How Does MacOS Catalina Work for You on an Old Mac?
Newer versions of macOS usually mean better performance on the latest Apple hardware, but your experience on older Macs, especially if you’ve installed the latest macOS on an unsupported model, can be unstable.
There’s a week left until Apple is sure to announce macOS 10.16 CaliforniaName, so we thought it would be a good idea to take another look at macOS Catalina and see how that has felt for you over the past year. As a reminder, macOS Catalina is compatible with the following desktops and laptops:
- MacBook introduced in early 2015 or later
- MacBook Air introduced mid 2012 or later
- MacBook Pro introduced in mid 2012 or later
- Mac mini introduced in late 2012 or later
- iMac released in late 2012 or later
- iMac Pro (all models)
- Mac Pro introduced in late 2013 or later
One significant compatibility difference between macOS Mojave and its predecessor, macOS Catalina, is that macOS Mojave supports Mid 2010 or Mid 2012 Mac Pro models with a recommended Metal- capable graphics card , Catalina does not support or allow 32-bit applications. which may have created some problems for your setup.
In terms of how well macOS Catalina performs on older Macs, we’ve seen several reports of users of older systems (2012-2015) showing equal or better performance on Catalina compared to Mojave. At least most of them didn’t have major upgrade issues. Catalina’s quirks don’t seem to be common with older cars.
Reddit user Miguimike reports that Catalina runs “like butter” on a 2012 MacBook Pro:
“I was hesitant to upgrade because new OS updates in the past made my Mac run slower, but I’m using Retina 2012 MBP 16GB RAM and it actually runs smoother than the previous update (forget the name).”
On MacRumors, user Jack Neal reports good performance on an older machine:
“On an unsupported Mac, and one supported Mac I’ve tried, it actually seems a little faster than the Mojave, but I’d say it’s pretty flat and the island has nothing in the desert in terms of stability.”
However, the experience is not universal, as MacRumors commenter mrjohnnyglass describes for the 2012 Mac mini:
“Tried to update my Mac Mini last night and when it opened the Finder would crash every time and no programs would open. Made a bootable USB Catalina installer and it did the same. Installed Catalina on fresh install and same problem. I downloaded it from the App Store.
Came back to Mojave and I have no problem. Does anyone else have this problem? “
Additionally, while some users say that while Catalina “feels faster” than Mojave, you may not see any measurable performance gain depending on the age of your system and what applications you typically use.
If you have an old Mac, how was your introduction to Catalina? Are you eager or afraid to upgrade to what Apple is preparing in the meantime? Let us know in the comments and be sure to let us know which Mac you are using.
This article was originally published in 2018 and was updated by Emily Long on May 15, 2020. Our updates include a significant rewrite to focus on the latest macOS, updated user comments, and a new header image.