My main computer is a mid 2010 Mac Pro and despite the age it’s still fast, even by current standards. The only obvious weak point is the original graphics card and that basically stopped me from upgrading to Mojave initially.
I’ve also held back, partly for compatibility reasons with some of the other software like Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 5.7, since I am not going down the subscription route with Photoshop CC anytime this century. I’ve just found a 4 gig graphics card recommended by Apple as being suitable for Mojave that isn’t too expensive, so I am inclined to give it a go. Time will tell if it will still be OK with 10.15.
Has anybody seen any obvious differences in performance using Mojave or High Sierra using Blocs 3 or indeed Blocs 2? I am guessing that @Norm does most of his testing and development on Mojave, so in theory that should be the best bet. Any thoughts on the two systems in general for stability and speed etc? Issues after upgrading?
Wrong actually, I always stay an OS behind on my main Mac. So still got high sierra running. I have Mojave running on a MBP and 2 other older macs with Sierra and El Cap.
I have a 2010 Mac Pro (classic Mac Pro) and a 2016 MacBook Pro. I run Blocs and Mojave on both machines.
I upgraded the cMP to Mojave by installing a Radeon RX 560 4 GB card. All is well. Blocs runs fine on the cMP. I would say that Mojave feels slightly slower then High Sierra but I’ve not had any problems.
On a side note, I’m gradually moving my workflow over to the Affinity apps (Designer, Photo and - eventually - Publisher). They all seem to run fine on the cMP too.
As you know @Flashman I can’t speak for your enquired speed info. However, regarding your PS use, I switched because of the subscription model (and I paid dearly throughout the years to Adobe). It took 5 years for the Serif company to develop their Affinity Photo before even released (now officially at version 1.6.7). I am very glad that I switched. It’s a fraction of the Adobe costs. The software is absolutely great, stable and with no flaws, cheaper than Blocs, and in almost every function a perfect replacement for PS. Certain function are even easier to handle than they were in PS. The same counts for Affinity Designer. Affinity Publisher is not yet there in its ß-state, but it is not yet officially published anyway.
@douglasrthomson Looks like we have a similar setup. I have the 8 Core 2.4GHz with 32 gigs of ram, but it still has the original Radeon 5770 card installed. On a computer of this age I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a new card, but I ordered the same as yours I think not long ago.
Does the start up screen work normally for you? I am hoping I can just plug it in, start up, recalibrate the display and install Mojave with no issues.
I reckon High Sierra runs slower than Sierra, so I hope that trend doesn’t continue. My daughter has a top spec 2018 MBP running Mojave and it seems to be OK with the apps she uses. Some tasks are just better handled on a desktop though.
Longterm I will almost certainly go over to Affinity, though like many, I’ve been holding on to CS6 as long as it works, because it does everything I could ever need and I’m familiar with it. The plan has always been to wait as long as possible, allowing Affinity to improve in the meanwhile.
With Mojave I figure we’ll gain another year or two of security updates as long as the machines keep going. I’d be surprised if Apple maintains compatibility though with 10.15.
@StFoldex I paid for every upgrade over 15 years, starting long before the CS range even appeared, but when they came out with CC they lost me and I gather they doubled the subscription cost recently as an experiment. Obviously some will have more demanding requirements than others. Previously I was a professional photographer, whereas now I am mainly using it for web related work.
Yes, that’s the same card I put in my machine (I have a 12 core that had the 5870 card). I can’t remember the exact sequence of events I did to upgrade but it was easy enough. I do get a start up screen but only at the end of the start up sequence. I also did a clean install of Mojave as I was overdue a clean system install.
When I get time I’ll share some links I followed for the upgrade process.
Both seem fine to Me. I will most likely update my main iMac to Mojave next week in prep for WWDC and then my laptop gets bumped up to the next MacOS (beta) for testing in prep for Octobers release.
I’m just giving this some thought now, since I should finish a job today and the card is arriving on Monday. A clean install sounds like a good idea to clear out the gremlins, but did you wipe everything and only install the essential apps from scratch or wipe the drive, then import the user data, including apps from Time Machine or some other means?
I’ve done complete clean installs in the past, however it takes a good day or more to have everything running normally after that with all the app installs and preference settings. It also entails importing quite a bit of old data anyway, because you wouldn’t want to lose those custom brics for example and multiply that for every similar app.
Another point I need to find out is what happens with this video card if I want to access recovery mode or perhaps a firmware upgrade. I want to know if these work like the original graphics card.
