milocricket
Level 1 (15 points)

Q: Will Yosemite Make My Computer Faster or Slower?

I have been holding off for quite a while when Yosemite came out.  I tried the beta, but quickly reverted back to Mavericks because of that pesky expand button.  That's not why I'm here though.  I need to know if and when I download Yosemite again, will it make my 2011 MBP 13 inch faster or slower?  I heard Yosemite is a RAM hog, but I have 16 GB of RAM, so I don't think that should be an issue.  What do you all think?  I can give more information on the system if you need.

 

Edit: I should also mention I plan on using the computer mainly for gaming.  It responds well to most games already, but can have (very small) issues if running skyrim or other higher quality 3D games.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), null

Posted on Feb 21, 2015 6:05 AM

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milocricket

Q: Will Yosemite Make My Computer Faster or Slower?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Feb 21, 2015 6:47 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 8 (42,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 21, 2015 6:47 AM in response to milocricket

    You wouldn't see much of a speed difference.

     

    Have a full backup and try Yosemite.

     

    If it doesn't meet your expectation, revert back to Mavericks.

     

    I don't find any problem here.

    Best.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Feb 21, 2015 8:27 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 9 (50,793 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 21, 2015 8:27 AM in response to milocricket

    It likely won't be any faster than Mavericks. Quite a few users post here with it being very slow and it turns out to be a lot of crapware that is incompatible with Yosemite.

  • by Allan Jones,Helpful

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Feb 21, 2015 8:56 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 8 (35,316 points)
    iPad
    Feb 21, 2015 8:56 AM in response to milocricket
    I heard Yosemite is a RAM hog,

     

    That is a misconception propagated by people who do not understand that Apple memory management changed with OS 10.9 Mavericks. For more efficient use of RAM, Mavericks and Yosemite now claim a lot of the free RAM for faster access. This Apple article may help you understand it:

     

    How to use Activity Monitor - Apple Support

     

    The new metrics for evaluating RAM usage are Swaps and Memory Pressure as shown in the little chart at the bottom of the Activity Monitor window when you have the "Memory" tab selected.

     

    Within the last six weeks, I upgraded two of our Macs to Yosemite and see no difference in performance from the prior OS versions installed: 10.9 on a 2012 non-Retina Macbook Pro and 10.8 on a 2011 iMac. Both have the entry-level processors for their respective models, the 2.5Ghz i5.

     

    Neither computer has third-party anti-virus maintenance software, not do that have the questionable software that comes bundled with "name-brand" external hard drives.

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Feb 21, 2015 9:30 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 9 (74,064 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 21, 2015 9:30 AM in response to milocricket

    One option is to create a new partition (~30- 50 GB), install the new OS, and ‘test drive’ it. If you like/don’t like it it, you can then remove the partition. Do a backup before you do anything. By doing this, if you don’t like it you won’t have to go though the revert process.

  • by milocricket,

    milocricket milocricket Feb 21, 2015 11:21 AM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 21, 2015 11:21 AM in response to Allan Jones

    Okay, one other thing.  Someone told me that Yosemite adds better drivers, is this true?

  • by arthur,

    arthur arthur Feb 21, 2015 11:24 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 5 (5,193 points)
    iBooks
    Feb 21, 2015 11:24 AM in response to milocricket

    Drivers for what?

  • by milocricket,

    milocricket milocricket Feb 21, 2015 11:25 AM in response to arthur
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 21, 2015 11:25 AM in response to arthur

    Idk, graphics cards and such.

  • by arthur,

    arthur arthur Feb 21, 2015 11:39 AM in response to milocricket
    Level 5 (5,193 points)
    iBooks
    Feb 21, 2015 11:39 AM in response to milocricket

    If you mean the hardware that comes with your Mac, then I wouldn't worry about it. It's not a Dell, and Yosemite is not Windows. It will probably work.

    If there's some specific hardware and/or driver issue that you're concerned about then you should probably research it before you install Yosemite.

    I have an early 2011 MBP with 8 GB of RAM and it works very well with Yosemite. I did put a SSD in it tho.

    Just have a good backup first so if there are issues you can go back to your previous OS.

  • by milocricket,

    milocricket milocricket Feb 21, 2015 11:46 AM in response to arthur
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 21, 2015 11:46 AM in response to arthur

    I mean the graphics card drivers being updated.  The drivers for the graphics card.