![parallels on m1 parallels on m1](https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/parallels-desktop-16.5-apple-m1.jpeg)
![parallels on m1 parallels on m1](https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/parralels-windows-10-apple-m1.jpg)
If your job is a mix of fairly light geospatial work (editing features, cartography), then you'll definitely survive. Tests running Windows 10 with Parallels Desktop on an M1 MacBook Pro show the Apple laptop can be faster than high performing.
#PARALLELS ON M1 FOR MAC#
Long story short, if you are counting on doing all of your ESRI-based GIS work on a Macbook Pro through Parallels, you should not do that. Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac runs Windows 10. The new version is more energy-efficient and brings better performance than using Parallels on Intel-based. It's not best practice, but it is the practice. Parallels Desktop 16.5 brings native support for Mac computers with Apple's M1 chips. Mostly government agencies rely on that ecosystem and just end up sending most data through the ESRI pipeline to get the most out of their institutional licenses. Regardless, depending on your specific work, if you are serious about spatial data science, ArcGIS Pro/ESRI products should be (are) obsolete for most tasks. Since I'm still working from home and always have access to everything, I haven't needed to do that. I do this every day, and I run a mixture of Windows productivity. If you can shift some of your workflow to QGIS and then import the resulting assets back into Pro, that'd be ideal. No, there is no problem with running Windows 11 on an Apple M1 Mac with Parallels Desktop 17. So, I'd say most 3D/Scene stuff is out the window (even my custom built desktop struggles with ArcGIS Pro's terrible engine), and heavier Geoprocessing tasks. It will vary a lot based on the spatial info (point/poly) and the number of entries/rows that need to stay in memory to render the map view or perform analysis. Large dataset is a very relative term, especially for GIS.