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2011 IMAC Which OS is best
- Thread starter Garyed055
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nambuccaheadsau
macrumors 68020
Double the memory to 8GB and better 16GB if you do photoshop etc. If it has an SSD I would leave it at High Sierra, and for a slow old platter drive Sierra. An SSD would give it a great boost.
Thanks Everyone Ordering the extra memory now. Just out if curiosity what is the reason Apple says the 2011 can't Run Mojave?
Gary
edhchoe
macrumors 65816
Apple wants you to buy a new computer.
I still am using the same iMac as yours. But I added 4 GB RAM. It is much faster when booting up, shutting down, and opening apps.
I had added two 4GB ram cards but one turned out to be defective. So I currently have 8 GB but it is still much faster than before.
I considered SSD upgrade also but after seeing the improvement with only RAM upgrade, I won't get SSD.
if I understand correctly you have 3 memory slots occupied? You don't have to add them 2 at time?
Gary
AmazingRobie
macrumors 6502
Hello. If its a Mid-2011 iMac 27", our best advise to you is to install macsfancontrol and turn the brightness down on the display to the halfway mark. monitor the heat generated with the macsfancontrol and adjust the fans when doing intensive work like any video or photo editing. It may help prolong the life of that machine. Otherwise you may be looking at a GPU or logic board failure sooner than you'd like. Which can be fixed, but it will take money to do that.
We ran High Sierra on that model with 32GB of RAM and an SSD for a year and it was smooth. Before that I believe it was El Capitan and even before that Snow Leopard. We skipped Sierra. Snow Leopard was the fastest OS, but eventually it became too cumbersome to find workarounds for software installs. Good luck.
We ran High Sierra on that model with 32GB of RAM and an SSD for a year and it was smooth. Before that I believe it was El Capitan and even before that Snow Leopard. We skipped Sierra. Snow Leopard was the fastest OS, but eventually it became too cumbersome to find workarounds for software installs. Good luck.
The 6xxM GPUs don't support the new Metal API, which the Mojave operating system apparently now exclusively uses.
It's possible. There's a hack and a patch. I've done it. Avoid!
That makes it sound like someone's arbitrary decision. It's not.
The problem is that the GPU in your 2011 (and mine and my 2010) does not support graphics acceleration under Mojave and there is no workaround. As the guy who wrote the patch says, "Mojave on these Macs is useless." DosDude1 is absolutely right.
I have Mojave on a test SSD and can boot mine via eSATA. Be prepared to erase the SSD and do a Time Machine Restore after you see the results.
There are a couple pf other threads where people are trying to find compatible GPUs and the routines that will work. Still looking.
FlorisVN
macrumors 6502a
i reccomend SSD and at least 8GB of ram.
GPU can be upgrade if wanted, and you are willing to tweak the hardware.
more info here :
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
for example I have upgraded one of our 27" 2011 iMac with an Nvidia GTX765m video card, which is fully Metal supported.
It can run MacOS Mojave just fine using dosdude1 mojave patcher tool..
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-14-mojave-on-unsupported-macs-thread.2121473/
GPU can be upgrade if wanted, and you are willing to tweak the hardware.
more info here :
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
for example I have upgraded one of our 27" 2011 iMac with an Nvidia GTX765m video card, which is fully Metal supported.
It can run MacOS Mojave just fine using dosdude1 mojave patcher tool..
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-14-mojave-on-unsupported-macs-thread.2121473/
Update
Friday of this week I turned the Imac on and after 10 minutes I heard the loudest popping noise I ever heard anything make. quickly I turned it off and called the people I bought it from. They said send it back to them and they will replace it. So for now I'm back to my 2007 Mac Mini till the new unit arrives
Gary
Friday of this week I turned the Imac on and after 10 minutes I heard the loudest popping noise I ever heard anything make. quickly I turned it off and called the people I bought it from. They said send it back to them and they will replace it. So for now I'm back to my 2007 Mac Mini till the new unit arrives
Gary
I'm currently at 10.11 El Capitan with OS installed on SSD, plus a 3Tb hard drive . Should I upgrade to Sierra(10.12) or High Sierra? I've heard that there are compatibility issue of AHFS for spinning drives.
What are advantages of upgrading it to 10.12 or 10.13? Or disadvantages (like app compatibility?)
Many thanks in advance!
What are advantages of upgrading it to 10.12 or 10.13? Or disadvantages (like app compatibility?)
Many thanks in advance!
Running High Sierra on SSDs in my 2010 and 2011 27” iMacs. Works great.
There is no point to APFS on an HDD. The High Sierra installer will not attempt to format it that way. If installing on an internal SSD, it will format APFS.
There is no point to APFS on an HDD. The High Sierra installer will not attempt to format it that way. If installing on an internal SSD, it will format APFS.
UPDATE.. www.macofalltrades.com Sent the replacement unit and it runs like gangbusters. no loud fan noise all excellent!!!
You might want to reconsider the SSD. I added one to my iMac and the difference in speed was exponential.
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Seconded for running High Sierra with an SSD. I have no idea how it will run on just an HDD, though, but I suspect it might not be so bueno. HS runs just fine on my mid-2010 iMac, which I upgraded to a fusion drive a few years back (see sig. for specs).
This is so different The imac that failed the day it arrived after 10 minutes of use the fans were running full blast and loud. The replacement even after watching an hour of video on Itunes no fan noise at all
Gary
FlorisVN
macrumors 6502a
what are yout temperatures saying .. ?
post a screenshot here from macsfancontrol program.
2011 imac's are known to get very hot AMD GPU's !!
EugW
macrumors P6
Watching an h.264 video shouldn’t stress such a Mac much, assuming your software is doing proper hardware h.264 acceleration. If your software isn’t doing proper hardware h.264 decode acceleration then it’s time for new software. You’re out of luck though if it is h.265 HEVC video, since these machines do not support hardware h.265 acceleration.
Anyhow, I recommend High Sierra on these machines. You just need SSD Plus 8 GB RAM. Don’t waste your time with trying to hack Mojave to work on these machines. Total waste of time.
Anyhow, I recommend High Sierra on these machines. You just need SSD Plus 8 GB RAM. Don’t waste your time with trying to hack Mojave to work on these machines. Total waste of time.