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hologram

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2007
527
179
I have an older computer, an early 2008 iMac 2.8 Core 2 Duo, maxed out at 4gb ram. I was running 10.8.5, and things were pretty slow, as you'd expect from an old computer. I'm still trying to keep things current, though, because I'm going to buy a new iMac at the next refresh and this will make the transition easier.

Back when I was running 10.8.3 I updated to Mavericks when it first came out because I'd read that the memory compression scheme would improve the performance of older machines with limited ram, but it was just the opposite.Everything was soooooo slow. Even opening a folder with a few documents inside, or a short TextEdit document brought up the beachball, and after 24 hours of this I restored 10.8.3 from a clone.

Today I installed 10.9.3 over 10.8.5 using the full 5.6gb installer from the app store, and my computer is running great! It's noticeably faster than 10.8.5 and I haven't had a single issue at all except for a few incompatible plugins. I've only been testing it for a few hours, but everything works and it feels like my computer got a couple of years younger.

Anyway, I just thought a positive experience might convince some of you with older Macs to try it. :D
 

KoolAid-Drink

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2013
1,811
843
USA
Give it time. Mavericks was fast and sailed smoothly for about a week on my MBP (2011), then became choppy and sluggish. This was a clean install, not an upgrade.

You might get lucky, but I wouldn't be surprised when/if Mavericks will become slow and sluggish on your iMac.

I have an older computer, an early 2008 iMac 2.8 Core 2 Duo, maxed out at 4gb ram. I was running 10.8.5, and things were pretty slow, as you'd expect from an old computer. I'm still trying to keep things current, though, because I'm going to buy a new iMac at the next refresh and this will make the transition easier.

Back when I was running 10.8.3 I updated to Mavericks when it first came out because I'd read that the memory compression scheme would improve the performance of older machines with limited ram, but it was just the opposite.Everything was soooooo slow. Even opening a folder with a few documents inside, or a short TextEdit document brought up the beachball, and after 24 hours of this I restored 10.8.3 from a clone.

Today I installed 10.9.3 over 10.8.5 using the full 5.6gb installer from the app store, and my computer is running great! It's noticeably faster than 10.8.5 and I haven't had a single issue at all except for a few incompatible plugins. I've only been testing it for a few hours, but everything works and it feels like my computer got a couple of years younger.

Anyway, I just thought a positive experience might convince some of you with older Macs to try it. :D
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,033
5,405
ny somewhere
Give it time. Mavericks was fast and sailed smoothly for about a week on my MBP (2011), then became choppy and sluggish. This was a clean install, not an upgrade.

You might get lucky, but I wouldn't be surprised when/if Mavericks will become slow and sluggish on your iMac.

but you WOULD be surprised if his experience continued to go well? seriously, not everyone is having the experience you seem to be having. :rolleyes:
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,033
5,405
ny somewhere
It's not only me. Quite a few others are having a negative experience with 10.9 - just look at the numerous threads.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1716100/ - for starters

of course, but then compare that to the world at large; only a small group of people go to these forums; most people just use their computers, and call apple or someone on craigslist when there are issues.

and most people who come to these forums come BECAUSE they are having issues. thread like this are in the minority...

every OS has issues, and mavericks is no exception. but that doesn't mean that most people are simply using their macs happily...
 

roboGc

macrumors regular
May 7, 2014
144
1
goldcoast australia
Iv had no issues with mavericks , maybe the downloads folder today showing it was still downloading when there was nothing there but a restart fixed that
I like mavericks and I hope 10.10 doesn't turn flat like ios7
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
I have an older computer, an early 2008 iMac 2.8 Core 2 Duo, maxed out at 4gb ram. I was running 10.8.5, and things were pretty slow, as you'd expect from an old computer. I'm still trying to keep things current, though, because I'm going to buy a new iMac at the next refresh and this will make the transition easier.

Back when I was running 10.8.3 I updated to Mavericks when it first came out because I'd read that the memory compression scheme would improve the performance of older machines with limited ram, but it was just the opposite.Everything was soooooo slow. Even opening a folder with a few documents inside, or a short TextEdit document brought up the beachball, and after 24 hours of this I restored 10.8.3 from a clone.

Today I installed 10.9.3 over 10.8.5 using the full 5.6gb installer from the app store, and my computer is running great! It's noticeably faster than 10.8.5 and I haven't had a single issue at all except for a few incompatible plugins. I've only been testing it for a few hours, but everything works and it feels like my computer got a couple of years younger.

