"Best" OS for 2012 i7 MacBook Pro 9,2

[Cave Man]

I know "best" is subjective, but does anyone have opinions about this? Will this computer be speedy enough with High Sierra? It's currently on Mavericks. 2.9 gHz dual-core i7 and 8 GB of RAM.

 

[Kingcr]

Running High Sierra on my mid-2012 MBP 9,1 (i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) without major complaints if that helps.

 

[DeltaMac]

Upgrade the RAM to 16GB, if you like, but the best upgrade is an SSD. If your MBPro still has a hard drive, the improvement will be wonderful for you, and certainly good for High Sierra.

 

[Cave Man]

Thanks for the replies. I think an SSD may be in the future but right now I am mostly interested in performance (i.e., not sluggish). Will the High Sierra installer convert the hard drive to APFS, or can I keep it at HFS+? I've cloned the hard drive so that if necessary I can revert back.

 

[wwooden]

I believe High Sierra only converts the hard drive to APFS if it is an SSD.

I would highly recommend an SSD upgrade. I did it to my 2012 MBP and it feels like a new computer.

 

[Cave Man]

That's great to hear. I'm trying to convince the owner she should get an SSD as that is clearly the weakest link of the computer. If she does, I'll initialize it as APFS and clone the High Sierra install to it.

 

[Fishrrman]

The "best OS" is the one that works best FOR YOU -- offering a blend of speed, compatibility, and familiarity. Sometimes this means "not quite the newest".

We can't make that choice.
Only YOU can.

Question:
Are you happy "where you are right now"?

 

[Macdctr]

Get the SSD, you will notice a performance boost on your mid2012 MBP.

I did both the RAM and SSD upgrade on mine and saw a noticeable improvement.