Does Yosemite really work well on older machines?

[Msail30bay]

I JUST installed it on my Late 2010 MBA, 4 GB of Ram, 1.86 Intel Core 2 Duo, for the New Year AND so far so good. Not a issue with Safari, watching YouTube Vids, and other pass-time vids on sites I have an iPhone 5s and so far, zero problems on either end. Mail, Contacts, FaceTime, Messages, ALL check.

IF I was in your shoe, I would get a used Mac via Apple Online store and go from there as your Mac seems to be on the borderline.

 

[KALLT]

I have a truly wonderful 2008 aluminium MacBook (13 inch, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo), its getting old now and heavy (who needs an optical drive?) and battery life sucks. I upgraded my machine to 8GB RAM and a 256 Crucial SSD. Amazing how much difference a couple of alterations can make.

I've updated each OSX iteration and all have worked very well.

I enjoyed Mavericks the most, everything seemed to work so well together, efficient and fast.

The day Yosemite was released I upgraded to that. I've struggled for more than two months with it. I spend all day on Safari but I was getting the spinning beachball much of the time despite 8GB RAM.

My computer began to crawl at the things it used to be able to do in its stride. It crashed a fair few times compared to never crashing on previous OSX versions.

Finally yesterday, I had experienced too much stress with it that I backed up my Time Machine and went back to using Mavericks and the last 24 hours have taken me back to how good the Mac can be as a computer.

I will miss the receiving calls feature on my desktop and I quite liked the look of Yosemite but it felt half finished.

I'm keeping Mavericks on this 2008 Macbook until I purchase a new Mac probably in 2016 after the successor to Yosemite.

Interesting, I have the exact same setup but have not experienced any noteworthy performance issues as opposed to Mavericks. I also replaced my battery last year with a third-party one for half the price from Amazon, but I agree, the battery life isn't stellar anymore with all the increased activity on OS X.

 

[grahamperrin]

Safari not responding during a trial of Yosemite

… 2008 Macbook … SSD … Safari but I was getting the spinning beachball much of the time despite 8GB RAM. …

If/when you go back to Yosemite and the symptom recurs, please post details to a separate topic. There'll be an explanation and, probably, a workaround.

 

[Curt14]

I was very wary before I installed it on my Mid 2009 MBP that had Lion on it. It works really well now though, can't fault it at the moment. It runs real smooth which was the main thing I was worried about.

Keeping in mind that I just upgraded to 8GB RAM (from 4GB) and installed a 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

 

[nollimac]

Yosemite on my older 3.1 17" MacBook Pro (2007/2008) runs better than on my 2012 Mac Mini...I had to revert back to Mavericks on the Mini which 16GB RAM and a SSD.

Now, the MacBook Pro has a Seagate Momentus XT and 6GB RAM although Apple says officially max RAM 4GB.

 

[TonyK]

Actually I thought the 2007 MBP could take 6 max. That is what Other World Computing reports when I've looked at memory.

Yosemite on my older 3.1 17" MacBook Pro (2007/2008) runs better than on my 2012 Mac Mini...I had to revert back to Mavericks on the Mini which 16GB RAM and a SSD.

Now, the MacBook Pro has a Seagate Momentus XT and 6GB RAM although Apple says officially max RAM 4GB.

 

[SarcasticJoe]

Running Yosemite on a 2007 Macbook Pro almost spec-for-spec the same as the thread starter's machine just fine. It does however feel awfully slow compared to my 2011 machine with an SSD.

Now don't get me wrong, it's just as fast as it was back when I was running 10.6 on it, it's just that the newer machine is so much faster thanks to the aftermarket SSD.

 

[ophelial]

I'm still torn about whether or not I should upgrade. Here are my specs:

Model Identifier: MacBook7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB71.0039.B0B

Snow Leopard isn't horribly slow most of the time, but it's not incredibly fast either. This probably has more to do with my processor than the the OS though.

Do you think I should upgrade to Yosemite?

 

[Mike MA]

Macbook Air (late 2010, SSD), running perfectly well.

 

[Xeridionix]

I have Yosemite running on my wife's Early 2008 MacBook Pro and it runs great, responsive and no issues at all.

 

[Kishtel]

MacBook 4,1

Hm, MacBook 4,1 works well, no lags, no freezes (lil' bit at launchpad), need sleep fix and video QE/CI solution. (no video with VLC, Quicktime, only Youtube and flash)
Os X 10.10 Yosemite is MUCH faster than 10.8, Safari is way faster!

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ Model Identifier: MacBook7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB71.0039.B0B
Snow Leopard isn't horribly slow most of the time, but it's not incredibly fast either. This probably has more to do with my processor than the the OS though.
Do you think I should upgrade to Yosemite? ]]

I wouldn't recommend it, unless you're willing to install an SSD.
You may be very disappointed in the results, if you do.

However -- going to 10.8.5 "Mountain Lion" would probably do well on what you currently have.

 

[smartalic34]

I have a truly wonderful 2008 aluminium MacBook (13 inch, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo), its getting old now and heavy (who needs an optical drive?) and battery life sucks. I upgraded my machine to 8GB RAM and a 256 Crucial SSD. Amazing how much difference a couple of alterations can make.

I've updated each OSX iteration and all have worked very well.

I enjoyed Mavericks the most, everything seemed to work so well together, efficient and fast.

The day Yosemite was released I upgraded to that. I've struggled for more than two months with it. I spend all day on Safari but I was getting the spinning beachball much of the time despite 8GB RAM.

My computer began to crawl at the things it used to be able to do in its stride. It crashed a fair few times compared to never crashing on previous OSX versions.

Finally yesterday, I had experienced too much stress with it that I backed up my Time Machine and went back to using Mavericks and the last 24 hours have taken me back to how good the Mac can be as a computer.

I will miss the receiving calls feature on my desktop and I quite liked the look of Yosemite but it felt half finished.

I'm keeping Mavericks on this 2008 Macbook until I purchase a new Mac probably in 2016 after the successor to Yosemite.

I would bet if you did a clean install of Yosemite and then migrated your data via Time Machine, your computer would work quite well. Your specs are adequate for Yosemite, I bet it just needs a clean base to work with.

I'm still torn about whether or not I should upgrade. Here are my specs:

Model Identifier: MacBook7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB71.0039.B0B

Snow Leopard isn't horribly slow most of the time, but it's not incredibly fast either. This probably has more to do with my processor than the the OS though.

Do you think I should upgrade to Yosemite?

Definitely, with one caveat. You need more RAM. My sister's 2009 13" MBP had 2 GB RAM and absolutely crawled with Yosemite. Once it was upgraded to 8 GB RAM, her Core 2 Duo MBP handled Yosemite with ease and the OS runs beautifully on it.