Bare Metal vs Virtual Machines: Why We Chose Dedicated Hardware

Some cloud providers offer “Mac instances” that are actually virtual machines running on shared hardware. Here's why that matters — and why we chose a different approach.

The Problem with Mac VMs

macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon has limitations. Apple's Virtualization.framework doesn't support GPU passthrough to VMs, which means: no Metal GPU acceleration in VMs, no Neural Engine access, degraded graphics performance, and shared memory bandwidth between VMs on the same host.

For basic tasks like compiling code, VMs work fine. But for AI/ML workloads, graphics-heavy testing, or anything that needs the Neural Engine, VMs are a dead end.

Bare Metal = Full Performance

Every Macyou server is a dedicated Mac Mini — not a slice of one. You get: full Metal GPU acceleration (20-core GPU on M4 Pro), full Neural Engine access (38 TOPS), dedicated memory bandwidth (273 GB/s), and no noisy neighbors.

The Cost Argument

VMs are cheaper per unit because providers pack multiple tenants on one machine. But when you factor in the performance difference, bare metal often wins on a per-task basis. A Macyou M4 Pro at $149/mo can replace 2–3 VM instances that cost $80–100 each.

When VMs Make Sense

To be fair, VMs are fine for lightweight tasks: running automated tests that don't need GPU, basic macOS compatibility checks, or short-lived CI jobs that spin up and tear down.

For everything else — production inference, Xcode builds, creative work, ML training — bare metal is the way to go.