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MP 1,1-5,1 5,1 Sierra -> High Sierra worth it now?

L

LEOMODE

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 14, 2009
565
57
Southern California
I've been using Sierra still and had no plan to upgrade to High Sierra due to hearing a lot of compatibility issues (please correct me if those are now resolved), and even more so with Mojave (thus not even thinking about upgrading to Mojave although I would love the Dark Mode). I have a GTX1080 and have been using Nvidia drivers.

I just noticed today that the app that I use a lot no longer supports Sierra and now only supports from High Sierra.

AFAIK, the file system is different which created some issues in rolling back as far as I know (again please correct me if I'm wrong) as well as graphic card compatibility.

So my ultimate questions are:

1) Is High Sierra now more stable than Sierra in terms of OS when you have 5,1 with GTX card? Or is Sierra still the most stable version?
2) If I want to go back to Sierra, would I have no issues rolling back if I have a Time Machine?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and a genuine 5,1
I have 10.13.6 on both machines due to wanting Nvidia driver support.
Both machines have the latest 144 firmware installed so support NVME boot.

I find that both machines are rock solid. I did have an issue with Nvidia cards in my 5,1 (I think there was a driver corruption caused by a dud driver that Nvidia pulled), so I stuck an RX580 in to that machine and it hasn't crashed since.

I did dabble with Mojave on my 4,1 but I returned it to 10.13.6 and have no plans on ever going to Mojave on either of my machines.

As you have a Mac Pro it is very easy for you to clone your Sierra drive on to a new drive, then upgrade it to high sierra. if you don't like it, you always have your untouched Sierra drive to go back to again.

My next systems will likely be 64 core threadrippers (if these genuinely appear) and I'll be heading towards Ubuntu.
 
I have a Mid 2012 Mac Pro 5,1 with 2x3.33 Ghz 6-core and a supported graphics card GeForce GTX 780. Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0. I have been using Mojave with no issues until I installed the supplemental 10.14.6 Build 18G87. After applying the update the Mac responded extremely slow (beach ball) and the finder kept freezing (Not responding). I couldn't even rename folders. Lucky for me I have a clone of the whole system on a secondary Hard Drive which I recloned back to build 18G84. I tried several times to apply the update with different approaches like downloading the full install or just the regular update. Results were the same every time. I haven't tried to do a clean installation yet, create a new user or boot to safe mode. when I get a chance I will try and post my results. So, for now I left my Mac with the previously build (18G84). But before Mojave I used High Siera with absolutely no problems. High Sierra it's a mature and trusted solid OS.
 
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Any good resources to have my Sierra backup? Currently I just have it do an automatic backup with Time Machine on my external drive. Would I be able to just recover from there if I want to go back from High Sierra to Sierra (of course assuming I put my boot-screen supported graphic card back in).
 
I've always used "Carbon Copy Cloner" it's not free but its worth it for the time you will save if disaster strikes.It will clone system files and personal files but I don't believe it will clone partitions on the Hard Drive (You'll need to create partitions on the target disk also to achieve partition cloning). The price it's $39.99 and to perform small regular backups I use "FreeFileSync". Both programs need to be configured the 1st time, but work like a charm after that. FreeFileSync comes with another program called "RealTimeSync" which lets you customized a sync by the time you set. every 05, 20, 60 seconds or more between folders on different Hard Drives or local Hard Drive, for a nice fresh up to date backup. Don't forget to download full installs of whatever OS you will use, cause that's the only way to upgrade your firmware.
 
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Nelly68 said:
I've always used "Carbon Copy Cloner" it's not free but its worth it for the time you will save if disaster strikes.It will clone system files and personal files but I don't believe it will clone partitions on the Hard Drive (You'll need to create partitions on the target disk also to achieve partition cloning). The price it's $39.99 and to perform small regular backups I use "FreeFileSync". Both programs need to be configured the 1st time, but work like a charm after that. FreeFileSync comes with another program called "RealTimeSync" which lets you customized a sync by the time you set. every 05, 20, 60 seconds or more between folders on different Hard Drives or local Hard Drive, for a nice fresh up to date backup. Don't forget to download full installs of whatever OS you will use, cause that's the only way to upgrade your firmware.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info, will check on it. In the meantime, would Time Machine still do the job in case of rolling back to Sierra OS from High Sierra OS? If they both do the same sole job of being able to roll back, then I don't want to spend additional money just for something that might only happen once.
 
Yes Time Machine will still do the job. BTW if you are gonna continue to use Time Machine for backups I suggest to format the drive APFS so you can take advantage of SNAPSHOTS.
 
Yes, Carbon Copy Cloner is wonderful.

Assuming that your cMP's bootrom is version 144.0.0.0 why not download the FULL 6.05gb Mojave 10.14.6 installer ( look in the recent Macrumors Mojave forum ) & install it from within Sierra to a spare drive for a try ?

Beware, Mojave will format the target drive to APFS

If you like Mojave then after doing the FULL install you can use CCC to clone it to an HFS+ formatted drive.

So you need one spare drive to accomplish this but drives are getting cheaper.

I'm running Mojave 10.14.6 as my main day to day install now, very stable and I even managed to get my beloved ( 17 years old ) Canon A3 size format laser printer up and running.

I didn't like Sierra as it has Bluetooth problems. High Sierra is nice but Mojave appears to be better.

PS : I recommend that you include your current bootrom version in your Macrumors .sig
 
I had some trouble with Sierra and my GTX 980 card, but High Sierra 10.13.6 on HFS+ is rock solid. It's highly recommended to upgrade.
 
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I installed High Sierra first on a hard disk, that was HFS+ and used Carbon Copy Cloner to transfer it to a HFS+ formatted SSD. But of course, you can use the terminal:
  • Visit the App Store and get the installer for the MacOS High Sierra. When downloading the installer, see to it that it is present within the directory labeled as Applications.
  • Browse to the Utilities folder present inside the Applications folder and click the Terminal application. If you are using a USB boot installer then open it from the menu option on the Utilities screen.
  • When you reach the command line prompt, type in the command syntax, /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall -- converttoapfs NO
  • To begin installing the macOS High Sierra without the automatic transition to the APFS file system, you will simply have to click the return key. This would ensure that you drive isn’t converted to APFS and remains the HFS+ as before.
 
The OP can not use Mojave - He has a GTX 1080. I use SuperDuper for cloning. I use the paid version, however for simple cloning, SuperDuper is free with no time limit. As far APFS goes, I used it on High Sierra and now on Mojave with no ill effects. My GTX 1080 is in the closet replaced with an inferior MVC flashed RX 580. I have seven internal SSDs, All Samsungs.

Lou
 
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