I noticed that the 2019 iMac is eligible to upgrade to Sonoma. With my upgrades, my 2017 iMac exceeds the 2019 specs. Is it possible/reasonable to upgrade to the new OS?
If not, will I be able to get security upgrades for Ventura? I am presently using Ventura 13.6.
Thanks.
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.4
Nope an iMac has to be a 2019 or later. Your 2017 is simply too old.
As far as the Security updates, chances are you will have no problem for several more years if Apple does the same thing they have done in the past. Simply restart the computer about 1X per week and if anything is available it will be installed.
The 2017 iMac Pro model can run macOS 14 Sonoma.
The other 2017 iMac models are limited by hardware to macOS 13 Ventura.
The compatible macOS version for each iMac model is listed at > Identify your iMac model - Apple Support
A 2017 iMac Pro and a 2017 iMac are 2 totally different animals. As stated a 2017 iMac will NOT run Sonoma or later, whereas a 2017 iMac Pro will. Please look up the tech specs on each and you can see the differences.
bullseye600 wrote:
If not, will I be able to get security upgrades for Ventura? I am presently using Ventura 13.6.
Ventura will be supported for at least the next two years.
bm3088,
Hello, den.thed noted that the 2017 iMac Pro can run mac OS 14 Sonoma. My 2017 iMac can't. However, to answer your question, I purchased a new M1 iMac 8GB, 500 GB, four USB model from Costco for $1k. I am a fully retired person and most all of my needs deal with basic functions and little to no need for high powered graphic processors. For word processing, email and web browsing the M3 offered no major advantage over the M1 and the $700 discount was nice. I still have the 2017 iMac, my wife uses it. I have not noticed a significant difference between them for these basic functions.
Regards, Steve
Thank you very much. I have no complaints with my present iMac. My greatest concern was with security updates.
Same! Thanks for asking this question, I've been wondering the same! I love my imac and use it in my office for work 3 days a week since 2017, blinked and it was 'too old' for the new updates. I noticed its definitely been much slower than before, I'm glad there are still updates for Ventura though!
Halescat, yes, two more years is good. I upgraded mine to an internal SSD and went from a 2 minute wait from startup to an 8 second startup. If you can find a reasonable price for the upgrade, it's worth it. It's like 2 minutes of your life given back to you. The new OS seems to require an SSD. Or you may want to wait for the M3 iMac.....
I had an internal SSD installed by my Apple computer tech. There is considerable labor involved to access the HD and replace it with a new SSD. My iMac is as speedy as my iPhone now but it is still too old to upgrade to newer versions of operating systems. That’s the problem with getting old… it comes with limitations.
This is just a guess but the 27 inch may be treated differently with respect to system upgrades. I thought that the new system may be too complex for a slow spinning HD that came with the smaller iMac. The new systems seem to depend on speedy SSDs. My thought was that with my SSD upgrade it would work. I am assuming that your 27 inch iMac has a HD with a much faster rotational speed (as my 27 incher did before it crashed). Honestly, I don't know.
However... I have an iMac that is awesome. Startup went from 2 minutes to 8 seconds. It has a good I5 quad core processor a 1 TB SSD and 16 GB RAM. As long as I can get security updates, I am perfectly happy with it.
There are lots of knowledgeable people on this forum that can explain with more clarity.
Regards,
S
Thanks. Ventura 13.6 is working fine. My second question is regarding Apple continuing to provide security updates to Ventura. This is important to me.
Any thoughts?
"Ventura will be supported for at least the next two years.". That would include security updates. 😎
I don't have much saved on my imac and have 1TB, I wonder if theres a way to speed it up by clearing out cookies and caches (I think thats the term). That will be my next venture!
That’s great news! So did you just get an internal SD card like from Best Buy and then you were able to upgrade to Sonoma?
Well my iMac 18,3 2017 has just asked me if I want to upgrade to Sonoma 14.1, I am currently running Ventura, it's the 27" 5K with Radeon Pro 580 Graphics? Care to explain?
Upgrade to Sonoma for upgraded 2017 iMac I5 quad core with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD?
