**Running macOS Catalina on Older Macs: A Comprehensive Analysis**
### Introduction
macOS Catalina, Apple's 2019 operating system release, supports a wide range of Mac computers dating back to 2012. This article delves into how well this OS runs on the absolute bare minimum requirements, focusing on the base versions of the 2012 MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro.
### The Hardware Limitations
The base Mac Mini and the base 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2012 are fundamentally the same computer. Both come standard with a 500 gigabyte 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive, which is a significant bottleneck for system speed. Additionally, these devices have only 4 gigabytes of RAM and feature a 1280 by 800 display resolution.
### Performance Issues
The most notable issue with running macOS Catalina on these older Macs is the 500 gigabyte mechanical drive. Booting up the machine can take several minutes, and once it's running, the system is incredibly slow. Applications become almost unresponsive, making the experience frustrating for users who have used faster systems.
The read/write speeds of a 5400 rpm drive are abysmal in 2019, often less than 50 megabytes per second both ways. This issue is particularly concerning because even newer iMacs come with standard mechanical drives that don't benefit from the SSD capacity of a fusion drive.
### Hardware Upgrades
While the hardware may feel sluggish, there are solutions to improve performance. Any Mac with a hard drive can be upgraded to a solid-state drive (SSD), which significantly improves speed and responsiveness. MacBook Pros and Mac Minis are relatively easy to upgrade, and there are resources available for those looking to do so.
### Memory Constraints
Running macOS Catalina on 4 gigabytes of RAM is challenging. Modern websites and applications demand more resources, and the operating system holds itself back to leave room for other applications. Users can expect difficulty running multiple Chrome tabs or handling multitasking due to limited RAM.
### Feature Support
Despite hardware limitations, most major features of macOS Catalina work well. Handoff, iMessage, iCloud Drive, and other fundamental ecosystem services function flawlessly. However, one notable limitation is the lack of support for Sidecar on older Macs with Intel HD graphics 4000. This feature requires Skylake or newer CPUs.
### Long-Term Considerations
While macOS Catalina runs adequately on older Macs, users should consider whether these machines will remain supported in the future. Older 2012 Macs are likely to be dropped from official support in the coming years. For those looking for long-term reliability, a newer Mac model is recommended.
### Conclusion and Recommendations
Upgrading hardware components like adding more RAM and switching to an SSD can revitalise older Macs, making them feel nearly new again. However, users should weigh the cost of upgrades against the potential benefits of investing in a newer Mac for future-proofing their systems.
In summary, while macOS Catalina runs on older Macs with some performance trade-offs, upgrading hardware can mitigate many issues. For those looking ahead, newer models are advisable to ensure continued support and optimal performance.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMac OS Catalina supports a wide range of Mac's dating back to 2012 but how well does it run on the absolute bare minimum requirements if you take a look at the requirements for Mac OS Catalina you need a Mac that dates back to 2012 or later which means that the lowest end configurations that can run this are the base versions of the 2012 MacBook Air Mac Mini and MacBook Pro now you could definitely make the argument that the least powerful computer there is the MacBook Air with its 1.5 gigahertz dual-core i-5 but I would actually disagree the base Mac Mini and the base 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2012 which are fundamentally the same computer both ships standard with a 500 gigabyte 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive that's definitely going to be the biggest bottleneck with regards to system speed and then when you couple that with the fact that the MacBook comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM standard and has a 1280 by 800 display and for the purposes of this video we're gonna consider that the absolute lowest supported specs officially so how well does it run Mac OS Catalina well as unsurprising as it may be the 500 gigabyte mechanical drive is a major pain point it takes several minutes to boot up the machine and the first few minutes once it's booted up this thing is as slow as can be applications are almost unresponsive anyone who's had a Mac with one of these 5400 drives knows what I'm talking about these things are very very painful in 2019 the read/write speeds on a drive this slow are absolutely abysmal less than 50 megabytes per second both ways this is definitely the biggest drawback for running Catalina or any modern operating system but it's particularly alarming in its implications for other hard drive based Macs let's not forget that every iMac that's supported here comes with mechanical drives standard even the brand-new ones many of these are vanilla drives that don't benefit from the SSD capacity of a fusion drive this is really a shame because 5400 rpm drives tend to make decent quad-core machines from the last three to four years feel old and arthritic the good news is that any Mac that comes with a hard drive can be upgraded to a solid-state drive MacBook Pros are easy as cake Mac minis are pretty simple and I actually have a video that you can check out here that explains how to do it on a 21 inch iMac the next big issue we run into with performance is the memory for gigabytes of RAM is a struggle these days websites are becoming more graphically and technically advanced and programs are used to computers running 8 16 32 gigabytes of RAM all day long just running the OS and sitting around uses 2 gigabytes of RAM it's important to note here that on devices that have more RAM available the OS allows itself a larger Ram budget my iMac over here with 32 gigabytes of RAM Idols at around 7 or 8 gigabytes of RAM and allows the system to be very very responsive and snappy so with just 4 gigs the operating system is going to be holding itself back to leave some amount of RAM left over for literally all of our applications TLDR forget about running more than like three or four chrome tabs here multitasking also suffers if for example you're running a few tabs of a web browser a spreadsheet and a text document you're already chewing up almost a hundred percent of your RAM animations start to lag webpages reload and it's just not a pleasant experience now well this hardware has a tough time with katalina the OS hasn't been crippled to run on these devices catalyst is supported and even though we're running Intel HD graphics 4000 we still have metal support there is one major feature that doesn't work on this device that will work on newer ones and that is sadly sidecar as it turns out the list of Mac's that can run sidecar is noticeably more limited than the list of Mac's that can run katalina supposedly the list of supported devices are limited to Mac's that feature skylake or newer CPUs sky like adds