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Is MacBook Pro powerful enough for Xcode development?

4 points by avinassh ↗ HN
I am thinking to get a MBP for iOS / OS X development. I wanted know, following machine is powerful enough for Xcode and also for general development (running multiple apps, vagrant, VMs etc). I will be using this machine for developing/learning Python, C++ and Go.

Specs: 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory, 256GB PCIe-based flash storage, Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Or do I need even more powerful Mac? I won't be doing any graphics related processing like editing videos or animation, so I think onboard graphics would suffice. Appreciate any help.

17 comments

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mattkrea
These specs will be quite alright. I'm not a fan of the Iris graphics but I have them in my current work MacBook Pro right now and they work fine aside from when I take it home and try to play games on it :-).
avinassh
I won't be gaming at all. I think it will be just fine :)
mhroth
Most of the world does Xcode development on a MBP. You'll be all good.
davismwfl
It is plenty. Up until just a week ago I was using a 13" MBP circa 2011. It had less of a CPU, but I was able to put a 256gb SSD and 16GB Ram in it. I still have the machine and plan to repurpose it because it works great. Of course, the machine your looking at already has the flash storage and you can't upgrade the Ram anymore.

So my 2 cents, the machine you are looking at will work fine, but if you can afford it I'd go for a MBP with 16GB Ram. I found that the RAM levels the performance when I have lots of stuff going on and VM's loaded. As for the Iris Graphics, the 6100 and the Pro are pretty decent, they aren't amazing, but decent and if you aren't doing high end Gaming you'll be just fine. I have the Iris Pro and we have some apps that use OpenCL pretty heavily and it actually does ok, not as good as a DGPU but you can still see an improvement, and I still have decent battery life.

avinassh
MBP 13" has no 16GB option, only 15" have that :/

I won't be gaming at all.

MartinRogalla
That is incorrect. I'm writing this on a 2015 13" MBP w/ 16GB.
avinassh
Just checked again. Customized MacBook Pros are not available in my country, i.e. India.

So, how bad it will be if I go with 8GB one?

MartinRogalla
I can't really give a comment on this, since I haven't developed on a 8GB MBP. I think you should just expect a performance decrease once you're running your VMs next to your development setup. If you run XCode with your iOS Simulator next to it, I don't think you'll notice a large performance difference.
davismwfl
Its probably not the end of the world. I just suggest it because if you are running VM's and if you are actually doing work with them actively while still using the primary OS too it really makes a difference. For example, I will run services in a VM and then my "remote" application either in another VM or in my main OS to test. Sometimes this is to test across OS boundaries to make sure nothing funky is happening, so I need them to run reasonably decent and not be super sluggish. Having the RAM helps.

So its a judgement call, if you do that 10% or less of the time, 8gb is probably totally fine. If you do it 50% of the time, then I'd rethink that personally.

[dead] PythonDeveloper
LOL.. mine is a 2009 Core2Duo 2.5Ghz and it runs XCode, PyCharm, and all other dev tools just fine. You can buy them on craigs list for $300-$400.
[dead] nkjoep
It will be fine. Just be sure to have the SSD :)
CyberFonic
Sounds sufficient. I'm still using a 2009 MBP with 4M RAM. I've replaced the spinning rust HD with a SANDisk Extreme SSD and it works well for me as a development machine.

But ... I do use a separate Linux server to spin up test environments, etc. I have never been really happy with VmWare Fusion.

MartinRogalla
I recently bought a 2015 13" MBP w/ 16GB precisely for professional iOS development. Works like a dream and is amazingly portable. I would really suggest to get 16GB memory if you're looking to run multiple vagrant boxes.

Specs of my 2015 MBP 13": MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) | 2,9 GHz Intel Core i5 | 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 | 250GB Flash Storage

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coryl
Been running on a 128gb/4gb Macbook Air for the last few years. Not ideal, but certainly good enough if you're on budget.
kaolinite
I feel that screen space is more important than CPU or RAM when using Xcode, so if you're wondering which upgrades to get, make sure you pick the larger screen before anything else. But yes, I've previously used a 13" MacBook Air with 4GB RAM for Xcode development (and web development too) and it was fine. The only time I ever hit the limitations of the hardware, besides wanting more screen space, was when using Vagrant. A MBP will be perfectly fine.

That said, I'd always recommend an iMac over a MacBook if you're going to be in one place. An iMac plus the new MacBook or an iPad for travel is my ideal setup.

For the most part, I wouldn't worry about specs when buying Apple hardware. There will be some cases where you still have to think about it (gaming, say) but overall, the lineup is pretty clear. Get the MacBook or MacBook Air if you travel, get the MacBook Pro if you travel and need performance, get the iMac if you want a desktop and the Mac Pro if you want a performance desktop. And don't get the Mac Mini. Then, configure whichever you pick to be as powerful as your budget will allow. I can't remember how fast the CPU in my iMac is, nor what type of RAM it uses - and that's how it should be. Pick your computer based on what you'll use it for, not specs, then forget about it and get to work.

mchannon
Having used both MBP (15) and MBA (11) in parallel, can say that I haven't noticed a difference. Both suffer for lack of screen real estate, but the additional bulk associated with the MBP made it the worse option, despite the slightly larger screen.

An external 27" Cinema display works with either, and makes for better iOS development (storyboards are voracious users of real estate).

The only difference I noticed between the two was Eclipse development; getting 16GB in the MBP made for much faster compiles.