VMWare is NOT the new kid on the block. They've been in the VM business for a long long time and many multinational companies rely on their software. That being said however, I think VMWare would be better than parallels from a resources point of view. Parallels 3.0 sucks up too much resources. In terms of DirectX support, Parallels technically also does DX8.1 only. But for now for games parallels seems to have a bit better support. I use it to play RO all the time. Didn't manage to get it working on VMWare...

CPU usage going up to 100%+ is normal while using VM's. And yes it is true but all I'm saying is that, they're bringing with them a heck load of experience and expertise which is a good thing. Will give Parallels a run for its money. When I use Parallels, which I do now (also thinking of whether to switch) it stays at a constant 50+% even while doing nothing. It jumps to >100% whenever I do something which requires DX

Well, I'm using Parallels 3.x which I can assure you takes up much much more resources.