Every iOS developer dreams of faster builds, but getting there isn't always straightforward.
The reality is, mobile development is a complex process. There are many factors beyond your control—like legal considerations, device compatibility, and app store approvals—that can cause delays and slow things down.
The good news is there is one way to speed up your builds without having to cut corners or sacrifice quality:
Introducing the Apple M4 Pro Mac Mini on Bitrise.
In this post, I'll explain what makes the M4 Pro a game-changer compared to the M2 Pro chips, what benefits it can bring to your build cycle and, of course, how you can get access.
Let’s get started.
Apple's new M4 Pro chips: built for the iOS fast lane
Rapid advances in technology have made us all more impatient than ever. We want everything instantly, and that is particularly true when it comes to mobile apps.
To keep up, iOS developers need machines designed for speed and efficiency. And that’s exactly where Apple’s new M4 Pro chips come in.
As the most advanced range of chips ever built in the industry, they are able to provide iOS developers with the supercharged power they need to build and release apps as quickly and efficiently as possible.
M4 vs M2 vs M1 Max - spot the difference?
The M4 Pro comes with 2 additional performance cores compared to the M2 Pro, enabling faster Xcode compilation and iOS simulator testing. —2 more performance cores. It supports up to 64 GB of memory with 273 GB/s bandwidth, which is double the M2 Pro and better than the M1 Max Studio. This makes it ideal for enterprise-level customers who need to handle complex iOS app-building and testing workflows.
The chart below shows how the strongest 14-core M4 Pro, M2 Pro, and M1 Max compare in key metrics such as performance, efficiency, and memory.
Putting M4 Pro on Bitrise to the test!
To see the impact of the M4 Pro chips firsthand, we tested two M4 Pro configurations using the public Xcodebenchmark tool with the Xcode 16.2 Bitrise stack:
- M4 Pro X Large: 14 CPU, 54 GB
- M4 Pro Large: 7 CPU, 27 GB
The M4 Pro X Large was able to compile a large iOS codebase with Xcode 35% faster than the M2 Pro - an incredible result!
M4 Pro Bitrise machines: stack availability
The M4 Pro Bitrise machine types will be available with the latest Xcode 16 major stack versions, supporting Xcode 15.0 and above. New Xcode versions and beta stacks will be available within 24 hours after Apple's release.
Switch to M4 Pro for faster iOS testing and builds
Switching to M4 Pro machines will only take a few minutes, but will save you hours of development through reduced build time and improved automation. All you will need to do is update the machine type in your Bitrise Workflow Editor. The additional memory and performance cores you will get with the M4 Pro will help you handle the most complex iOS app building, testing, and workflows with ease.
For example, one of our large enterprise customers who switched from the M1 Max Large to the M4 Pro X Large saw a 17% increase in iOS app workflow speed.
The extra memory with the M4 Pro will enable you to run multiple simulators in parallel, greatly speeding up the UI test validation process. Also, the M4 Pro X Large works really well with advanced build systems like Bazel, which generally require more memory and performance capabilities. For more information, see our documentation.
Note: M4 Pro does not support Android emulators
It is currently not feasible to run Android emulators on macOS virtual machines until the macOS virtualization framework supports it. As a result, M4 Pro Bitrise machine types will not support Android emulators.
See our documentation about Virtual Device Testing for Android Step to learn how a third-party integration can enable you to trigger Android UI testing when using Apple Silicon machines.
