Will Snow Leopard improve performance over Tiger on my 3-year-old iMac?

[bear1973]

I know, I know, this sounds like a silly question, but maybe not. I'm using Tiger on my fall 2006 2.16 Ghz, 2 gig, 250 GB 20" IMac - just never got around to upgrading to Leopard. I must admit that I've always found this machine to be a little bit slow, even in comparison to the eMac G4 I upgraded from.

Anyway, I'm now torn - do I upgrade to Snow Leopard and hope for a significant improvement in speed (application load times, switching application times, fast quit times and less need to force quit, etc), or do I wait and buy a new iMac when they come out? This iMac should have more than enough computing power for my needs (email, browsing, occasional webpage editing, MS Office, etc), but it really has seemed to slow down over the past year. I'd like to think a new OS would turn it into the machine I always hoped it'd be, but maybe I should just invest in a new iMac when they come out.

Thanks!

 

[Switz213]

It basically ends up coming down to whether or not you want to spend 1000+ or $30. 30 bucks isn't a huge investment and if you really feel that it isn't improving your speed you can always resell in on eBay or something of the sort, then get your iMac. It should speed it up a bit though.

 

[michael.lauden]

YES it will increase performance. i have noticed a performance boost on my Mac mini. there is no reason you shouldn't upgrade to the newest OS. especially one that is completely 64 bit + has a lot of other killer features that make it simply 'go faster'.


my geekbench scores also increased on both of my computers.

 

[bear1973]

Actually, for me, it's a $149.00 upgrade, because I never upgraded to Leopard 10.5. I'm going from 10.4 to 10.6. I know I can get $500 for this machine on Craigslist, and the new iMac 24s, when they come out this fall, will likely be around $1299.

 

[FSMBP]

I have a two year old MacBook Pro. After Snow Leopard, performance (load times, response times) increased significantly.

In Leopard, if I clicked Safari right after logging in, it would take 10-13 seconds to load the Safari and display my homepage.

In Snow Leopard, the same task take 4 seconds. EVERY Apple application (except iTunes) opens close to INSTANTLY after clicking it.

So I would say it would boost performance, it's not going to make your Mac a whole brand new machine but it will give you a boost - is $30 worth it for you?

 

[nick9191]

Definitely.

I'd advise backing up all your files and starting from scratch (formatting your hard drive and reinstalling), rather than upgrading. If you upgrade on a machine that appears to be having trouble with it's current OS install then you're asking for trouble.

I wouldn't bother waiting on new iMacs. They were updated in August 07, then again in May 08, then again in March 09. So based on that revision cycle you're looking until at least early next year before they see any upgrades. Mac laptop sales make up nearly 70% of overall Mac sales, so Apple doesn't really give a toss anymore about it's desktops. Sad but true