A friend purchased a Mac Pro a year or two ago from some specialist group that started life as a 2009 or 2010 machine, but then had some sort of upgrade, including the top spec processor from the 2012 machine and various extras. It’s the equivalent of a fully pimped out muscle car, but he is far from happy and has all sorts of problems with every OS upgrade, almost like a Hackintosh.
It still has the original video card installed, which I believe shows the start up screen, then switches to the faster card for general usage. I told him at the time his problems are likely down to this setup and not having a Mac edition video card. It should in theory be possible to flash these cards, but I’m no expert in this.
did you wipe everything and only install the essential apps from scratch
Yes. I bit the bullet and did everything from scratch (reformatted the drive and fresh installs of everything). I think I last did a clean install with Maverics and I was gradually getting a few gremlins with each upgrade. Everything runs well now - no random crashes or beachballs.
Another point I need to find out is what happens with this video card if I want to access recovery mode or perhaps a firmware upgrade.
I’ve not had any problems with my setup on the Mac Pro. The RX560 is natively supported by MacOS. I’ve read somewhere that people have left both cards on their machines (5770 + upgrade).
I’m on facebook and joined the Mac Pro Upgrade group. (Redirecting...)
They are all very helpful and friendly. They will be able to give you much better advice than I can.
Thanks, I’ve just applied for that group on facebook. I guess the Mac Rumors site will also be a good place as well. These are fantastic machines and I’m dreading the day it dies.
These are fantastic machines and I’m dreading the day it dies.
Yes, I agree. Having said that, I was quite shocked at how much faster the MacBook Pro is compared to the cMP for most tasks. Bar 3D rendering, the MBP is quicker at pretty much every task I throw at it.
That is probably down to most tasks not exploiting multi-core processors properly. I tend to think of this machine like a car with 16 one litre engines or in your case 24, thanks to multi-threading. Rapidweaver runs like a dog on this machine, because the basic processor clock speed is quite slow and the activity monitor shows it’s only using one core.
My daughter has the top custom spec 13" MBP from 2018. It seems to be a bit faster on Photoshop from some basic testing, but slower exporting from Handbrake. I probably have an advantage with the PCI based SSD card.
On heavy tasks that require high CPU usage for hours or even days the Mac Pro is much more at home and handles the task with no stress or screaming fans. She has been working on some high poly 3D models and animations, however we do the rendering on the Mac Pro. She briefly checked a couple points on my machine in Maya before export and there was a lot of spinning ball that she never sees. This pushed me to think about the video card upgrade.
The one thing I don’t like about the MBP is the endless battery charging, so I suspect my next machine will be a top spec Mac Mini. If I ever get a laptop it will probably be something small just for visiting clients.
It seems to be a bit faster on Photoshop from some basic testing, but slower exporting from Handbrake.
I use Apple Compressor and Handbreak for transcoding video. I did an H.264 convert via Compressor of a ProRes video on the MBP and the CMP to compare speeds.
The MBP too 3 and a half minutes
The cMP took 45 minutes. Handbreak was slower on both machines.
On heavy tasks that require high CPU usage for hours or even days the Mac Pro is much more at home and handles the task with no stress or screaming fans
Agree. Sometimes I think the MBP will melt with heavy tasks! I use C4D and I only render on the cMP
I love the freedom and speed of the MBP. I’ve not had a problem with the battery. I think battery technology has changed a lot over the years.
The Mac mini looks great. I hear good things about them.
Still plenty of life left in the cMP. They’re the Volvo 850 Estate of the Apple range!
I recently purchased a quad core Mac mini, late 2012 I think and added an external GPU with a Vega 64 card. It’s pretty swift with anything that uses the GPU, davinci resolve etc
My father has the entry level Mac Mini from 2012 with the minimum spec from that time, including the original drive, so no SSD. It runs Mojave, but it’s so slowwwwwwwwww… Despite that, it’s been really reliable and the new ones should be pretty sweet machines.
It would feel so weird replacing this big lump on my desk with such a discreet alternative and find it is actually faster. I saw the other day that you can buy cooling mats for the Mac Mini that would help a lot if doing CPU intensive tasks over long periods.
One of my major problems with the iMac is the tendency towards heat build up. My old one suffered screen burn in little over a year. The original hard drive died and was replaced by one that ran too hot.
Aha, that’s where your name comes from.