nothing left for parallel operation of the Mac system. If Windows runs at all, then large parts of the working memory would have to be swapped to the SSD. I also had to deal with the fact that the 256 GB SSD is too small.

Therefore, I’m trying out Windows 11 on a Mac Studio. A moderate and reasonably affordable configuration would have to do: the processor in my review unit is an M1 Max. Plus there’s 32 GB of RAM and a 1000 GB SSD.

This processor and the same amount of RAM are also available in a MacBook Pro. The performance there would probably be similar. However, as a replacement for my Mac Mini, the Mac Studio makes more sense than a notebook.

Here we go – installing Windows

The first steps are simple. I downloaded Parallels, using it for free for 14 days. During this time, I could test whether everything I needed was running at all. After that, 99.99 euros please.

Parallels also downloads and installs Windows 11 on ARM during its own installation. After a few minutes, I had Windows on my Mac. It just wasn’t activated yet. But no worries: with the serial number from my old Windows 8.1, Windows on ARM can be activated without any problems.

Parallels can display Windows in a window (hehe), resized as desired. Full-screen mode is also possible in case the coexistence between Mac and Windows is confusing. In addition, there’s Coherence mode, in which no Windows desktop is visible and every Windows application has a freely movable window.

So, how’s it going?

I downloaded a few common applications such as the Firefox and Brave browsers. They installed, started and ran without any problems. All x64 programs. When searching for software suited to Windows on ARM, I usually find nothing or only beta versions. The offer is still meagre compared to the x64 world. However, since the x64 versions work without any problems, I don’t really care.

The OneDrive desktop app also does what it’s supposed to. This is important for me, as for some unknown reason the OneDrive app doesn’t work on my Mac. It logs out after some time and cannot log in again. No more access to my own files. Very annoying, since I use OneDrive in my daily work routine. Thankfully, I got working access via Windows after all.

Thanks to Parallels, I could access the same files on Windows as I did on my Mac. And also vice versa, which is important in the case of OneDrive. External drives are also accessible for both systems at the same time. You can also completely isolate Windows from the Mac system if you want to run it in a sandbox for security reasons.

A special case: custom Windows applications

Many years ago I programmed a small Windows application that automatically generates HTML files from LibreOffice documents. Since I don’t want to rewrite it for Mac again, it’ll only run on Windows in the future. Meaning I’m tied to Microsoft. A quick check: the software ran fine.

But could I also develop it further? I installed the Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 development environment. If this one runs as well, I might finally retire my old Windows machine.

Microsoft explicitly doesn’t recommend using Visual Studio on ARM and issues a warning during installation. The installation worked anyway and Visual Studio started without any problems. I opened my old project and kept tweaking it.

Gaming in Windows ARM on Mac

Visual Studio is quite a piece of software. When trying it out, I always kept an eye on the hardware load. But my Mac never even came close to its limits. Double emulation wasn’t a challenge. The activity display bobbed around the lower third range.

Convinced, I launched Steam in Windows 11. Not because I wanted to game, but to see if the computer would reach its limits that way.

Since I’m not a gamer, my selection is tiny. After two casual games that ran smoothly, I tried «Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3» from 2016. It worked! My Mac still didn’t break a sweat. Remarkable, considering that I’m playing a Windows game for x64 architecture on a Mac with ARM.

I played in full HD. There was some slight lagging. I can’t really judge how well Call of Duty feels to play, I haven’t quite mastered the game – regardless of the hardware.

But that’s not the point at all. M1 Macs are currently useless for gaming, as Parallels only supports DirectX 11. Games using DirectX 12 don’t run in Parallels’ Windows. And native games for Apple Silicon are few and far between.

Interim conclusion: you don’t need Mac Studio

I’m convinced that the Mac Studio hardware is more than strong enough to work with Windows. The load on my Mac was always low.

Now we know: you can just as easily use a Mac Mini instead of a Mac Studio. It just needs 16 GB of RAM instead of 8 as before. And the SSD should also be large enough.

Anyway, the Mac Mini has a few advantages over Mac Studio. It’s significantly cheaper and smaller. Length and width are exactly the same, but Mac Studio is much taller. For me, this results in Mac Studio not fitting under my screen because of a millimetre or two.

Another drawback is the fan. I never heard the fan on the Mac Mini. Mac Studio is completely different: it always runs, even if the computer has nothing to do. noise can be reduced with the Macs Fan Control software, but not completely disabled.

Identical on the Mac Mini

I grabbed a Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM, sold the old 8 GB one, and installed Windows on it using Parallels. I also set up Visual Studio again.

Yikes. Everything reacted sluggishly, with every click. I could no longer work like this. It would only be just good enough to modify some lines of code.

As a result, I switched between the Mac Mini and Mac Studio several times to compare Windows performance. The more I compared, the more confused I got. Visual Studio didn’t always run smoothly on Mac Studio either. Conversely, it sometimes ran quite fast on the Mac Mini, and even Call of Duty did its job without any problems. Was it perhaps due to a Windows update in the background?

But enough, no more «felt fast» or «slow». There’s only one thing left to do: benchmark tests.

Benchmarks

I ran Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 5 on both virtualised Windows systems. For comparison, I also threw in the native on the Mac system.

Both in Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 5, the two Windows systems showed a similar performance. Mac Studio was marginally better, but never rivalling the M1 Max processor over the regular M1.

I interpreted this to mean that performance under Windows isn’t limited by Mac hardware, but by Parallels. The standard edition of Parallels only allows 8 GB of RAM and 4 virtual processor cores. Even though a virtual core is something different to a physical one: the M1 Max has the same high-performance cores as the M1, simply eight instead of four. However, additional ones are of no use when Parallels only allows four cores.

In the Pro edition of Parallels, up to 128 GB of RAM and 32 virtual cores would theoretically be possible. However, the Pro Edition is only available in a subscription model and costs about 100 francs per year, same as the Lifetime Standard Edition. Out of the question for me, and probably most private users as well. Moreover, the Pro edition would only improve multi-core performance.

Compared to Windows PCs, the numbers aren’t particularly impressive, but still high enough that normal office work shouldn’t be a problem. This coincides with my everyday experiences. A typical high-end notebook in 2022 will have a much higher multi-core value, but similar single-core stats. Single core performance in virtualised Windows is also significantly higher than what a Mac Mini with an Intel processor natively achieves.

The score is far below the best notebooks in Cinebench R23. Compared to the native M1 performance, it drops even more: about three times for the single core and four times (M1) or six times (M1 Max) for multi-core.

Verdict: Big performance losses, but it runs

Windows 11 on M1 Macs is usable as a second system. If you work mostly on the Mac system, but want to do something that only works on Windows, this is a good solution. You have convenient access to Microsoft’s side of things. However, you will need a PC that runs Windows natively in the x64 architecture for longer work in Windows or for very demanding tasks. The same applies to gamers – demanding titles overtax the virtual system and DirectX 12 doesn’t run at all.

It’s remarkable that it hardly matters which M1 processor you have when working with Windows. At least as long as you use the standard version of Parallels, which is limited to four virtual cores. The only important thing is that you have at least 16 GB of RAM.

I therefore decided to replace my Mac Mini at 8 GB with one at 16 GB. My old Windows tower from 2015 can finally rest in peace.

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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