iOS Question about performance

[dean1012]

*** this message does apply to the SDK ***

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right board but I figured it was. Mods please move it if it is incorrectly placed. Thank you.

I am a college student with limited money and looking to make my first entrance into the mac world. I bought a 2G iPhone when they came out and loved it so much that it is influencing my decision for my next computer.

Because of the iPhone, I am considering a mac laptop instead of another windows laptop to start the new school year.

Due to my short money supply, and my inexperience in the mac world, I will be buying a 2.1 GHz MacBook with stock 1 GB RAM.

This is the $999 (with educational discount) lowest-model macbook on the apple store.

I am a software developer and am also looking to get started into mac software development and iPhone software development.

I would like to know if the 2.1 GHz macbook (with 1 GB RAM) can run XCode and the iPhone simulator smoothly. IE, will I be able to successfully code applications for the mac and iPhone and test them on the iPhone simulator without constant freezing and headaches?

I ask because I currently program for windows on a 3 year old Sony Vaio with a 3.2 GHz single core processor and 512 MB of RAM (with shared graphics!) and use Visual Studio 2005 from Microsoft. I can successfully program on this machine but visual studio often freezes on me and I have to wait a few minutes for it to unlock for my use. These short bursts of lockups add up to be a huge development delay with plenty of frustration.

I know that with the shared graphics, I will only have about 880 MB of system RAM available on the 2.1 GHz macbook.

Right now my question revolves mainly about whether or not I can do this on a 2.1 GHz macbook with 1 GB ram shared with 144 MB graphics.

If I like the mac, I will likely upgrade the RAM to 4 GB later this year. Which brings me to my second question, is the 2.1 GHz macbook comparable in speed to the 2.4 GHz macbook pro when it is given 4 GB of ram? I know graphics will never be comparable, i am talking about application speed.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions,
Jerry

 

[firewood]

The amount of memory will make a much bigger difference than the tiny speed difference between a 2.1 and 2.4 GHz CPU.

 

[Cromulent]

512MBs or RAM? How did you cope? I'd say get 2GBs really. Works flawlessly for me, even though I do have the same number of page outs as I do page ins. I guess I need more RAM really but FB-DIMMs are still more than I can afford at the moment .

Get 2GBs if you possibly can, you'll be thankful in the long run.

 

[dean1012]

I understand that. I am just wondering if the 1 GB (880 MB really, after graphics taken out) will work for Xcode with iPhone simulator. Thanks

 

[dean1012]

512MBs or RAM? How did you cope? I'd say get 2GBs really. Works flawlessly for me, even though I do have the same number of page outs as I do page ins. I guess I need more RAM really but FB-DIMMs are still more than I can afford at the moment .

Get 2GBs if you possibly can, you'll be thankful in the long run.

I don't know how I coped! Unfortunately, I can only afford the stock option with 1 GB RAM.

I will upgrade to 4 GB of RAM by October, I hope.

 

[Cromulent]

I don't know how I coped! Unfortunately, I can only afford the stock option with 1 GB RAM.

I will upgrade to 4 GB of RAM by October, I hope.

In that case you should be fine. 1GBs should be bearable until October, it's not that far away .