Since the moment I started evaluating Corona SDK, I was planning on purchasing a not-so-expensive Mac (after registering Corona) in order to develop for iPhone & iPad devices.

Because of the cost, I was thinking of either buying an older generation Mac Mini (GeForce GT 320M GPU), or a newer Mac Mini (with Intel HD 3000 GPU).

However, I read somewhere (please forgive for not remembering if it was the Ansca forums, or somewhere else) that given the tendency of the iOS hardware to advance rapidly, a Mac computer with Intel graphics should not be considered an option (for testing and developing a game for iOS). In the worst case scenario, a computer with an Intel HD 3000 GPU should provide the necessary resources for developing a -not graphics intensive- game for older iOS devices mostly.

Given the fact that I was planning a game with heavy usage of sprites, I was wondering if a GeForce GT 320M graphics processor would suffice for developing in iPhone & iPad. A second scenario would be to buy a newest Mac Mini with an AMD Radeon HD6630M GPU. And a third scenario -which is a bit problematic, because of the higher cost- would be to target a highest-spec machine, such as an iMac with ΑMD Radeon HD6750M GPU or (terror!) an ΑMD Radeon HD6970M GPU.

So, I was wondering about two things:

1) what should be the minimum GPU of the hosting/developing Mac computer for succesful development of a (heavy in usage of sprites) iOS game in Corona?

2) Is there any online resource with benchmarks for Mac/Macbook/Mac mini/iMac GPUs? Unfortunately the entirety of the online graphics comparison charts I have found, focus entirely on GPUs for Windows graphics cards.

Any advice on these subjects would be welcome.

Thank you for your time and patience.

A game we developed a few months ago (Magic Defenders) which is very sprite intensive, with lots of transitions, lots of objects on screen at once and also lots of spritesheet animations ran just fine on a late 2009 MacBook Pro 13" that had a geforce 9400M. We now have a MacMini 5,1 with intel HD3000 and everything runs just fine as well. Unless you're doing 3D games targeted at iPad2/iPhone 4S then any mac in the last 2 years will probably be enough. If you're still worried about future-proofing your investment then the MacMini with the Radeon GPU will be enough to guarantee you don't run into problems in the next years. If money is no problem then buy a MacPro which should last you at least some 12 years if you're only developing for iOS

Indeed, I am only considering development of 2D games and your feedback was helpful.
Thank you very much for your answer, CluelessIdeas.