Anyway, I just thought a positive experience might convince some of you with older Macs to try it. :D

I'm running Mavericks on a very similar iMac and it's been running as smooth as silk with no issues. I was a bit skeptical at first if the hardware would handle it. On that Mac, I went from Lion to Mavericks and skipped ever installing Mountain Lion on it.
 

roboGc

macrumors regular
May 7, 2014
144
1
goldcoast australia
I'm running Mavericks on a very similar iMac and it's been running as smooth as silk with no issues. I was a bit skeptical at first if the hardware would handle it. On that Mac, I went from Lion to Mavericks and skipped ever installing Mountain Lion on it.



Wonder why people say mavericks is the vista of osx iv had no issues , no giant ones anyways
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
Wonder why people say mavericks is the vista of osx iv had no issues , no giant ones anyways

I don't know either, but I'm sure some people have had issues with it and/or their hardware. I just haven't had any myself or know any personally who does.
 

Jarman74

Contributor
Mar 22, 2009
227
653
To those who claim a positive experience with Mavericks: do you use it daily for your productivity? In other words, do you constantly push it hard to the edge? This would help to put your experience a little bit more in context.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
To those who claim a positive experience with Mavericks: do you use it daily for your productivity? In other words, do you constantly push it hard to the edge? This would help to put your experience a little bit more in context.

Yep, I do. I use my 2010 iMac 2.93GHz i7, 16GB RAM and a Samsung 840 SSD for post video production. It spends hours and hours at 100% CPU usage rendering video and making DVD ISO's.

Plus, I also use it for web design work, remote desktop work and all sorts of other little tasks.

It and Mavericks run like a champ.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
To those who claim a positive experience with Mavericks: do you use it daily for your productivity? In other words, do you constantly push it hard to the edge? This would help to put your experience a little bit more in context.

I use Mavericks every day, at home and at work. I manage and support about 100 Mac systems used by college students, staff and faculty, with the vast majority on Mavericks and simply don't have any issues to report.
 

hologram

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2007
527
179
do you constantly push it hard to the edge? This would help to put your experience a little bit more in context.
No, I don't, but I think I could.

With 10.8.5 I knew I couldn't. I only had 4gigs of ram and it was constantly writing to disk and building up swapfiles. Once i reached 3-5 swapfiles it would get noticeably slower, and if I let it get to 7-8 my comp would become unusable. I'd have to restart to regain performance.

I've been using 10.9.3 for over a week now and I've never gotten over 2 swapfiles. It's only showing one now, after running for three days without a restart, and my computer hasn't slowed down at all.

So, despite not pushing it to the edge, I think it's fair to say that Mavericks is a huge improvement. It is for me, at least.

Why not back everything up, try it for 24hrs and let us know how it works out for you?;)
 

Jarman74

Contributor
Mar 22, 2009
227
653
Why not back everything up, try it for 24hrs and let us know how it works out for you?;)
I recently bought a late 2013 15" rMBP and Mavericks is already there, but I'm currently in the final stages of a huge project on another machine and I'm not willing to take any unnecessary risk to jeopardize it. I will certainly give it a try very soon, that's for sure.

Thank you all for your detailed answers ;)
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,033
5,405
ny somewhere
i LIVE on my macbook pro, many days from early morning to late evening.
logic X mostly, but also photoshop, dreamweaver, pages...and all the usual email/surfing/etc.

i also spend time with the OS itself (i have a number of customizations, and i've minimized the system, to accommodate a 256G SSD).

it's not perfect; what is? but it's light, fast, stable.

am happy on 10.9.3 (just need my wifi to reconnect faster after wake-up)....
 

ABC5S

Suspended
Sep 10, 2013
3,395
1,646
Florida
Mine has run just fine using every day, and hours on end. Believe it might be User Error with apps, programs or hardware that is the issue with theirs. Only a good guess since the majority are having no issues. Millions downloaded, and used, but only a few are complaining is my proof. :D ;) If I'm wrong, show use the stats that show me differently....:p
 

Gochugogi

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2013
223
26
Sandwich Isles
I've been running Mavericks on my 2013 i7 Mini and 2009 Mac Pro since October and it's been smooth sailing save for a sleep issue with FW drives. And I have lots of legacy apps: Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, Quicken 2007, Office 2008, Bias Peak Pro, VueScan, etc. No crashes, no slowdown or anything.

The FW sleep is a PITA but they spin down if ejected, but no system sleep, so things have improved slightly since 10.9. Maybe 10.94 will finally nix system sleep problems with FW. I'd rate 10.93 as 95% there. In comparison, 10.7x was about a 70% with daily crashes and general flaky behavior (not to mention those infuriating autosaves).
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,307
Mavericks has been rock solid for me. It's been probably one of e bat versions of osx IMO
 
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