Set How Many Processors are Allocated to a Virtual Machine

You can change the number of virtual CPUs that will be used to handle the processes running in a virtual machine. Parallels Desktop automatically calculates the maximum allowable number of virtual CPU. The calculation is based on the number of physical CPUs available to your macOS computer.

Note: It is reasonable to use more than one CPU in your guest OS if you are going to use applications that perform better under multi-core processors.

To set how many processors are allocated to a virtual machine:

1. Shut down the virtual machine.
2. Open the Actions menu and choose Configure.
3. Click Hardware > CPU & Memory and select a number from the Processors menu.

Note: In Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can assign up to 4 CPUs to a virtual machine. In Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition, you can assign up to 16 CPUs.