Parallels has announced the release of Parallels Desktop 5, a new version of their virtualization software that lets Intel Macs run Windows and other operating systems besides Mac OS X without having to reboot. It costs $79.99, though upgrades for existing users cost $49.99.

Parallels counts more than 70 new features in the new release. Highlights of Parallels Desktop 5 include full support for Aero, the user interface in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Parallels also claims up to 7x faster graphics performance with support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9 Ex with Shader Model 3.

Up to 8 virtual CPUs can now be supported in Parallels Desktop, which now supports Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” and 64-bit versions of Windows. Trackpad gestures are now supported, and Windows apps can be spread across multiple displays. The size of “virtual machines” managed using Parallels Compressor is now automatically optimized, and KVM “paravirtualization” is used to improve performance when running Linux as a guest operating system.

Users who bought the 4.0 version on or after October 1, 2009 can upgrade to version 5.0 for free. A free trial version is available for download.