Does OS upgrade generally make my laptop slower

[Nobita]

I'm relatively new to the Mac world, but I have upgraded several machines:

Macbook 2008 from Leopard -> Snow Leopard
iMac 2006 from Tiger -> Snow Leopard

Both of them are upgraded without erasing the hard drive. The macbook seem to go really fast after the upgrade, but the iMac runs about the same afterwards. However I've had a bad experience with iPhoto '11 upgrade... It really cripples my iPhoto and so now it's very slow and I don't spend as much time on it anymore.

The question is... Does OS X releases usually slow down macs? I know Snow Leopard is a kind of a special exception because it's a kind of a performance upgrade rather than a feature upgrade. I'm just wondering if I upgrade to later OSes (10.7, 10.8, etc), my macbook can bear it (given that I have the minimum RAM and CPU requirement). I have in fact upgraded the RAM in all my machines.

Hopefully someone who has been upgrading since OS X 10.0 can give me inputs... Cheers!

 

[Arv3n]

I'm relatively new to the Mac world, but I have upgraded several machines:

Macbook 2008 from Leopard -> Snow Leopard
iMac 2006 from Tiger -> Snow Leopard

Both of them are upgraded without erasing the hard drive. The macbook seem to go really fast after the upgrade, but the iMac runs about the same afterwards. However I've had a bad experience with iPhoto '11 upgrade... It really cripples my iPhoto and so now it's very slow and I don't spend as much time on it anymore.

The question is... Does OS X releases usually slow down macs? I know Snow Leopard is a kind of a special exception because it's a kind of a performance upgrade rather than a feature upgrade. I'm just wondering if I upgrade to later OSes (10.7, 10.8, etc), my macbook can bear it (given that I have the minimum RAM and CPU requirement). I have in fact upgraded the RAM in all my machines.

Hopefully someone who has been upgrading since OS X 10.0 can give me inputs... Cheers!

I don't know about upgrading, but I installed (fresh install) Snow Leopard on my mid-2007 mac mini and it was slower than Leopard.

I'm assuming its just like any other OS and when you upgrade to a newer os (or fresh install, for that matter) it goes slower due to older hardware. looking at that 2006 imac, it would seem like this is what it is.

 

[Nobita]

I don't know about upgrading, but I installed (fresh install) Snow Leopard on my mid-2007 mac mini and it was slower than Leopard.

I'm assuming its just like any other OS and when you upgrade to a newer os (or fresh install, for that matter) it goes slower due to older hardware. looking at that 2006 imac, it would seem like this is what it is.

Well I'm not planning to upgrade the iMac any further. But I am planning to upgrade my 2008 macbook to Lion at some point... I'm just wondering if it's the wise thing to do considering it's quite a big upgrade...

 

[0007776]

Generally the OS upgrades will speed the computer up, for the first and maybe second update. Then after that it starts getting to be at the bottom end of the supported configurations and Apple doesn't optimize for it so it goes slower due to it being older hardware.

 

[Nobita]

Generally the OS upgrades will speed the computer up, for the first and maybe second update. Then after that it starts getting to be at the bottom end of the supported configurations and Apple doesn't optimize for it so it goes slower due to it being older hardware.

Ok. so you reckon installing Lion (I know, I know, they haven't even say the minimum requirement is) should be ok for my 2008 laptop?

One of the reasons why I hesitate to upgrade hardware is because I don't use power that much... I think my 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo + 4GB RAM should serve me well for 3, maybe 4 more years. I'm also planning to upgrade to SSD at some point... I only write, do a little bit of photos and videos, and develop a little bit.

At this rate, my reasoning to upgrade is not because of core i5 or Thunderbolt, but perhaps its more of the weight of macbook air or the battery life of 13" macbook pro that I droll...

 

[0007776]

Ok. so you reckon installing Lion (I know, I know, they haven't even say the minimum requirement is) should be ok for my 2008 laptop?

like you pointed out we don't know the min requirements so it may speed it up or it may slow it down. My guess is it will run a little slower, but still work well. Apple usually has an OS that adds features, then the next one is mostly speed improvements, Lion is an OS for adding features so it may be a little slower on older hardware.