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Speaking of benchmarks, Age of Empires II does have an internal game benchmark, which runs for a few minutes with LOTS of players and LOTS of game action (Figure 3).
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Age of Empires also runs a quick processor and graphics benchmark test, and my system is rated “High” for both CPU and graphics. At first launch, I do see a warning that Age of Empires does not detect sufficient graphics memory, but I ignore this warning because I know that Parallels Desktop provides graphics memory to Windows apps in a manner that Age of Empires does not know about. I turn off some of the high-end graphics preferences like Fog Animation and Bloom.
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I play both of these in the full screen in Windows, but I use the Window View mode in Parallels Desktop. Age of Empires III Definitive Edition (12.0) with the United States Civilization expansion pack.Age of Empires II Definitive Edition (101.101.47820.0) with both the Enhanced Graphics Pack and the Lords of the West expansion pack.Video 1 has snippets both from Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III. I have the Xbox app installed (along with required utilities like the Xbox Game Bar and Gaming Services) as well as Microsoft Office for Windows and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2020, and about 60 other Windows apps. Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview, Build 21370, with the Windows 10 Feature Experience Pack version 321.9601.0.3 I usually run Windows 10 Insider Preview builds from the Developer Channel, and this VM is no exception: Typically, games take a lot of system resources, so I have changed the configuration details for my Windows 10 gaming VM. Figure 2_My virtual machines Windows 10 – my gaming VM
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