Best OS to run on 2013 MacBook Pro?

[Donnation]

I'm setting up a friend of mine's 2013 MacBook Pro that was given to him and that he just wants to use for basic things like documents, very light photo editing, email/web browsing. Nothing heavy at all. I'm setting it up as new for him and it had Mountain Lion installed on it and I've since upgraded it to Sierra. I've completely wiped it clean and its running really smooth.

Is Sierra the best choice of OS for him here? I know I can upgrade it further, but I don't want to slow it down by loading an OS on it that while it may be capable of running will end up bogging it down.

For reference, this is a early 2013 15" MacBook Pro/ i7 / with 16GB of Ram and dual Graphics.

If anyone has any thoughts I'd very much appreciate anyone's thoughts here.

 

[robvas]

I would run Mojave...Sierra isn't supported. Catalina is a cluster.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm always going to say Mavericks because I'm somewhat-obsessed with Mavericks. And it's very fast compared to anything that came after.

But if you want something more recent—and to be honest, you probably do—I'd recommend High Sierra. Mojave is fine too but I've found it's a tad slower on older Macs, possibly because of how much rendering was changed to use Metal.

 

[MSastre]

I have a 2013 15"rmbp and staying with Mojave. Runs smooth as silk.

 

[Audit13]

Love Catalina on my early 2015 13" Air and mid-2014 13" Pro.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I had no problems with Catalina on my early 2013 13" MBP.

 

[Donnation]

Thank you guys for the responses. I think I'll load Mojave on it and leave it as is. Thanks again!

 

[MathChief]

I use a 2013 MBP and IMHO Mojave is the best, I regretted a lot upgraded to Sierra, and thought upgrading to Catalina would ease the problem, yet it only makes it worse.

Due to the dual file system, my Spotlight search now is slow as shxt, in Mojave it was super snappy.

 

[Donnation]

Downloaded Mojave and its working beautifully. Thank you all for the advice, very much appreciated.