So I was very curious how much the 8GB model would slow down development. I rarely get my Mac up to 16GB of used RAM, but 8GB is pretty easy to surpass if you’re a developer with multiple tabs open. I know from my Hackintosh experience that a Mac can quickly get up over 8GB of RAM when running the XCode simulators. Was 8GB enough RAM to run the simulator without experiencing significant performance issues? This was the big question I had when I pulled the trigger and got the base M1 2020 Macbook Air.

Is 8GB of RAM Enough For XCode on the M1 Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro? But, other than needing a beast of a machine the M1 Macs have the advantage. The best reason I can think of is Apple still gouges you if you want a 2TB hard drive. I can no longer think of a great reason to build one over the M1 Mac Mini, or M1 Macbook Air. The Hackintosh is officially dead (not just because you can’t buy Apple Silicon processors). It blows my Hackintosh out of the water, and the base model is cost-competitive with my 2018 Hackintosh at only $700. My first thought was, “Can it compete with my Hackintosh.” And yes, not only can it compete, The M1 Mac Mini has a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 7386. However, in 2020, Apple released a new M1 Mac Mini for only $700. This machine is powerful it has been fantastic for XCode development. I built a machine that was twice as powerful as the top of the line 2018 Mac Mini, for $200 less than the base model. This Hackintosh had 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core i7 processor with a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 5300. I was annoyed by that price/performance ratio, so I decided to build a Hackintosh. This was the 2018 Mac Mini, which cost $800, and a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 3203.

I figured I’d buy the cheapest Mac Apple offered. I’m a software engineer, and in 2018 I wanted to try my hand at XCode development. OK Apple, I’m listening.īut, can it run XCode quickly? The M1 Chip is Very Powerful, Perfect For Developers Looking to Run XCode These are entry-level Mac products that price/performance wise are actually semi-competitive with Windows machines at the same price-point. You typically pay 3x for a Mac what you’d pay for a PC with the exact same hardware.Įnter the M1 Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro.

Then they have the audacity to charge the Apple tax. My main gripe with Apple is that every Mac they release has a processor that’s about a generation behind. Check out this post if you’re looking for how Apple’s M1 Max chip performs vs the latest from Intel and AMD. Note: I wrote this post in late 2020 prior to the M1 Max Macbook Pro getting released.

8gb vs 16gb ram macbook air m1