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Mavericks on iMac mid 2007, are we sure?

I

iJolla

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2013
6
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Hallo everyone,
I've an iMac 7,1 mid 2007 with Snow Leopard, I still have not update to Moutain Lion because I often read that it become iMac very slow even if Mountail L. can run on imac 7,1.

I want to know if there is this problem also with OS 10.9.

Has anyone try? Or someone know if it runs on imac without problem?

Thanks
 
iJolla said:
Hallo everyone,
I've an iMac 7,1 mid 2007 with Snow Leopard, I still have not update to Moutain Lion because I often read that it become iMac very slow even if Mountail L. can run on imac 7,1.

I want to know if there is this problem also with OS 10.9.

Has anyone try? Or someone know if it runs on imac without problem?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You need to max out your RAM. Mavericks can run with 2GB of RAM but you really need 4 otherwise you're going to suffer a slowdown.

Otherwise it should run with no issues.
 
cjmillsnun said:
You need to max out your RAM. Mavericks can run with 2GB of RAM but you really need 4 otherwise you're going to suffer a slowdown.

Otherwise it should run with no issues.
Click to expand...


I've always had 4 gb of ram (ddr2), I cant improve.

I know that this problem there was also with 4 gb of ram (for os 10.8)
 
Last edited:
iJolla said:
I've always had 4 gb of ram (ddr2), I cant improve.

I know that this problem there is also with 4 gb of ram (for os 10.8)
Click to expand...

As long as you have 4GB, it should work OK. I've been running the GM for a couple of weeks on a 2007 iMac, and everything seems just as smooth as before. It's mostly used for some light development, web browsing, word processing and gaming - and nothing seems amiss.
 
I have a mid-07 2.4Ghz iMac w 6GB of Ram and a 128GB SSD. I did an upgrade install of Mavericks last night and it runs like a freakin dream IMO. I must say it's pretty cool to have a computer that used to have Tiger on it progressively get better/faster over the years with each new OS (even Lion). What Windows box can say that? Safari is faster, Launchpad is faster, the new GarageBand is the bee's knees, and I'm kinda digging Apple Maps on the Desktop. Of course I'm leaving out the under the hood stuff and a few other things. But for free it's a no brainer.

The only thing is I'm waiting for a final version of Lion Diskmaker to come out so I can do a clean install since my SSD is a bit small and I need to do a little spring cleaning. But if you don't have that issue then I see no reason why you shouldn't go ahead install it right now. It really does run really well, enough to where I'm intrigued to see how far I can go with what I have.
 
I have an iMac early 2008 with a 160 gb ssd and 3 gb of ram. It's pretty good! I just have to max out my ram so I can get rid of the Fullscreen lag. Other than that, it runs very well. WAY better than 10.8
 
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peglegjack said:
I have a mid-07 2.4Ghz iMac w 6GB of Ram and a 128GB SSD. I did an upgrade install of Mavericks last night and it runs like a freakin dream IMO. I must say it's pretty cool to have a computer that used to have Tiger on it progressively get better/faster over the years with each new OS (even Lion). What Windows box can say that? Safari is faster, Launchpad is faster, the new GarageBand is the bee's knees, and I'm kinda digging Apple Maps on the Desktop. Of course I'm leaving out the under the hood stuff and a few other things. But for free it's a no brainer. [...]
Click to expand...

It's a big difference: you can't compare a mac/pc with SSD, it'll always be faster than hd.
I also don't know how you can have 6gb of Ram, I know that for mid 07 the maximum is 4gb ddr2 (2gb + 2 gb).
 
I have 24" iMac 7.1, 4 gig ram. Upgraded to Mavericks today and It work at least the same speed as Mountain Lion, if not better! Of course you should wait after the initial install it to index your spotlight and so on, after that it runs just fine.

You should still do a full backup to your external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or similiar so you can boot from that your system and restore if you regred it for some reason...

ps. if you didnt already know about Maverics and memory management, check this out: http://www.apple.com/osx/advanced-technologies/
 
I updated my mid-07 family iMac to Mountain Lion when it came out. It had 3GB RAM and the HDD was pretty much full. It was very slow at doing basic things eg. opening safari, mail etc.

Then I got an SSD (still 3GB RAM) and did a clean install and what a difference it makes. Mail and safari now open almost instantaneously. It has given the computer a new lease of life - you wouldn't know it's six years old.

So to answer your question, I reckon it might be quite slow even with maxed out RAM but with the under the hood improvements in Mavericks I might be wrong. I would say that if an SSD is something you were/are considering then don't hesitate and get it.
 
@johto

you reassure me a little bit; I know that link even if also for Mountain Lion Apple said that it ran without problems and read what Scottish said (and a lot of other people)....

@scottish

I'd like to get an SSD but I do not have dexterity to mount it :D

----------
g-7 said:
Actually, you can have 6GB in mid-2007 iMac (4GB + 2GB), and this is the real max amount of RAM this model supports.
Click to expand...

I just read some 3d, I didn't know :p
 
Sure, my 7.1 is of course slow for nowadays standards, but i can use it just fine for everyday tasks. I can wait a little longer before i upgrade the whole thing.

Normal hard disk is obviously the worst bottleneck on my system. My disk is even encrypted so the access times are slooow. Its slow crunching when there are multiple programs accessing the disk but hey, its nothing to with Mavericks. :p
 
Im running Mavericks on a mid-2010 baseline MBP with 4GB of ram and it runs smoothly. I dont do anything particularly intensive, mainly run Coda 2, Photoshop and it handles everything perfectly fine. I would suggest you make a TM backup, give it a try, if it runs slowly you can always downgrade again.
 
Mavericks on iMac mid 2007, are we sure?

clukas said:
[...]I would suggest you make a TM backup, give it a try, if it runs slowly you can always downgrade again.
Click to expand...

I think I'll do this, I made TM backup automatically everyday but how can I downgrade OS only with TM?
Are you sure that after the downgrade I won't have any problem on OS?
 
I've been running it on my mid 2007 20" with 4gb ram and 128 gb ssd since the dev prevs. It runs great!
 
iJolla said:
I think I'll do this, I made TM backup automatically everyday but how can I downgrade OS only with TM?
Are you sure that after the downgrade I won't have any problem on OS?
Click to expand...

You make a very good point. I personally dont use TM backups, so make sure you have an answer before doing the upgrade!
 
I think it's safe to say that Mavericks will always outperform Mountain Lion, especially on older hardware due to new optimizations.
 
martyfixit said:
I am currently running a mid-2007 with 4GB + 4GB = 8GB. I was encouraged by OWC to have my software up to date and try 8, and it worked. They were willing to allow me to return the chips if it didn't.
Click to expand...

How is it possible?? Everywhere it's write that 6gb it's the max ram.

Maybe you have 8gb but you can only use 6gb.
 
6GB installed on mid2007 iMAC

Hi, it works very well installing 2Gb+4GB total of 6GB on mid2007 iMAC and with Maverick. I had only 4GB and since Maverick was installed MAC was running too slow several times when many apps are open.

I installed Memory Clean to monitor memory and clean, always was going down to less than 500Mb and that's why was running too slow.

I ordered to Amazon 4GB memory for €70 and got the 6GB: "Komputerbay - Memoria SODIMM para portátiles (8 GB, 2 x 4 GB, DDR2, 667 MHz, PC2-5300, 200 pines) 4GB" Now I've in avg more than 2GB free and MAC is running as before... so I get some more years for my old MAC.

Some useful link to check your MAC for memory and get video instructions: how to upgrade iMAC RAM

Really worth.
 
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