support for the HEV see video codec which implies that this could be required to get sidecar to work apart from sidecar all the other major features of Catalina and all the real fundamentals that you expects from Mac OS work great handoff iMessage iCloud Drive everything you'd expect when you buy into the Apple ecosystem work flawlessly if you're interested in learning more about my time with this MacBook and how it fits into the Apple ecosystem I'd recommend checking out my last video which you can click right over here the best thing you can do for this MacBook is bump it up to eight gigs of RAM and a solid-state drive with those updates you really wouldn't know that this is a seven year old machine apart from the low screen resolution now of course the other drawback is the age-old question of well is this even going to be supported next year now from what I can tell I don't think that is the case these older 2012 Mac's are most likely going to start getting dropped next year or in 2021 so if you already have one of these machines and you want to continue using it I'd say go for it they're supported they work great keep going but if you're looking to buy into the Apple ecosystem and it's important to you that you have a machine that's fully supported for three four five years you're definitely going to want to go for something a little bit newer so that'll do it for today's video let me know down in the comments below if you have any questions and I'd be happy to hear from you over on my subreddit which you can find linked down in the description below as usual don't forget to follow me on Twitter at look me on e and I will see you all in the next videoMac OS Catalina supports a wide range of Mac's dating back to 2012 but how well does it run on the absolute bare minimum requirements if you take a look at the requirements for Mac OS Catalina you need a Mac that dates back to 2012 or later which means that the lowest end configurations that can run this are the base versions of the 2012 MacBook Air Mac Mini and MacBook Pro now you could definitely make the argument that the least powerful computer there is the MacBook Air with its 1.5 gigahertz dual-core i-5 but I would actually disagree the base Mac Mini and the base 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2012 which are fundamentally the same computer both ships standard with a 500 gigabyte 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive that's definitely going to be the biggest bottleneck with regards to system speed and then when you couple that with the fact that the MacBook comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM standard and has a 1280 by 800 display and for the purposes of this video we're gonna consider that the absolute lowest supported specs officially so how well does it run Mac OS Catalina well as unsurprising as it may be the 500 gigabyte mechanical drive is a major pain point it takes several minutes to boot up the machine and the first few minutes once it's booted up this thing is as slow as can be applications are almost unresponsive anyone who's had a Mac with one of these 5400 drives knows what I'm talking about these things are very very painful in 2019 the read/write speeds on a drive this slow are absolutely abysmal less than 50 megabytes per second both ways this is definitely the biggest drawback for running Catalina or any modern operating system but it's particularly alarming in its implications for other hard drive based Macs let's not forget that every iMac that's supported here comes with mechanical drives standard even the brand-new ones many of these are vanilla drives that don't benefit from the SSD capacity of a fusion drive this is really a shame because 5400 rpm drives tend to make decent quad-core machines from the last three to four years feel old and arthritic the good news is that any Mac that comes with a hard drive can be upgraded to a solid-state drive MacBook Pros are easy as cake Mac minis are pretty simple and I actually have a video that you can check out here that explains how to do it on a 21 inch iMac the next big issue we run into with performance is the memory for gigabytes of RAM is a struggle these days websites are becoming more graphically and technically advanced and programs are used to computers running 8 16 32 gigabytes of RAM all day long just running the OS and sitting around uses 2 gigabytes of RAM it's important to note here that on devices that have more RAM available the OS allows itself a larger Ram budget my iMac over here with 32 gigabytes of RAM Idols at around 7 or 8 gigabytes of RAM and allows the system to be very very responsive and snappy so with just 4 gigs the operating system is going to be holding itself back to leave some amount of RAM left over for literally all of our applications TLDR forget about running more than like three or four chrome tabs here multitasking also suffers if for example you're running a few tabs of a web browser a spreadsheet and a text document you're already chewing up almost a hundred percent of your RAM animations start to lag webpages reload and it's just not a pleasant experience now well this hardware has a tough time with katalina the OS hasn't been crippled to run on these devices catalyst is supported and even though we're running Intel HD graphics 4000 we still have metal support there is one major feature that doesn't work on this device that will work on newer ones and that is sadly sidecar as it turns out the list of Mac's that can run sidecar is noticeably more limited than the list of Mac's that can run katalina supposedly the list of supported devices are limited to Mac's that feature skylake or newer CPUs sky like adds support for the HEV see video codec which implies that this could be required to get sidecar to work apart from sidecar all the other major features of Catalina and all the real fundamentals that you expects from Mac OS work great handoff iMessage iCloud Drive everything you'd expect when you buy into the Apple ecosystem work flawlessly if you're interested in learning more about my time with this MacBook and how it fits into the Apple ecosystem I'd recommend checking out my last video which you can click right over here the best thing you can do for this MacBook is bump it up to eight gigs of RAM and a solid-state drive with those updates you really wouldn't know that this is a seven year old machine apart from the low screen resolution now of course the other drawback is the age-old question of well is this even going to be supported next year now from what I can tell I don't think that is the case these older 2012 Mac's are most likely going to start getting dropped next year or in 2021 so if you already have one of these machines and you want to continue using it I'd say go for it they're supported they work great keep going but if you're looking to buy into the Apple ecosystem and it's important to you that you have a machine that's fully supported for three four five years you're definitely going to want to go for something a little bit newer so that'll do it for today's video let me know down in the comments below if you have any questions and I'd be happy to hear from you over on my subreddit which you can find linked down in the description below as usual don't forget to follow me on Twitter at look me on e and I will see you all in the next video\n"
