is 4gb ram enough for iOS developing

Question

I have an MBP 13'(late 2013) with retina.
This model has 4gb ram, i5 2,4ghz and 128gb flash drive.

Can anyone tell me for sure if those specs are
enough for Xcode 7 and iOS app developing in general?

Thanks!

Solution 1

UPDATE Albeit my answer is decent advice with respect to testing the waters, get the MBP if you actually do enough iOS development to warrant it, I wanted to update my answer with an affirmative get a nice MBP, the Mac Mini I had really became agonizing on builds, think about it, every time you want to test a change, you have to build, and if that build takes a minute, definitely not nice, especially when learning, I quickly sold the Mac Mini and purchased a nice MBP on Craigslist.

Original Answer Your MBP will be decent, particularly because you have the SSD drive, that is really going to help. 4gb of ram will get you by.

And look at like this: start with what you got and if you are really writing enough code and doing enough builds that you need something faster, worry about it then.

I have a Mac Mini (late 2014), 4gb, with a physical hard drive, 1.4 Ghz i5. It is excruciatingly slow at times, BUT Xcode is alright most of the time. I wish my builds were faster when I was testing code changes but it inspires me to write more code before testing changes.

I shop the internet for a Macbook Pro from time to time (at least: 16gb ram, SSD i7 quad core 2.3ghz) and I have the extra cash to buy it but my Mac Mini, which is slower than your MBP, for sure, does get the job done and more times than not, with reasonable to acceptable speed.

I do try to keep all programs closed while writing code in Xcode but I can open Adobe Photoshop CS6 with Xcode 7 open and do some work and everything is ok, not fast and snappy but tolerable.

I write code for a living and have mean machines for my day job at home and work, my iPhone app is my side project, and is a decent size app, so again my Mac Mini suffices and it is for sure slower than your MBP setup.

If this was your day job than it may warrant the investment in something faster but if you are just starting out, not even employed to write iPhone apps, you MBP will be just fine that is until you are a prolific highly paid iPhone developer.

Solution 2

Yes, it will work. However, Xcode is memory-hungry, and memory is pretty cheap. Better to get 4gb more and bring it up to 8 gb. (You may have to throw away your 4gb and replace it with 8gb if both memory slots are full of 2gb DIMMs instead of 1 slot containing 4gb.)

That is a very cost-effective way to increase the performance of your Mac. The other way is to replace a mechanical drive with an SSD, but you said you already have that. 128gb isn't a lot, but you should be able to make that work.

Solution 3

My MBAir has the same configuration. I use it to develop in Swift, last version of Xcode, swift and Mac OS. All runs fine, with a storyboard with many viewcontrollers sometimes works slow, but nothing prevents them from developing.

Solution 4

4gb, SSD, i7, XCode 6.4

The XCode itself if very smooth but if you are debugging on an iphone simulator (which you shouldn't if you are going to use XCode7) it may be a little slow.

Then again it depends on what other memory-hogging processes you run. Go ahead and try it.

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Comments

[Manos Serifios]

As far as i know my MBP cannot be upgrade! :(

[Manos Serifios]

Thank you man.. What do you mean by "... an iphone simulator (which you shouldn't if you are going to use XCode7)"? Xcode 7 has something different for debugging?

[Script Kitty]

Sorry I should have specified. By debugging I don't mean a different debugger, but I mean the fact that you can test apps on a physical iPhone which is much better than an emulator.

[Duncan C]

I'm pretty sure that recent 13" MBPs have 2 DIMM slots and Apple says they can hold 8 gb. On some models you can even install 16 even though Apple doesn't say it's supported.

[MikroDel]

Will MBP 13, 2015 with 8 GB, 128 GB SSD be enough? Or why do you want only 16 GB as MBP?

[Brian Ogden]

@MikroDel yes, 8 GB will be more then plenty in my opinion

[MikroDel]

Thanks for fast response. I have this MBP thats why the question. How long do you mean it will be enough? Not for gaming etc., development and some small jobs. Sure your answer its only an opinion, but its interesting to know how do you think :) 3, 5, 8 years? :)

[Brian Ogden]

@MikroDel 5 years, no problem for development

[MikroDel]

Do you think, that it will be possible in 2017 or 2018 to take MBP 13, 2015 with 8 GB and upgrade it to 16 GB?

[Duncan C]

I upgraded my 2012 MacBook Pro from 8 GB to 16 GB. Your mileage may vary. I suggest calling somebody like Mac connection or crucial or Kensington or one of the other vendors and asking them.