I believe my iMac is an early 2009 with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 32-bit video card. Can I update from OSX 10.7.5 to Yosemite?

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I believe my iMac is an early 2009 with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 32-bit video card. Can I update from OSX 10.7.5 to Yosemite?

I believe my iMac is an early 2009 with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 32-bit video card. Can I update from OSX 10.7.5 to Yosemite? The Apple support site says that it must be an iMac (Mid 2007 or newer), but had trouble upgrading in the past.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac9,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: IM91.008D.B08

SMC Version (system): 1.37f3

Serial Number (system):

Hardware UUID:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400

Type: GPU

Bus: PCI

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0867

Revision ID: 0x00b1

ROM Revision: 3379

Displays:

iMac:

Display Type: LCD

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Built-In: Yes

Posted on Mar 3, 2015 5:17 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,116 points

Mar 3, 2015 5:26 PM in response to Bob Heinlin

Yes.

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Answer 2

Mar 3, 2015 10:06 PM in response to Bob Heinlin

My answer is also yes you can download Yosemite, from10.7.5 machine.

DON

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Answer 3

dwb

Level 7

33,256 points

Mar 4, 2015 4:55 AM in response to Bob Heinlin

As the two above has said, yes you can upgrade to Yosemite but your computer as currently configured will run not run 10.10 (or 10.9) as well as it does 10.7 (or 10.8) right now. The two newer operating systems are more memory intensive and while a 4GB computer could run several programs without noticeable beach balling, the two newer OS versions will experience some beach balling with as little as Safari and Microsoft Word running. My recommendation has been to have a minimum of 8GB or 4GB and an SSD - the SSD allows virtual memory to function much more effectively than it does with a standard hard drive.

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Answer 4

Bob Heinlin Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2015 5:40 PM in response to dwb

Thanks for all your help! There are 5 people in my family and this poor iMac never gets a rest. My kids have been complaining of beach balling, which started my quest to upgrade the OS. I will take your advise and upgrade to 8GB of memory and keep the older 10.7 for now.

I'll also look into adding an external SSD. Would a 60GB SSD be sufficient for a Yosemite upgrade?

Again thanks so much!

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Answer 5

dwb

Level 7

33,256 points

Mar 5, 2015 5:38 AM in response to Bob Heinlin

Your 2009 iMac’s fastest port is FW800 and an SSD will be somewhat faster than the internal drive but it won’t provide anything close to the full benefit of an internal SSD or the newer faster USB3 and Thunderbolt interfaces. For example FW800 provides roughly half the bandwidth of USB 3. Installing an SSD internally isn’t for the feint of heart and it requires a couple special tools including suction cups to remove the glass front. But if you have a local independent Apple reseller you can almost certainly get it done there.

If you do decide to investigate this, I’d recommend going with a 128GB drive which would ensure you have plenty of room for the operating system and all your Applications and temporary files. Then use an external FW drive for user directories. You are likely to find the 64GB drive to be quite cramped.

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