MP 6,1 best MACOS for Mac Pro 6,1?

[Calaveras]

Did a few searches and could not find much info on this.
Recently got my 2013 Mac Pro Cylinder out of storage and got my studio set up again.
Ran a few updates and quickly found out that Adobe and a few others have already jumped ship.
Requiring me to be on the last two most recent MACOS releases to get the most recent updates.
Likewise Logic Pro requires you to be on a pretty recent OS version to download updates.

I'm up to Catalina on it so far and it seems stable.
Any drawbacks to Monterey or other versions past MACOS 10.x.x?

I'm a bit gun shy from my experience of how Apple treats older iPhones.

 

[tsialex]

Best version is the one that works with the apps that you need. At least for my own workflow, Monterey works pretty good with a MacPro6,1.

Catalina is already obsolete for almost a year, Big Sur have barely one month of official support, Monterey have at least 13 months.

 

[antibolo]

Catalina is no longer getting security updates. You shouldn't be using it on a computer that still connects to the Internet.

Use OCLP to install Ventura.
EDIT: nevermind that, install Monterey since it's the last supported OS for that model and is still getting security updates.

 

[nollimac]

The best version is Monterey...hands down and brings that puppy alive!

 

[Calaveras]

Best version is the one that works with the apps that you need. At least for my own workflow, Monterey works pretty good with a MacPro6,1.

I'm on Monterey on my 14" MBP. It's been pretty decent more or less.
As far as best version for the apps I need. I usually update my computer as far as is comfortable at a point in time, then do a time machine of that. After that I don't install anything or update until I'm at a stopping point with no projects in progress. Which may not happen again for a couple years.
It can take only a couple hours to run updates on everything. But it can take a whole day to back out of an update that had side effects.
So far the only problem I have updating to Catalina is that all the older Steam games are inoperable.
Which is not a bad thing. I shouldn't be playing games on my studio computer! Those all got installed in 2020 for some reason.

That did scare me into wondering what else is dependent on a deprecated codebase? Has to be some crossover from games and music and video apps?

 

[Calaveras]

Yikes, wasn't aware of this incredibly frustrating firmware update blocking Monterey if you have a 3rd party SSD.
So my OWC Aura 2 is going to need to come out as soon as I track down the old SSD.
In the meantime I have gotten up to Big Sur.
Wow, semi-transparent windows. At least my dual GPUs have something to do now.

I have a whole box of SSDs in the little aluminum carriers you get when you upgrade with an OWC SSD.
My career as an IT guy has made me the informal helpdesk for my family and friends.
So I end up with their old SSD more often than not.
So now I need to figure out which one is keyed to work on 2013 era Macs. I think it was the same across a number of models? Pretty sure mine came with a 512gb SSD. There is no way I would have thought I could live on 256 while I paid off the balance!

Apple's petty behavior around stuff like this really makes me re-evaluate what I am doing in their ecosystem.
I'm much more into the FOSS side of things philosophically. But my career has demanded that I be agile in Mac, Windows and Linux. So the Mac is the natural tool which works with all of those.
But needlessly difficult stuff like this pushes me more in the Linux direction.
(never going back to Windows as a daily driver!)
I seriously do not see what security perimeter is being protected by requiring an OEM SSD be in place for a firmware update?

 

[tsialex]

I seriously do not see what security perimeter is being protected by requiring an OEM SSD be in place for a firmware update?

Apple removed the requirement of the original blade for EFI firmware updates at least 5 years ago, around the time of 130.0.0.0.0 (we are now at 474.0.0.0.0). Any AppleOEM 12+16 AHCI blades will work for the EFI firmware, go back to earlier posts in the thread below for more info.

Latest Boot ROM and SMC version on Mac Pro Late 2013 (trashcan)

Hi, I am planning to upgrade the SSD on my Mac Pro 2013 (trashcan) with a third party NVME drive and all of them seems to require to have the latest Boot ROM version / SMC version in order to work properly with the machine. My system is showing Boot ROM Version: 130.0.0.0.0 and SMC Version...

forums.macrumors.com

So, the most plausible is that you never updated your Mac Pro firmware since you installed your OWC Aura.

 

[Calaveras]

Apple removed the requirement of the original blade for EFI firmware updates at least 5 years ago, around the time of 130.0.0.0.0 (we are now at 474.0.0.0.0). Any AppleOEM 12+16 AHCI blades will work for the EFI firmware, go back to earlier posts in the thread below for more info.

Latest Boot ROM and SMC version on Mac Pro Late 2013 (trashcan)

Hi, I am planning to upgrade the SSD on my Mac Pro 2013 (trashcan) with a third party NVME drive and all of them seems to require to have the latest Boot ROM version / SMC version in order to work properly with the machine. My system is showing Boot ROM Version: 130.0.0.0.0 and SMC Version...

forums.macrumors.com

So, the most plausible is that you never updated your Mac Pro firmware since you installed your OWC Aura.

I think the only firmware update it got was back when they enabled NVME support. Which was right before I got he Aura X2.

I read a ton about this over the last 2 days trying to find a loophole to get around it. But yeah, it doesn't require the exact same SSD it shipped with. But it does require an Apple OEM SSD. Knowing the broad range of SSDs I have in a box at my storage unit means that probably only the ones that came out of my trashcan or a laptop built around the same time will have the right keying to fit on that generation of proprietary PCIe slots.
The original one or maybe the one from my brother in law's MBP are both gen 3.

 

[Calaveras]

Found the OG SSD it shipped with. I just looked up my sales reciept from 10 years ago(!) and confirmed it was 512gb.
So then I just had to pull out the old Converse shoe box of hard drives and such and find the one that was 512.
There were only 3 of those, and as luck would have it, the first one I opened up was the little Darth Vader of SSDs.
Can't fault Apple for consistency. So after I erased and installed that and did the slipstream installer thing on an external SSD

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/***** --downloadassets

Of course you change the ***** to whatever the removable media is.
That worked great to install to an the 512GB SSD.
It went pretty fast so maybe I missed the part of the Big Sur or Catalina install where it says 'monkeying with the firmware now boss'. Or maybe it's not verbose about such stuff.
Either way Monterey working fine now.
Surprised at how little was affected by upgrading the OS twice in a week.
While I did have most of my Steam games rendered useless, I now can at least get up to date on my Adobe stuff.
Suppose when it starts snowing I'll dive into Stellaris or find some cheap non-32 bit games on Steam.

PS once again I have to register my disappointment with Apple.
After Leopard came Snow Leopard
After Lion came Mountain Lion.
After Sierra, High Sierra.
Ample precedent for the next OS after Monterey should be Monterey Jack!
Ventura?

 

[Calaveras]

Whelp looks like I'm stuck at Monterey 12.6.9
Fricking 12.7 bricked my Macbook Pro. Not trusting it on the Mac Pro.
Once bitten...