Volterra vs M1 Mac Mini | Visual Studio

I' continuing to test the Windows Dev Kit 2023 (Volterra), an ARM mini PC from Microsoft, and here is a series of tests on Visual Studio against the M1 Mac Mini.

#visualstudio #softwaredevelopment #visualstudio2022

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[terribletruth]

The Mac Mini has always been the (almost) under-the-radar amazing computer. Tiny package, low price, a lot of performance. I'm more excited about future versions like a M1 Pro or M2 Mac Mini than I am about new MacBooks.

[Marlon-ldjx]

I have to correct you here. When compiling a C# application, no machine code is generated at all, only an intermediate language called MSIL. This means that no vector instructions are generated as with Intel AVX or Neon with ARM. So even if you did an Intel vs Arm Compile time comparison it would be fair. The JIT compiler only translates the programs into machine language at runtime. However, there is also the possibility of an Ahead of Time NET compilation. But you have to set them up separately.

[henriksndergaard]

Visual Studio 2022 for ARM is live. The newest (non-preview) version is 17.4 and does support ARM. I haven't found anything it can't do that regular VS2022 for x86 can do since I installed it 2 weeks ago.

[JoseSilva-gtzj]

Hey Alex! Do you know if (even without Bootcamp for Mac M1) we can install Windows ARM on " APFS Volumes" or Partitions? Thank you so much!!!

[paulkloppers]

Can you try to compare microsoft office on parallels against the native mac versions of the apps. It might be interesting to see the difference in features you might gain in the windows version.
Love your content. Have you considered doing tutorials ?

[zijinzhang]

I've been coding using visual studio on volterra for a couple of days! It works like a charm!

[joseph-montanez]

One thing to keep in mind is price. To get a 16GB RAM with 512GB Storage on a Mac Mini is $1, 100 USD versus $600 USD for 32GB RAM with 512 GB Storage. There is also the cost of Parallels ($99 USD) with the Mac Mini for Windows development.

[mannkeithc]

Excellent comparison. Apple silicon still has the lead over any high-end ARM processor currently produced by Qualcomm. I wonder if Qualcomm can close the gap with their Nuvia designed processors, assuming they resolve their licensing dispute with ARM. I had hoped to replace my ageing Intel 8th gen core i7 NUC with a M1 / M2 Pro version of the Mac Mini, but this has yet to happen. So, I bought a Microsoft Dev Kit 2023 to experience what it is like using a Windows 11 ARM computer as my daily driver. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised, as many of the apps I use on a day-to-day basis already have Windows native ARM binaries, though you cannot always rely on Microsoft Store to install the correct version. And where there wasn't, such as Chrome, there are effective workarounds. Edge which has an ARM binary is based on Chrome, so I linked Edge with my Google account and run all via Google apples via Edge, including using Edge to install some of them as standalone apps, and that works great. Even for some of the game console emulators I use such as Dolphin and PPSSPP, there are Windows ARM binaries, and they work just as well as the x64 versions on my Intel NUC8. The Volterra box fills just a snappy as my Intel NUC8, boots faster, sips power, and there is no noisy fan unlike my Intel NUC! WSL2 running Linux GUI apps such as LibreOffice, GIMP, etc also feels faster compared with my NUC, but the one downside is there is currently no hardware accelerated graphics support. I believe, this is dependent on 5.20 Linux kernel for Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Adreno support, and WSL2 is current running under a 5.15 kernel. Trying to recompile application source code originally for Intel processors for ARM is far from straightforward, even if you can find the ARM equivalent libraries, etc. The Volterra box will never be a match for a Mac Mini, but I might replace my M1 12.9 iPad Pro 2 TB 5G white elephant crippled by iPad OS 16, with a next gen Microsoft Surface Pro with a Nuvia designed ARM processor. Of course, this is a lot of dreaming on my part, but no more than waiting for Apple to release a M2 Pro Mac Mini or provide the M series iPad Pros with a decent desktop class operating system that makes them a real tablet computer and not just an oversized iPhone!

[pqsk]

Command+O on macOS to open a file in finder app. I think you can change the shortcut too in the keyboard settings

[wolffweber]

Last.
Good to see Volterra, but 2 yrs old M1 is still awesome.

[mwnkt]

Hey just wanted to find out what specs are on that mac mini.

[JoseSilva-gtzj]

Hey Alex, thank you for this video! I'm still waiting for MAUI workload on Visual Studio. I've already told about it to James Montemagno, let's see what will happen!

[erlicthemad]

Press return at the same time? Where is the schwatzanager?

[filecore]

Enjoying this series, thanks Alex. Would love to see something that tests/compares the GPU on Volterra. And then after that a video on the NPU 😊

[janwong]

Are we able to run Visual Studio for Mac on a M1/M2 Mac?

[rope]

Hi, I have a question: ¿How can i get the Microsoft Volterra?, I´m from Mexico, but haven´t seen anything related to shipping or selling. Is there any specific process to acquire this device?, thanks

[_emnljrz]

Off topic question, what can you recommend to a first timer like me to switch from windows to mac? Ever since I'm using a windows laptop but I'm planning to change to a macbook. Thank anyone who can answer.

[essetee]

With all your Mac computers, how much did you donate to the opensource project homebrew ?

[ryanbrown]

Hey Alex, can you test performance Parallels vs VMware?

[n_ku]

Please compare Volterra ARM processor against a 64bit processor, ... from the developer point of view like this one.