iOS Can the MBP run the retina/ipad simulator at full speed?

karlth said:

I'm currently developing apps on a Mac Mini and the only problem with that platform, apart from portability, is the fact that the device Simulator runs extremely slowly when executing retina or iPad apps. The reason is because the graphics renderer is software only.

What about the newest MBP. Is it able to run the simulator at full device speed?

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which MBP? They all have different graphics cards.

xxBURT0Nxx said:

which MBP? They all have different graphics cards.

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It seems like it's actually a CPU horsepower question because (I think) the emulator is software only so the GPU makes no difference.

Which Mac Mini are you running on and which MBP are you looking at? Either way, a MBP with an i5 or i7 should be well better than a Mac Mini.

dmw16 said:

It seems like it's actually a CPU horsepower question because (I think) the emulator is software only so the GPU makes no difference.

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oh, in that case i'm sure they all would be better than the aging c2d processor in the mac mini!

There's no explicit GPU hardware acceleration of the iPhone simulator apart from the normal Mac OS X stuff. Especially for games, Apple recommends testing with real hardware.

karlth said:

Anyone. I think this is a CPU issue probably as it is a software renderer. I have a 2007 Mac Mini with a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz processor and it runs a game that runs at 60fps on a device at only 8fps on the simulator.

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My question is why not just go buy an ipod touch? a lot cheaper than a new computer and easier to test than through iOS software emulation on osx.

-edit- oh i see

well if it's based on cpu, yes the new mbp's will blow the old mac mini out of the water.

karlth said:

Yes but some things are better done on the simulator including logging and gameplay video creation.

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Quite true, though maybe with the Apple Digital AV Adapter and an HDMI capture card, one can get better results (certainly a lot easier than trying to play a game with a mouse).

karlth said:

You mean capturing the game directly from the iPad/iPhone4? Is that possible?

I had no idea.

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Yep, check this out: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC953ZM/A

karlth said:

Yes but some things are better done on the simulator including logging....

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I haven't done any apps requiring 60fps myself, but I do know that you can get the same logging by running & debugging with the device attached to the Mac. Like someone else said, you'll do best to get the cheapest iPod touch you can, since eventually you should test on the real device before submitting to the App Store to make sure everything works okay.

karlth said:

What about the newest MBP. Is it able to run the simulator at full device speed?

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The slowest MBP will run CPU software and Quartz graphics much faster than the newest iPad 2.

However the fastest MBP will emulate iOS Open GL much slower than the speed that an iPad 1 can run Open GL.

So YMMV.