"High Sierra" or not to "HighSierra??

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Level 1

16 points

"High Sierra" or not to "HighSierra??

Has anyone found there to be performance / speed loss when upgrading to HighSierra?. I am leery of OS upgrades especially since our Mac Pro's are stuck at "late 2013" tech... I'm worried that High Sierra is geared to the new Macs that they make now...

I would appreciate your thoughts and experiences!

I am a FCPX user, that routinely works with upwards of 16 tracks of 4k content (in "multi Cam" config's) (Music video production)

Thanks!

brad b Studio51

Mac Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), 12 core Intel E6,. 64GB, AMD 700

Posted on Mar 9, 2018 10:54 AM

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Answer 1

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kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Mar 12, 2018 10:20 PM in response to ZX11ninja

You can download the High Sierra installer from the App store, and when it launches itself after the download finishes, just direct it to install on a connected hard drive rather than on your boot drive. That option comes up at the very beginning of the process. You must have some external drives attached to the trashcan MP if you are working with video.

It’s been the same procedure for all the OS versions since Snow Leopard. I always keep a copy of the Installer app for each OS, because they very unhelpfully delete themselves after finishing the installation. You can save an installer by simply quitting the application when it launches itself after downloading. Then you can copy it to a safe location outside of your Applications folder. You can then go back and run he installer in the Applications folder.

And yes, Apple’s recent history with this ridiculous yearly upgrade cycle leaves a lot to be desired, as do their bizarre notions of what people who do actual work with their machines need.

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Answer 2

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Mar 9, 2018 7:49 PM in response to ZX11ninja

There is no compelling reason to upgrade at this point. If you want to try High Sierra, install it on an external drive to see if it messes anything up. Certainly you should not install any major upgrade without being completely backed up, preferably with a bootable clone of your system drive safely on hand.

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Answer 3

ZX11ninja Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 9, 2018 9:25 PM in response to DonH49

Yes, you are correct, and this is exactly what i’m Asking! How “well” an application works in an OS is directly related to how well an OS works within a given platform, is it not? Apple seems to care less about a product (and the people who bought it) when the next “lastest and greatest“ product comes in existence. So I still stand by my question

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Answer 4

ZX11ninja Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 9, 2018 9:54 PM in response to kahjot

I was trying to be as brief as possible, so I didn’t mention my reason for asking. There is a compelling reason (for me anyway). There is a plug-in (made by a third party developer) for FCPX that provides a LONG awaited feature and you guessed it.... this plugin only works on computers that are running High Sierra and FCPX 10.4. But, if High Sierra turns my Mac Pro into a slug, the plugin isn’t worth it. Like I said to Smokerz, “Apple is famous for abondoning their products that are no longer their latest and greatest” so I believe my concern is a very real one.

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Answer 5

cigame

Level 1

129 points

Mar 12, 2018 10:53 AM in response to ZX11ninja

On my Mac Pro 6.1 6core, FCP X 10.4 is not working right with AVCHD material in High Sierra (frames jumping), so I had to downgrade to 10.12.6 which is working ok with FCP X 10.4.

Saw only disadvantages on HS.

And took a lot of work and time to downgrade.

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Answer 6

ZX11ninja Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 12, 2018 11:06 AM in response to kahjot

Point Taken, I'm just not sure how to Load HighSierra on a separate (bootable) drive (I have done this many times with both of my "cheese grater" Mac's but they both have a bunch of Drive bays AND this was back when you had a DVD with the OS on it.... For This Mac, I only know how to "upgrade" at the app store NOT how to load the newest OS on a blank drive (again on this Trash Can Mac which has no HD bays) Also I'm old school Mac and Having a hard time (obviously) with Apple's business model / company progression LOL if you haven't noticed.

I LOVE Apple tho!! As an Audio engineer and a Film maker, if it wasn't for Mac I'd be flipping burgers (No offense to all the burger flippers, for real!)

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Answer 7

ZX11ninja Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 13, 2018 8:31 AM in response to kahjot

Dude, this is AWESOME! THANK YOU, a thousand times!

(BTW I have a Snow Leopard DVD sitting here in the drawer next to me LOL)

I just never knew you could do what you just described and it makes total sense! (Yes I have about 20, 4Tb HD's stuffed to the gills) The average Music video I do runs around 2Tb (when you add all the Proxy and Optimized versions of the clips in the Library to the source clips) Since I make my living doing these, you can understand my situation a little better.

Also thank you for your "Apples's recent history..." comment! I really was starting to think I was the only one that felt that way!

If you lived out here in the DC Metropolitan area I'd buy you a beer!

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Answer 8

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Mar 13, 2018 11:03 AM in response to ZX11ninja

Not in DC, further up the coast, but I appreciate the thought.

Saving the OS installers is vital, since Apple sends the older ones to the cornfield as soon as they rush another OS out the door. Just last night, I needed to put Mavericks on an older laptop so that I could keep one vital application running. I just went to my stash of installers. BTW you can also make backup OS installers on flash drives using this nifty utility: http://diskmakerx.com/

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Answer 9

DonH49

Level 6

16,704 points

Mar 9, 2018 1:13 PM in response to ZX11ninja

You should be more focused on your most used applications compatibility with High Sierra rather than can the late 2013 Mac Pro run it. It runs it fine.

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