Docker Desktop performance on MacOS (M1 / Pro / Max)

Hi,

could anyone who owns latest Macbook Pro with M1 / M1 Pro / Max chip and uses Docker for local developement advise if latest enhancements to Docker Desktop - new experimental file sharing implementation called vistiofs) - really resolves the issue with its legendary bad performance on macos?

Speed boost achievement unlocked on Docker Desktop 4.6 for Mac - Docker

I’m planning to upgrade from my old machine and considering Macbook Pro 16 (M1 Pro) or Windows machine with WSL2 (Rog Flow x16 Ryzen 7 6800HS). WSL2 worked well with Docker for me so far but M1 chip is something I simply cannot ignore regarding performance and power efficiency.

I would rather have slow docker combined with all the other niceness of M1 than anything else :stuck_out_tongue:

Fwiw the psql dockers seem to work well, but I dont use docker for development (as in running Elixir) though. I guess all the small codefiles is the main issue.

Wsl2 just fails so randomly and often It drove me crazy (and back to mac due to m1 after five years on windows).

Edit: I was even employed by Microsoft at the time I gave up on wsl2 as dev env :joy:

Just so its said, I have both employees and people I know who use wsl2 with no issue so it seems to be a bit random. I had a bug that killed the network stack all the time. Required rebooting the whole wsl stack, meaning losing all open terminals etc. Especially a problem on laptop as sleep made it worse, even when I restricted to only deep hibernate sleep.

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The off-topic note:

As M1 Pro user, I have to say emulating x86_64 is killing battery. If that’s your case, think about it.

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Hello,

I have a newer M1 Pro machine and the docker perfomance doesn’t seem bad, just normal. The only issues I’ve had I could solve changing the resources on the docker preferences. I’m running psql, redis and rabbitmq on it without any slowdowns.

That opinion could be biased because I’ve had a AMD FX-6300 for years running on Linux…

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I am also very interested in this. I have an M1 and have read about the new vistiofs… but I’m skeptical… :stuck_out_tongue:

It should be known that OP is talking about bind mount performance, i.e. bind mounting your source dir into a container in order to do development. This has been absolutely horrible on OS X.

Normal Docker performance like running a datastore and communicating with it over network is totally fine.

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