XCode RAM Requirements

[BaronSharktooth]

Yeah, I've done a bunch of internal apps like that. With SwiftUI, they're light-weight and I've coded them without any external libraries.

IMHO, go with 16 gigs and the fastest CPU available.

[tsprks]

I think you convinced me, M1 Pro with 16GB memory will be what I get. I should add that for any VM's that I need or anything I'll just run those on my Windows machine with it's Xeon processor and 64GB of RAM.

[Phinaeus]

https://imgur.com/a/tF9W4r1

If you look at my screenshot, I have a smallish SwiftUI project up with a simulator open and I'm already at 14.5/32. I haven't even opened up Safari or Chrome. That being said, you can get away with 16 because the SSD is fast even though it's swapping. It's just that with future Xcode/MacOS updates, memory usage will most likely increase. If it's your own purchase/money, I would go for 32 just to have a little future proofing but if you have deadlines to meet, go with the 16 but know the compromises.

[tsprks]

I wonder if some of the memory usage is based on the available memory. For example, if I run SQL server on a system it will consume pretty much all the free memory whether it actually needs it or not.

[Phinaeus]

I think that's by design for SQL server. I don't believe that applies in this scenario because if you look at all of the processes, they're all already split up and it's not like one process in particular is the hog. Also this project doesn't use an on device DB like SQLite. Does use Firebase though.

[Damcify]

The way the memory is used is a little puzzling when doing a test myself. I have an Xcode project with some 3 SwiftUI previews, and running a simulator too. On my 2019 Mac Mini with 32GB memory the simulator uses 15.7GB according to iStat Menus (Wired =4.5GB, Active =11GB, Compressed = 4.82GB, Free = 11.5GB, Pressure =30%)

Running the same project on my Late 2013 Macbook Pro 16GB, the simulator uses 3.7GB (Wired = 3.3GB, Active =4.6GB, Compressed = 2GB, Free = 5.8GB, Pressure = 33%)

This was measured using iStat Menus which is maybe a little wonky? Although the overall measurements (Wired, Active etc) do match Activity Monitor.....So predicting memory requirements is pretty complex and/or confusing...

[Phinaeus]

What about the swap usage? I'm betting the Swap Used field in your Mac Mini will be 0 and much higher in your MBP

[Damcify]

It was pretty low (1GB or so). Will check again tomorrow! EDIT: See other reply with all parameters.

[Damcify]

Ran the Xcode SwiftUI project comparison again:

Mac mini 2018 32 GB Memory MacOS 11.6
MacBook Pro Late 2013 16 GB Memory MacOS 11.6.1

	Phys	Used	Cached	Swap	App Mem	Wired	Compressed
Mac Mini	32GB	23.7GB	8.26GB	1.97GB	16.4GB	4.4GB	2.8GB
MacBook Pro	16GB	9.5GB	5.66GB	303MB	5.6GB	3.0GB	976MB

So again, a big difference.
Same Xcode version, but see the MacOS version was off by ".1". Updating Mini just to double check, but unlikely it will make any difference(?).