New x64 macOS runners land in GitHub Actions beta
GitHub has opened a public beta for a refreshed fleet of macOS-hosted runners for GitHub Actions. The new runners run on current-generation x64 Apple hardware and are aimed at teams that want to cut the time their macOS CI jobs spend in the queue and on the machine.
The update brings two changes: the existing 3-core macOS-hosted runner is now based on newer hardware, and GitHub is adding a larger “XL” tier with 12 cores for jobs that need extra horsepower. Choosing between them is a matter of editing a single line in a workflow file, and since runners are billed per use, the larger option is only a cost when you actually invoke it.
The performance difference can be significant. A pull request from the PyTorch project reported build times dropping from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes after moving to the new runner.
PyTorch, the open source machine learning framework, has used the new runner to improve build times from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes!
To try the 12-core option, existing users need to request access to the beta. Once admitted, switch the runs-on: key in your workflow YAML to macos-12-xl or macos-latest-xl.
Billing for the macOS XL runner applies in both private and public repositories, meaning it does not draw down the free Actions minutes included with GitHub plans. Per-job-minute pricing details are available in the GitHub billing documentation.
More details on supported runner images and hardware specs are in the hosted runner docs.
