Macbook Pro - Speed questions

[Matt]

I am a web developer and considering working more at home for research more than anything. I am wondering how well the Macbook Pros cope with running Windows apps within OSX (vmware or parallels). Basically i need a machine that can run apps such as Visual Studio and Axure, and would far rather use a Mac than get a Dell, hence the speed question

So... how well can it cope?

I would also rather not dual boot the machine... so this has to be using virtualisation

 

[Draeconis]

I use VirtualBox which is a free open source virtualisation program comparable to VMWare or Parallels that runs in OS X. It performs fairly well doing graphics apps, but it would be better to use Boot Camp for what you're doing to be honest.
You can dedicate up to 3Gb of RAM and 128Mb Graphics memory using VirtualBox, which is ok, but probably won't run brilliantly.