MacBook 12" 2017 - Fast enough for Xojo?

According to the internets the Air should be faster than a current MacBook. Got a new Air 4 weeks ago. I also wanted the normal USB ports and mag safe. I wouldn’t want to develop on the Air the whole day but for testing it’s fine.

[quote=334570:@Norman Palardy]Really ??? 15 seconds to load - with or without plugins ?
When I debug the IDE sources it might take 15 seconds to start (compile etc) and my machine is old & slow comparatively

EDIT : well comparatively mine is probably faster that either of yours even though its more like your iMac in terms of age
Mines a mid 2012 retina MacBook Pro[/quote]

without plugins.

That does a little depend on the size of the project perhaps. I meant the time it took before xojo shows the New project dialog. And yes it’s kinda slow. Both macs have an SSD and they are about 80% or more filled. I have a couple of background applications running. Still it’s probably age, but as norman said faster processor is better, and they are both Intel i5 which are slower (1,6 ghz) then the AMD Ryzen 5 1600x (3,6 ghz).

Come on, I’m using Xojo on a mid-2011 iMac and it works fine…

I’m using xojo on quite large projects, (but without plugins except databases) , 8Gb ram, ssd
and it works fine on my 2009 macbook pro (yes it’s core 2 duo !)

I also still run an older Mac. MacBook Pro 2011 with 16GB RAM and Samsung 840 Evo SSD.

It’s quite snappy and personally unless I wanted to play games or needed a much faster video chip, if anything ever happened to this one, I’d probably get a used MacBook Pro. Maybe a 2012. I like the built in ethernet, and I could probably find one for $600-$900 compared to the crazy high prices of a new one today.

Also, my machine basically boots up in 0 seconds since I never reboot it. Well, except for updates. It loads Xojo in about 5-6 seconds although I don’t use many plugins. Nothing I do with it ever feels slow except for the very occasional video encode, but that’s a slow operation on any machine. You just have to live with it.

The only real substantial benefit to a new machine would be the faster SSDs you can get. Right now I couldn’t even get a mac laptop with more RAM than mine has so unless you just really want a brand new machine, consider looking for a used one in good shape.

Core M chips are designed to be really slow, so they are more energy sipping. If you don’t believe me about how low performers they are; you can verify this on other sites.

Now I bought one; exactly because it was slow! I use it as my test bed machine, if my app works okay on that machine, it’ll be fine on anything else. My 5 year old MacBook Pro thrashes it in every respect.

It’s too fast for! :wink:

No, the OP have enough money and don’t want a refurbished. He want a machine with zero fan-noises.
I would maxed out the MacBook 12" to 16 GB RAM and the fastest possible i7 [a relabeled m7… :frowning: ]

Lets just say that the MacBook Airs which run higher clocked i5’s are … IMHO … just barely tolerable
Even with an i7 you may find the MacBook too slow
Single core speed is, for work with Xojo, a BIG deal

But since “no fan” seems to be the primary criteria you have limited choices
Personally they’d drive me nuts if I had to work on one for any length of time (macbook or macbook air)

Multicores can make a big difference for compiling 64 bit, though. And since the MAS will stop accepting 32 bit soon, it could be wise to plan ahead.

[quote=334726:@Thomas Mueller]No, the OP have enough money and don’t want a refurbished. He want a machine with zero fan-noises.
I would maxed out the MacBook 12" to 16 GB RAM and the fastest possible i7 [a relabeled m7… :frowning: ][/quote]
Sounds like you already know exactly what you want mate, even without everyone who’s got experience telling you it’s not the best solution.

Just bear in mind, a New 13" Pro is the same price as a MacBook, buying a refurb means you can get more machine for less money (and you still get full warranty). The fans on my 2012 only come on when Spotlight goes apeshite and uses all available CPU for at least 2 minutes, and often gets stuck.

2 or 3 vms running windows and they are doing windows updates does it for me :slight_smile:
for the most part I never even notice the machine has fans

[quote=334887:@Sam Rowlands]
Just bear in mind, a New 13" Pro is the same price as a MacBook[/quote]

That was a advertising joke from Apple. What they not said: reduce to 128 GB :wink:

You said you were going to bump the base specs of the MacBook
Once you do that you might as well look at a 13" Pro

[quote=334547:@Norman Palardy]Heres what I get when I click buy for each

1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.0GHz$1969
16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory
256GB SSD storage
Intel HD Graphics 615
Backlit Keyboard - US English

BUT I would not go with this machine - I’d say you might find it too slow very quickly

As soon as you jump to the faster i3 machine

MacBook - Space Grey $2239
1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory
512GB SSD storage
Intel HD Graphics 615
Backlit Keyboard - US English

13?inch MacBook Pro - Space Grey $2469
2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory
512GB SSD storage
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
Backlit Keyboard - US English

for the price moving up to the MacBook Pro 13" is, IMHO, VERY worthwhile[/quote]

This is where the problem resides.

Remove useless data from the SSD to always keep above 50GB of free space and the whole will be faster.

Also, always quit Firefox when you run Xojo.

To all: how long does it takes to your Mac (Air, Book, iMac, Pro…) to shutdown ?

Dump chrome
kill skype

they eat machines

I found firefox to be very machine and memory hungry too, in all its 45+ versions.
now using opera and happy with it.

Here the difference is $230 between similarly configured MacBook 12" and MacBook Pro 13"
Personally I’d take the MBP as it will be faster & likely last you longer because of that
The MacBook has no opportunity for adding an external drive etc via Thunderbolt
Or an external monitor etc
But I understand you dont want fan noise - no fans means you have thermal limits which mans you will never get the fastest machine

I happened to be at the mall last night and stopped by to check out the new Macbook. The new SSD appears to make quite a difference as all apps seemed to start almost instantly. The keyboard also feels a bit better as I was able to consistently get about 80wpm on typeracer.com, which is not much worse than I can do on a real keyboard (90-100wpm). As a 2nd computer, it’s base specs are fine. But as a primary development computer you’d definitely want the updated specs like Norman shows above.

Sorry, just one more, I promise. I’ll stop. :slight_smile:
How about comparing two similar systems, Mac and PC?

Comparison

A larger 4K screen, same basic specs, slim design, a convertible and better video subsystem – for $1,000 less? Color me a bit confused. Admittedly I haven’t used a Mac in awhile, but…i’m sure it hasn’t changed that much.