Which OS for Late 2013 iMac

Off-Topic
1

My current machine is a:
Late 2013 27" iMac
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7
32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB
500 GB SSD

So not a retina screen.

It still seems plenty snappy for my uses. Right now I am running Sierra… I know I can go High Sierra and will be be able to run Mojave and even Catalina… but with this hardware should I upgrade and if so just to High Serra or higher?

The reason I ask is that at work I have an even older 20" iMac. A few months back it got upgraded to High Serra… and slowed to crawl for many things…

This machine, as well as being newer, is a lot beefier but I don’t want to bog it down… and I keep hearing people talk about Mojave being slow on (i assume) newer machines than mine and Catalina likely more so… And I wonder if this hardware will be up to it!

Thanks,

  • karen
2

if compatibility with work is important then go no higher than yours at work

3

[quote=442893:@Karen Atkocius]My current machine is a:
Late 2013 27" iMac
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7
32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB
500 GB SSD

So not a retina screen.

It still seems plenty snappy for my uses. Right now I am running Sierra… I know I can go High Sierra and will be be able to run Mojave and even Catalina… but with this hardware should I upgrade and if so just to High Serra or higher?

The reason I ask is that at work I have an even older 20" iMac. A few months back it got upgraded to High Serra… and slowed to crawl for many things…

This machine, as well as being newer, is a lot beefier but I don’t want to bog it down… and I keep hearing people talk about Mojave being slow on (i assume) newer machines than mine and Catalina likely more so… And I wonder if this hardware will be up to it!

Thanks,

  • karen[/quote]
    I’ve got a 2012 Mac mini here that’s running high Sierra just fine. We did replace it’s hard drive with an SSD though… but your processor is a lot better too.
4

install an ssd in the 20" iMac and it will work still some years.
above 10.10, not using an ssd is a no-no.

5

High Sierra is the last sane version of macOS.

6

Thanks All…

I don’t need to be on the same OS version at home as at work and they are not about to upgrade my work machine!

I was just wondering given my ~5.5 year old hardware, how far I could update OS version and still get good performance. The hardware supporting an OS version, is not the same thing as running it well!

In the past I always got a new Mac every 4 years and passed the old one to someone else in the family… but finances are tighter now.

BTW I would love to update to an early 2019 27" iMac i9 1TB SSD 40GB Ram (8 from apple + 32 from OWC) with a good graphics card, but i just can’t justify the cost.

  • Karen
7

Since its ssd based go as new as you want …
I suggested same as work since that makes moving things back and forth simpler in the long run as code you write in your spare time at home will work on the same version at work and you should have no significant issues

8

Last week I updated our MacBook Pro early 2011 from 10.11 to 10.13 because we use it for signing our software (and now notarizing). It even works a bit better now, except the finder (because no SSD). So there should be no problem.

9

Actually, Tiger (10.4.11) was the last “sane” version. But, High Sierra at least still works as we expect it to … :smiley:

10

For me is Sierra the best, on my Macbook Air 2014, MacMini 2014 with SSD and my iMac 2012 core i5 I still use sierra, with High Sierra it gets much slower !