People with Intel Macs on Big Sur -- How's it running?

[Luna Murasaki]

Count me in here too: I did a clean install of Big Sur on my 2018 MacBook Pro (I never do major upgrades of existing installs). It has neither created nor solved any of my problems to do so. Performance could possibly be a little better than before but it's hard to tell when comparing the newer, cleaner install to the old one. I just like running the latest stuff when I can. 🙂

I don't think there is anything about this release that in any way sacrifices or gives less attention to the Intel experience. Apple is even still selling Intel Macs after all.

 

[carlsbergbeer]

I installed Big Sur on my 2018 Mini i5 this week. I had bought the computer and downgraded to Mojave for support of a citrix app for work. Work gave me a laptop for WFM so I went to big sur. Working great so far!

 

[Capeto]

Early 2015 MBP (base model, i5) was sluggish under Big Sur and I ended up reverting to Catalina.

 

[SketchyClown]

Running fine here on a 6yo iMac. Smoother transition than some previous versions for sure.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I've got Big Sur running now on a 2015 11" Air (i5/4GB/128GB) and a 2015 13" Pro (i5/8GB/512GB), and it's running quite well on both. They'd both been on Mojave for a long while, and I don't notice any appreciable performance change from that, which is a good thing in this case

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I'm a bit hesitant though because I feel like Apple mostly had Apple Silicon devices in mind when making this OS.

I'm not sure why you'd think that, considering the vast majority of Macs in service are Intel. One would hope that Apple wants us all to have a good experience.

The vast majority of Big Sur beta testers were testing on Intel Macs (only developers with those A12Z-equipped Minis were able to test the Apple Silicon release), so the vast majority of bug-squashing was happening on Intel.

It's certainly true that a version compiled for Apple Silicon (and Rosetta II) were important goals for this release, but I'd expect those tasks were assigned to teams separate from the main macOS development team.

 

[christcc2]

2019 13 inch MBP 1.7 i7/16/512 with eGPU for pro apps on Mac, Bootcamp Win10 for gaming. Big Sur has been fantastic for me. Better than Catalina, especially with eGPU. I did an in-place upgrade - no issues whatsoever. It has felt like the System 7 to System 8.0/8.1 upgrade for me (I was in early high school then).

 

[Martyimac]

2018 mini, 2019 5K iMac, both running just fine.

 

[lexvo]

I updated my 2017 i5 5K iMac from Catalina to Big Sur and it is running smooth.

 

[boswald]

I have a 2018 Mac mini and it is super choppy. I've done a clean install twice, and fully updated everything. I work around it, but it's definitely annoying. I guess using 2 HomePods as my default speakers kinda-sorta make up for it...

 

[Dc2006ster]

2017 27" 5K iMac. Big Sur is running very well. No issues. I originally intended to do a clean install but instead of that I did a full backup of my Catalina startup disk, as a just-in -case precaution, and plunged right in with an upgrade. A few apps needed upgrading but otherwise no problems.

 

[ChairSpud]

2017 iMac now with SSD upgraded a few days ago runs fine except my soundcard line level input is no longer adjustable (remains fixed). When Big Sur first came out I upgraded and quickly reverted to back Mojave because it ran slowly, maybe it was the slow mechanical drive.

 

[Okta]

I have a 2013 rMBP, it's slower than Mojave which seems slower than High Sierra.

 

[AL2TEACH]

Just dandy on a 2015 iMac with a SSD drive.

 

[Jack Neill]

I have 3 Intel Macs running 11.3.1. All 3 are running better significantly than with Catalina.

2012 MBP
2012 MBA
2020 MBA

 

[vitale]

2020 MBA on 11.3 and a 2017 4K iMac with HDD on 11.4 beta. Both are great honestly.

 

[MevetS]

2018 Mini. Went from Catalina to Big Sur. No issues at all.

 

[TiggrToo]

2015 personal MBP 15” had a fresh install after finally ditching my Mojave instance. Perfect.

2020 work MBP 16” was upgraded from Catalina: mostly OK but some odd daily freezes that would last a minute or 2.

I rebuilt it this weekend and it’s been rock solid so far.

 

[Macdctr]

I upgraded to Big Sur on my 2015 11-inch MBA and 13-inch Retina MBP with no issues. This OS has not given me any issues so I recently installed it on my Early 2013 15-inch Retina MBP and it has been running fine on that laptop. Big Sur is running great on my computers...

 

[dobrewski_77]

2020 Air here - running super smoothly. