At this point, Parallels is one of the key players when it comes to virtualizing any x86 operating system on OS X. I use it on daily basis and cannot live without it.
VMWare has been working on its own version of the VMPlayer for OS X, called Fusion. The Betas that I have worked with have been not that impressive in terms of performance. VMWare claims that some of the sluggishness comes from debug code embedded into the application. On the other hand, Fusion offers some innovative features:
- Support for 64-bit VMs
- Ability to assign a CPU/core to the host, and the other to the program
Recently they have upgraded their beta to support 3-D acceleration directly from the graphics card. This means that very soon, Mac users will be able to play 3-D games on Windows within OS X. Considering that the list of Mac games is extremely short, this will really make things interesting for the Mac gaming market. There is a video on YouTube that has a demo of the application running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF_CoXsXtk4
Your move, Parallels ;)