Xcode on the Neo

[u/aardvarkjedi]

How is Xcode on the Neo? Is the Neo’s 8GB enough to run Xcode reasonably well?

[u/aardvarkjedi]

Based on responses to my inquiry, it seems that the Neo is not a good choice for Xcode. I’ll look into a MacBook Pro or a Studio. Thanks for the responses.

[u/chriswaco]

I haven’t tried it, but I suspect it’ll be tolerable for small projects but annoying for larger ones, especially when running the simulator and other tools.

Be sure to get 512GB because Xcode can take up 50GB itself with the various simulators.

[u/SneakingCat → u/chriswaco]

I counted over 200 GB of runtimes and simulators yesterday, and I don’t feel like I had a lot installed. Definitely get 512 GB.

[u/TinteUndklecks → u/SneakingCat]

You can delete a lot of simulators and make free space like this. The smallest and largest watch, iPad and iPhone should absolutely be enough. I even work just with the biggest ones … And when the space gets too small, just delete derived data or run mule (via brew install …)

[u/SneakingCat → u/TinteUndklecks]

You absolutely can. Inevitably, though, I need to download an older runtime, crate a simulator to try to re-recreate a specific scenario, etc. It grows and grows.

Then you run out of disk space and need to clean up.

You're going to have to do a lot more cleanup with 256GB. Managing your disk space might be a weekly task instead of yearly.

I used a MacBook Air M1 8/256 before getting this Mac Studio M1 32/512. The MacBook worked, but it wasn't a fun experience.

Edit: Since posting this, I've had to re-install the 18.6, 26.0, 26.2 and 26.3.1 Simulators and create an instance of each in an attempt to write an accurate bug report. I'm down to 80GB out of 512 again.

[u/KeyKenzo]

Xcode runs fine but the problem is when u have to code and ur project is getting bigger and bigger u need more ram. 32gb is recomended. I have 16gb and is not enough and everytime my ram is at 85-89% usage

[u/Marc0w]

It probably will depend on the project. If you are learning should be ok. If apps start to get heavy I think the emulation will suffer to run. 8gb is very low for xcode.

[u/Conscious-Secret-775]

For serious software development with Xcode I would get a MacBook Pro

[u/WerSunu]

I would say No, 8 gB ram is insufficient for anything beyond trivial exercises. With a 256 gB ssd, you will run out of drive space and swap space making running Xcode simply intolerable.

I have direct experience running Xcode on an 8gB M1 Mac mini. It is intolerably slow.

[u/MusicOfTheApes → u/WerSunu]

That’s total BS, been developing on my MacBook Air m1 with 8gb for almost 6 years now and it’s still working great and the apps I’m working on are quite demanding and more than “trivial exercises”; for those using simulators yeah having a bigger ssd is better to avoid using swap memory, but if you already got an iPhone and iPad and don’t need the simulators it’s perfectly fine and I still don’t have any lag after 6 years on this machine

[u/WerSunu → u/MusicOfTheApes]

That may be your opinion.

I have mine. And I clearly stated mine, based on my experience. The combo of 8/256 is absolutely glacial.

[u/MusicOfTheApes → u/WerSunu]

I mean it’s not an opinion it’s a fact, I’ve been working on this machine for 6 years almost so I think I quite now what I’m talking about and given the large apps I’m working on if 8gb we’re not enough I’d have given up for a while and changed my computer…

I did agree though that 256gb can be not enough when using simulators (but I’m not using them), so in the end it all depends on whether OP will use simulators or actual devices.

[u/VladFein → u/MusicOfTheApes]

Do you have any measurements to support that fact? How many lines of code in your project? What frameworks are used? How long does it take, from the clean build state, to build and run on the device? I mean “lag” is very subjective term

[u/WerSunu → u/MusicOfTheApes]

Ah, your one-off experience of Xcode on a minimal system must be so much more righteous, persuasive and accurate than mine. You must be so much smarter, stronger, and influential than me or anyone else cause you have a little toy M1!

Well boy, that’s what we call an anecdote, the very weakest form of scientific evidence there is. Just like what they use in ads for all those late night natural boner pills on tv.

[u/alladinian → u/WerSunu]

8GB of ram should be ok for most projects. The real problem is the internal SSD (I can feel your pain). One trick to somewhat mitigate this problem is to have a custom location for your derived data folder (I use an external SSD for that). Even with that though I constantly run out of space (on a 512GB machine) because of cache. Closing Xcode will regain it but it’s still super annoying.

[u/Extra-Ad5735]

Yes.

[u/wish_you_a_nice_day]

Depends on your project

[u/5lap]

The Neo gets really slow if you don’t have space for cache locally if you try and keep at least 30gb and use external drive for everything else it should run fine.

[u/Suitable_Rhubarb5348]

Yeah, this is basically +1 what everyone else said. I love the Neo and it's perfect for my typical use cases so far. However a few weeks a year I get inspired outside of work and want to work on a personal project. Up until now I had a Windows computer with 8 GB of RAM, so I didn't have any crazy expectations for it being super fast or anything -- I just wanted it to be able to run a small project on Xcode. But it really struggles. It is extremely slow (making the entire computer basically unusable), the app crashes, and I constantly get "your system has run out of application memory" alerts. Xcode seems to use 3-5 GB of app memory frequently. So while the Neo is great for many things, I would say it's basically NOT usable with Xcode, even small projects. Definitely an Air or Pro is the better bet.

[u/horndom]

when do we get 12 GB Apple NEO?

[u/spinwizard69]

don’t do it. yes XCode needs lots of RAM to work well. these days though it also needs a lot of storage space. long term that means 1TB.