32GB Unified Memory (400GB/s Memory Bandwidth).Apple M1 Max (10-core - 8 Performance / 2 Efficiency).A summary of the specification for each system can be found below. Test SetupĪs part of my testing, I will be using the 16-inch MacBook Pro (OCT-2021), 16-inch MacBook Pro (NOV-2019), Dell XPS 17 (9710) and a custom-built desktop PC. I hope that a year of additional development and the more powerful Apple M1 Max SoC will deliver tangible improvements. In this article, I plan to take a second look at Docker Desktop for Mac. For example, in my testing, Docker Desktop for Mac was consistently outperformed by its x86 Linux and Windows (WSL2) counterparts. It was clear that the Apple M1 System on a Chip (SoC) had tremendous potential, but was held back by the software.
The performance of Docker running on the MacBook Air was good, relative to Intel equivalent Mac. Last year, I tested Docker for Mac on the MacBook Air running Apple Silicon, which I documented across three articles. I have been using Docker since 2014, primarily to support web development. With the arrivial of the 2021 MacBook Pro, I have been testing my common workloads.