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rhino89

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 7, 2011
147
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Just got a late 2013 (2.4ghz, 4gb, 128ssd) retina MacBook pro (my first Mac notebook), came with Mavericks. Should I stick with it, or update to Yosemite? My concerns are the following:

1. Battery life: Does Yosemite take a toll on it in some way? Mavericks boosted all the MacBooks, I don't want to see it going in the other direction.
2. Stability of UI: overall Mavericks is pretty fluid, there's only the occasional stutters in Safari or whatnot - are people encountering more UI stutters on Yosemite?
3. Speed: any performance differences (launching apps, loading things, actual processes) between Mavericks and Yosemite?

Just trying to see what the consensus is at this point, or whether people are waiting for Yosemite bugs to be worked out. Thanks!
 
1. Battery life is about the same, perhaps a bit better once everything gets indexed.

2. Startup/shut down is a bit quicker than Mavericks.

3. No noticeable difference between the two in launching app's
 
For me, it has been a positive experience (overall). It was taxiing my stock HDD so I replaced it with a SDD and have been happy.

Every once in a while, the system will freeze, even if It has been idle with Safari open. It did the same thing during the betas. It a rare occurrence and I don't know what may be causing it.

Do a Time Machine, CCC, Super Duper, <insert your flavor here>, and then install Yosemite. If you find you don't like it, you can easily restore. That method will be much more direct in answering performance for your needs, versus asking strangers about their needs and expectations, which may or may not be different from you.
 
Haven't had any issues with my machine since I upgraded to Yosemite when it released. Battery life, performance and stability all stayed the same.

Only reason I right now have to move away from using Yosemite is that my machine is one of the models affected by the AMD GPU breakdowns and the GPU finally conked out late friday/saturday night after 3,5 years of service. What is left to see is if my insurance company will pay for the repair or if they're going to just reimburse me 40% of the purchase price in accordance to their policy where electronics lose 20% of their original purchase price for every full year since purchase. In this case I'll probably just move on to linux with the desktop machine started building just before the breakdown.
 
I haven't upgraded yet because Yosemite really doesn't offer anything appealing over Mavericks. I will in a few months after all the kinks are worked out.
 
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Yosemite 10.10.2 in nearly out so you maybe just wait some more days and upgrade directly to this version.
You can always restore to Mavericks if you don't like it.
 
I also just got a late 2013 15'' model. I upgraded to yosemite just to make everything on my computer up to date and i gotta tell ya, just from the little bit of time i was on mavericks over yosemite i MUCH prefer yosemite. It is much more aesthetically pleasing in every way and bugs? what bugs? Everything runs smooth as butter. You should just upgrade and save the worry for another time :)
 
Plus 1 for updating.

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro and I feel like the battery/performance has increased (slightly)

The new look and features are great too

Always do a time machine back up before upgrading.
 
Yes to updating a late-2013 rMBP. I have the mid-range model with 8gb of RAM and the 256gb SSD, and Yosemite 10.10.1 runs very well. 10.10.0 had some issues, but they've worked them out. 10.10.2 should be great :)

It's questionable on older models. I've debated going back to Mavericks on my mid-2009 MBP. Mavericks was decent, but Yosemite has been sluggish. Mountain Lion would probably be better, but I skipped 10.7 and 10.8. Went straight from Snow Leopard to Mavericks.
 
I have the same spec MBP as the OP. I would definitely recommend upgrading. I have found it a lot faster and smoother with the obvious added benefits Yosemite offers. Don't hesitate is my advice.

Mine boots up in 14 secs. For example. Which is pretty much instant. Faster than my TV and iPhone.
 
Stick with mavericks. Please. Yosemite just doesn't look right. The bright fonts, the pastel colors. It's just so...immature looking.
 
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Just got a late 2013 (2.4ghz, 4gb, 128ssd) retina MacBook pro (my first Mac notebook), came with Mavericks. Should I stick with it, or update to Yosemite? My concerns are the following:

1. Battery life: Does Yosemite take a toll on it in some way? Mavericks boosted all the MacBooks, I don't want to see it going in the other direction.
2. Stability of UI: overall Mavericks is pretty fluid, there's only the occasional stutters in Safari or whatnot - are people encountering more UI stutters on Yosemite?
3. Speed: any performance differences (launching apps, loading things, actual processes) between Mavericks and Yosemite?

Just trying to see what the consensus is at this point, or whether people are waiting for Yosemite bugs to be worked out. Thanks!

1. I think battery life is improved.

2. UI is not very stable (it is a brand new UI so that is expected; the UI in Mavericks has been since Lion).

3. Yosemite has many fine tunes and tweaks and it is faster than Mavericks.

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Stick with mavericks. Please. Yosemite just doesn't look right. The bright fonts, the pastel colors. It's just so...immature looking.

That's just your opinion on the UI. The core OS has been improved.
 
Backup
Upgrade
Allow indexing etc to complete
Keep if you like
Revert if you don't

I'm on Yosemite, performance and UI is great IMHO.
 
I'm happy with Yosemite, so I'd say go for that. Back everything up and give it a shot. If you like it, stay on it. If you don't, roll it back.
 
Performance-wise, I wouldn't say I've noticed much difference. I think what makes Yosemite such an amazing upgrade is the Handoff integration, along with some tweaks to existing apps.

So far I still think Mavericks ran smoother (not in terms of speed but in terms of random crashes/bugs).
 
So I pulled the trigger and upgraded to yosemite. i actually like the more modern look a lot better than mavericks, especially the much cleaner safari. battery life is great, can't complain. spent hours messing around with the mac, then watched a 2.5 hour movie, and now just spent a couple more hours with light-weight messaging and browsing, down to about 30%... won't complain about that for sure. as far as UI, there may be the occasional stutter or whatnot, but the UI overhaul beats out the imperfect edges wherever they pop up. id rather just enjoy it the way it is rathe than trying to find the problems. so thumbs up for upgrading.
 
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