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Mojave vs Catalina: which OS is the fastest?

Andrea Filippini

Andrea Filippini

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 27, 2020
395
341
Tuscany, Italy
I have run Mojave fresh installation on Mac Mini late 2012 i7 2.3 GHz and it's a lot faster than Catalina on the same machine with the same apps and the same SSD.
Dramatically less CPU usage and apps opened faster.
Anyone else facing the same experience?
Recently I have switched to Catalina fresh installation and I have upgraded it to the last patch. It's fast but not fast as Mojave and CPU usage is higher.
Does Apple make OS heavier?
 
IF Mojave seems faster,
and
If it does everything you need,
then
Use what works, and don't worry about what doesn't...
 
Gregg2 said:
Heavier? What do you mean?

I can't imagine a difference in speed that's noticeable without a stop watch in your hand.
Click to expand...
Dramatically less CPU usage from activity monitor.
Apps launched faster.
Is there any appreciable OS architecture difference that explain this situation (64 bit apps, etc)?
Fishrrman said:
IF Mojave seems faster,
and
If it does everything you need,
then
Use what works, and don't worry about what doesn't...
Click to expand...
Basically for my daily activities Mojave and Catalina are interchangeable (Catalina however doesn't support some apps).
Catalina is the latest supported OS for my Mac Mini late 2012.
 
There really shouldn't be any performance difference between High Sierra, Mojave, and Catalina on your Mac Mini. I have recently updated my dad's Mid 2012 Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD, and dual-core Core i5 from High Sierra to Catalina, and to quote him: no slowdowns and no issues.
 
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mj_ said:
There really shouldn't be any performance difference between High Sierra, Mojave, and Catalina on your Mac Mini. I have recently updated my dad's Mid 2012 Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD, and dual-core Core i5 from High Sierra to Catalina, and to quote him: no slowdowns and no issues.
Click to expand...
Both of my suppliers told me that recent OS are dramatically heavier and a SSD (SATA or NVMe) is absolutely mandatory.
I haven't slowdowns and issues but compared with Mojave, Catalina with last patch is less reactive when I launch apps and CPU usage from activity monitor is dramatically higher (especially during multitasking).
I think it's basically only an OS issue (just to remember ironically the catastrophic experience on Windows Vista more than a decade ago).
Just to make an example: with the same apps opened with Mojave my inactive CPU is 97%, with Catalina last patch my inactive CPU is 90%; Memory usage at start with Mojave is 1.72 GB, Memory usage at start with Catalina last patch is 2.12 GB.
There are no issues about performance (only less reactivity when I launch apps), but according to my data Mojave is a more performing OS (less input/more output).
 
Andrea Filippini said:
Both of my suppliers told me that recent OS are dramatically heavier and a SSD (SATA or NVMe) is absolutely mandatory.
I haven't slowdowns and issues but compared with Mojave, Catalina with last patch is less reactive when I launch apps and CPU usage from activity monitor is dramatically higher (especially during multitasking).
I think it's basically only an OS issue (just to remember ironically the catastrophic experience on Windows Vista more than a decade ago).
Just to make an example: with the same apps opened with Mojave my inactive CPU is 97%, with Catalina last patch my inactive CPU is 90%; Memory usage at start with Mojave is 1.72 GB, Memory usage at start with Catalina last patch is 2.12 GB.
There are no issues about performance (only less reactivity when I launch apps), but according to my data Mojave is a more performing OS (less input/more output).
Click to expand...
When I had a MacBook Pro 16 and downgraded from Catalina to Mojave it seemed like a bought a new laptop. Everything was much snappier and the keyboard lag issues that I had went away.
 
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Andrea Filippini said:
I have run Mojave fresh installation on Mac Mini late 2012 i7 2.3 GHz and it's a lot faster than Catalina on the same machine with the same apps and the same SSD.
Dramatically less CPU usage and apps opened faster.
Anyone else facing the same experience?
Recently I have switched to Catalina fresh installation and I have upgraded it to the last patch. It's fast but not fast as Mojave and CPU usage is higher.
Does Apple make OS heavier?
Click to expand...
If Mojave does everything you need, then better stay.
 
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Super Spartan said:
When I had a MacBook Pro 16 and downgraded from Catalina to Mojave it seemed like a bought a new laptop. Everything was much snappier and the keyboard lag issues that I had went away.
Click to expand...
Yeah exactly. Snappier is the right word. So I'm not the only one with this impression.
Isamilis said:
If Mojave does everything you need, then better stay.
Click to expand...
At this point Catalina could be a good option only for the future updates (mainly web browser).
 
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Andrea Filippini said:
Both of my suppliers told me that recent OS are dramatically heavier and a SSD (SATA or NVMe) is absolutely mandatory.
Click to expand...
That has been true more or less since Sierra (10.12). If I recall the last version of macOS that ran great on a spinning disk was 10.11 El Capitan. However, since you said you had a 1 TB SSD already installed it shouldn't have made a difference. Just to clarify, you have tow Mac Minis listed in your signature - are we talking about the 4GB or the 16GB one?
 
mj_ said:
That has been true more or less since Sierra (10.12). If I recall the last version of macOS that ran great on a spinning disk was 10.11 El Capitan. However, since you said you had a 1 TB SSD already installed it shouldn't have made a difference. Just to clarify, you have tow Mac Minis listed in your signature - are we talking about the 4GB or the 16GB one?
Click to expand...
I'm talking about the 4GB one (without memory pressure) but also the 16GB one is less reactive on Catalina.
Do you think is the OS architecture (64-bit apps)?
Nothing special, just a remark.
 
Andrea Filippini said:
I have run Mojave fresh installation on Mac Mini late 2012 i7 2.3 GHz and it's a lot faster than Catalina on the same machine with the same apps and the same SSD.
Dramatically less CPU usage and apps opened faster.
Anyone else facing the same experience?
Recently I have switched to Catalina fresh installation and I have upgraded it to the last patch. It's fast but not fast as Mojave and CPU usage is higher.
Does Apple make OS heavier?
Click to expand...
Hope this helps. My evaluation comes from very old unsupported Macs refitted to multi-boot which levels the playing field, same CPU, graphics, storage media. See the signature below for details. Basically, they perform virtually identical with a slight edge given to macOS Mojave v.10.14.3. What is amazing is a useable Big Sur runs quite snappy on these "OBSOLETE" Macs. YMMV 😎
 
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K two said:
Hope this helps. My evaluation comes from very old unsupported Macs refitted to multi-boot which levels the playing field, same CPU, graphics, storage media. See the signature below for details. Basically, they perform virtually identical with a slight edge given to macOS Mojave v.10.14.3. What is amazing is a useable Big Sur runs quite snappy on these "OBSOLETE" Macs. YMMV 😎
Click to expand...
Interesting.
What do you think about this peculiarity?
 
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Andrea Filippini said:
I'm talking about the 4GB one (without memory pressure) but also the 16GB one is less reactive on Catalina.
Do you think is the OS architecture (64-bit apps)?
Nothing special, just a remark.
Click to expand...
The 4GB one doesn't surprise me. 4GB are simply not enough to run any somewhat modern version of macOS and shouldn't be updated past 10.11 El Capitan. Starting with Sierra you really want 8GB.

The 16GB model is a bit of a surprise though. This is pretty much what my dad has, minus the Core i7 (his is Core i5), and he hasn't noticed any slowdowns whatsoever going from High Sierra to Catalina.
 
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I think macOS runs great on an HDD.
Boot time is slow, but who cares.

If you have a HDD, don't restart you computer unless you need to and have lots of RAM to reduce disk I/O.
 
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