Xcode compile times: which Mac configuration delivers noticeable best performance? [closed]

Its super easy. Xcode uses processor power for compiling tasks. CPU Specification formula:**

3,2Ghz * 8 cores = 25,6 Ghz4,2Ghz * 4 cores = 16,8 Ghz

**So answering to your question, the most important for Xcode compilation performance is processor power.First processor, xeon based will be much more productive for xcode routine. Use that formula.p.s. My answer based on assumption that both processors is the same or nearnly same year production. Its also important to take in mind the youth of CPU. For 100% sure, check your processors at Geekbench

A higher clock speed allows more processes to be executed in a given time frame. Whereas multiple cores allow for parallel processing. However, the benefits are not double, because not everything will be able to run in parallel for the whole time.

4 cores sounds like plenty. You could maybe go to 6 and be able to justify it, but 8 would be overkill and a waste of money. A higher clock speed will be much more useful and would be much more useful when using the computer for other tasks as well. Also, in regards to the type of processor, they don’t matter too much. As long as you are getting the performance, the implementation doesn’t matter much compared to the other metrics.

Edit

It is also important to take into account the Turbo Boost speeds. This allows a processor to run at a lower clock speed, when non-intensive tasks are running, in order to save energy consumption. For intensive tasks, it will be the Turbo Boost speed that you are getting. This is managed automatically by macOS, but can be manually controlled using an app such as Turbo Boost Switcher.

For the Quad-Core i7, it has a Turbo Boost of 4.5GHz, whereas the 8 Core Xeon has a Turbo Boost of 4.2GHz. This makes them much closer in terms of clock speed. However, the i7 still beats the Xeon in terms of outright clock speed. It also beats it in terms of normal speed, which will benefit with other tasks performed on the computer, and will help with any ‘turbo lag’, if it it managed by the system. Finally, it also has an additional benefit of beating the Xeon on price. This means that for compiling and other Xcode tasks, the i7 is a clear winner.

Look at your current machine. Open Activity Monitor while you are building. If everything is perfect, you would have 100% CPU usage. On a good day you come to 70%, because nothing is perfect.

I have some third party build-scripts that are highly inefficient and use only one core. So your 18 core Mac won't benefit from that at all.

The first and cheapest approach is to make sure you use pre-compiled headers, especially for C++ code, and that your build scripts use all available processors. I have one C++ library that I could build four times faster after doing that.

Note that "GHz" numbers don't tell you what really happens. As your Mac uses more cores, it heats up, and has to reduce the clock speed. So that 3.2 GHz eight core model can run four threads at a much higher speed, probably the same speed as the 4.2 GHz quad core model.

Right now I would recommend you get an M1 Mac for highest single core performance and good multi-core performance, or wait a little bit for their second generation with 8 performance cores. That's what I will be doing.