Hi all,

Going straight to the point: are there any recommended hardware requirements for a MacBook to smoothly virtualize Windows AND work with SDL Trados and other translation-related tools without any lag, crashes, or issues whatsoever? Here is some context so that you can better understand my needs.

I’ve happily been a Mac user during my studies and now that I’m (hopefully) about to start my career as a freelancer I have a common dilemma: should I switch to Windows? If I want to keep using a Mac, should I install a native CAT tool or should I virtualize Windows and use it to run SDL Trados and other Windows-based translation-related software? After a few months of reflections, I chose the last option (but please feel free to make me change my mind!). Please note that I’m not willing to use Bootcamp, as I would like to run Windows and macOS at the same time.

Some time ago I tried to virtualize Windows through VMware Fusion on my 2015 MacBook Air; the experience was quite satisfying but Windows as a whole and Trados in particular were quite slow, which made working a really stressful activity. Therefore, I would now like to buy a more powerful Apple laptop and I guess it will need to be a MacBook Pro. Hence my question: are there any recommended hardware requirements for a Mac in order to smoothly virtualize Windows AND work with SDL Trados without any lag, crashes, or issues whatsoever? My budget is between 2000 and 2500€ and I don’t want to buy an expensive machine just to find out that it’s slow (I’d rather keep my MacBook Air and buy a cheaper Windows machine if I had to).

Is any of you actually working with SDL Trados on a Mac through virtualization without experiencing any issues, slowness, or lagging, and having a seamless experience?

Thank you,

Emanuele