is update to Ventura from Bug Sur worth it?

Is the user asking for an opinion or from personal experience ?

Does the present machine Qualify ?

Computer Qualifying for macOS 13 Ventura 

Is the present machine Running an ALL SSD Drive or a Combo Fusion Drive or an ALL Traditional and Rotational Drive

Any of the last two types of drives will struggle to keep up with the Demands of Ventura as Big Sur and above seem to geared to an ALL SSD Configuration

Does the User have a Rescue Plan in place and current

3 Backups using 2 different methods and 1 Off Site incase of Natural or Un-Natural Disasters

I've had the same experience as VikingOSX with a 27" 2017 iMac: Ventura is more stable and faster.

However, if you have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac you should uninstall them according to the developer;s instructions before upgrading. The will only cause problems.

One thing you might try before committing to Ventura is to get an external SSD, clone your boot drive to it with Carbon Copy Cloner and boot and run from it to see if your important apps run as they should. If they do you can boot into the internal drive and upgrade that.

NOTE: as you've been told already if you have a rotational drive or a fusion drive you might want to do the external SSD method and keep running from it as it will be much faster than what you've now got.

That's difficult question to answer. It may be worth it to me, but it may not be worth it to you.

As mentioned, it's recommended to get the newest features and security updates and fixes it provides.

Beyond that, you would have to know wether there's something you need, or if there's some applications you have that may break when updating to it. Or some features you may not like or be a game breaker for you.

You will need to answer that question yourself.

Start by taking a look at what Ventura offers here: macOS Ventura - Apple

Look at a couple of reviews.

https://www.theverge.com/23425407/apple-macos-13-ventura-review-mac-imac-macbook

https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/10/24/macos-ventura-review-great-features-promise-but-not-all-here-yet

Yes, upgrading from Big Sur > Ventura was worth it to me. I also have a 27" iMac, and find that everything runs very smoothly in Ventura 13.2. One bit of advice: if you´re going to upgrade from System Preferences then it´s best to first upgrade to OS Monterey, and then to Ventura. That´s what I did. It´s time consuming, but I was told years ago by an Apple expert that it´s not a good idea to skip an OS when upgrading. Opinions on this vary in this forum. But if instead you´re going to erase your internal drive and do a clean install then of course it doesn´t matter. Go for Ventura...!

If you are still having iPhoto or Aperture Libraries to migrate to Photos or somewhere else, do it before the upgrade to Ventura. You will no longer be able to open iPhoto or Aperture Libraries in Photos and a create a new library from them. You can just import the photos and videos, but no longer migrate the structure with albums and events.

Also, if you need to work with custom formats for currencies, numbers, dates and times, it will be much harder to define the custom formats.

dude wrote:

Personal expwrince

On an M1 MacBook Air it's been fine for the most part.

I do notice that the Finder file search is much slower now than it was on Monterey however, and it tends to freeze a little.

Outside of that, I'd say it's well worth the 15 or 20 minutes it may take to update.

Running the latest compatible version of macOS is always recommended.

I upgraded from Big Sur to Ventura on a 2020 M1 mini. My observation is that Ventura is more stable and everything appears faster than it did on Big Sur.

Personal experiences are on Apple silicon machines and Worth It

older machines best left to others to comment on this