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Anyone using an M4 Pro mini as a dev machine?
- Thread starter Mity
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My Mac mini Pro is the second machine to my M1 Ultra Studio. They are also used for app development - desktop and iPhone/Android. I use Parallels Desktop for Windows 11 Visual Studio 2022.
Five years ago, my fastest machine was a Dual Xeon 3.04Ghz CMPro. The Studio leaves it in the dust, the macMini Pro is close to the Studio.
Xcode uses all available cores. Both Macs are very quick and responsive. Realize, that most compiles are incremental. Turn around is very fast.
The higher speed of full compiles on Windows VM is especially noticeable in comparison to my high end i9 based 2018 Intel MacBook Pro.
Unless you have money to burn, the mini Pro works very well. Both my Studio and mini Pro configs are high end (48GB/2TB vs 64GB/4TB.) The Studio cost $2K more at the time.
Five years ago, my fastest machine was a Dual Xeon 3.04Ghz CMPro. The Studio leaves it in the dust, the macMini Pro is close to the Studio.
Xcode uses all available cores. Both Macs are very quick and responsive. Realize, that most compiles are incremental. Turn around is very fast.
The higher speed of full compiles on Windows VM is especially noticeable in comparison to my high end i9 based 2018 Intel MacBook Pro.
Unless you have money to burn, the mini Pro works very well. Both my Studio and mini Pro configs are high end (48GB/2TB vs 64GB/4TB.) The Studio cost $2K more at the time.
Primarily web dev with VSC and docker (JS, Go, PHP, Rust) and some occasional Xcode. Also some occasional data analysis with QGIS.
Perfectly happy with the speed of things. CPU never breaks a sweat. Because I use docker, ram is my thing. After doing perfectly fine for the past ~8 years with a 2017 iMac w/ 24gb, I figured I’d be fine with the 24gb M4 pro. And for the most part I am. Memory pressure during my “normal” job is usually below 50% and have yet to see if hit swap. BUT… I haven’t really pushed it yet. Seems like Sequoia uses a little more ram than Ventura did. I typically kill browser tabs, containers, VSC windows, etc if I’m not using them (would be nice if I didn’t feel like I had to).
I certainly wouldn’t mind having that extra 12gb of headroom on the base Studio model. And it only being a ~$500 difference, I feel like it makes more sense than trying to customize the mini with more ram. I don’t have buyers remorse, but I prob would have pulled the trigger on the Studio if it was available back when I bought my mini.
Perfectly happy with the speed of things. CPU never breaks a sweat. Because I use docker, ram is my thing. After doing perfectly fine for the past ~8 years with a 2017 iMac w/ 24gb, I figured I’d be fine with the 24gb M4 pro. And for the most part I am. Memory pressure during my “normal” job is usually below 50% and have yet to see if hit swap. BUT… I haven’t really pushed it yet. Seems like Sequoia uses a little more ram than Ventura did. I typically kill browser tabs, containers, VSC windows, etc if I’m not using them (would be nice if I didn’t feel like I had to).
I certainly wouldn’t mind having that extra 12gb of headroom on the base Studio model. And it only being a ~$500 difference, I feel like it makes more sense than trying to customize the mini with more ram. I don’t have buyers remorse, but I prob would have pulled the trigger on the Studio if it was available back when I bought my mini.