I'm thinking of getting a MacBook Pro when they are updated with Skylake processors, so I'm wondering how long should I keep it before it gets outdated or it starts to become too slow with software updates. It says on Apple's website the mid 2007 MBP can run El Capitan, but would performance be acceptable on a MBP that old?
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How long before MacBook Pro is outdated?
- Thread starter Aditya_S
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Performance at doing what, exactly? Word processing and facebook, or heavy video rendering? Your question is way too subjective.
I was referring to the OS itself, not apps. I want to know how long does it usually take for stuff like slow boot up speed, low frame rate while navigating, slow web browsing, and features that are excluded on my device because it is too old occurs.
Reading your other posts, you're coming from Windows...
It has been the experience of a lot of people since early OS X that Apple stops providing updates before Macs become problematic. That's why you see people making changes to the installers to put recent versions of the OS on unsupported hardware.
The current MacBook Pro I'm using is a 2010 and it runs 10.11 perfectly normal and they just obsoleted it yesterday (It'll probably get two more OS X upgrades though). Xcode would work perfectly fine on it still.
You could buy a Mac today and a feature could be excluded with the next iteration, that's just how it goes. I have a 2011 too and the 2012 got the glass trackpad and Bluetooth LE.
It has been the experience of a lot of people since early OS X that Apple stops providing updates before Macs become problematic. That's why you see people making changes to the installers to put recent versions of the OS on unsupported hardware.
The current MacBook Pro I'm using is a 2010 and it runs 10.11 perfectly normal and they just obsoleted it yesterday (It'll probably get two more OS X upgrades though). Xcode would work perfectly fine on it still.
You could buy a Mac today and a feature could be excluded with the next iteration, that's just how it goes. I have a 2011 too and the 2012 got the glass trackpad and Bluetooth LE.
Upgrade the RAM to maximum, and replace a hard drive with an SSD at the same time that you upgrade a 2007 MBPro to El Capitan.
It will perform acceptably for most folks, and likely feel faster for most uses than when it was new.
And, of course, you don't use the OS, you use apps that run on the OS. The issue is more about how the apps that you run use the hardware. Give your apps (and the OS, too) RAM to use, and a nice SSD, and that will overcome (many) issues that may affect performance on older hardware.
It will perform acceptably for most folks, and likely feel faster for most uses than when it was new.
And, of course, you don't use the OS, you use apps that run on the OS. The issue is more about how the apps that you run use the hardware. Give your apps (and the OS, too) RAM to use, and a nice SSD, and that will overcome (many) issues that may affect performance on older hardware.
What are the consequences for not updating OS X? With iOS, some apps and services stop working, does the same happen with OS X?
Apple does two-three years of security updates and will do critical updates as needed. iCloud support would be the main thing to worry about, they have a list of what minimum version of OS X you need to be on for certain things: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204230
I have Mac App Store apps that still run on Mountain Lion. They tend to get updated slower.
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OSX has to run on the slow rMB so you won't have much to worry about for a while. It really is about the programs you need and those requirements and how often you upgrade that software.
My SO is running the latest OS X on my old MBP from 2008, if that gives you an idea.
How does it perform on El Capitan? Is it just slow with all features or does it remove features and effects to speed up performance?
It performs fine, a stutter here or there but that's expected with 8 year old hardware. Nothing major that couldn't be solved with a SSD if I could be bothered to chuck money at such an old machine.