How does the latest entry-level MacBook perform on database workloads? We benchmarked it to find out.

DuckDB

DuckDB's team benchmarked the entry-level MacBook Neo (Apple A18 Pro, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, $700) against AWS cloud instances using ClickBench and TPC-DS workloads. In cold runs, the MacBook outperformed cloud instances due to its local NVMe SSD vs. network-attached storage. In hot runs, the large c8g.metal-48xl cloud instance dominated, but the MacBook held its own against a mid-sized c6a.4xlarge. TPC-DS at SF100 completed in 15.5 minutes; at SF300, DuckDB spilled up to 80 GB to disk and finished all queries in 79 minutes. The verdict: the MacBook Neo is not ideal for daily heavy data workloads due to slower disk I/O and limited RAM, but it handles occasional local analytics well, especially when used primarily as a cloud client.

Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook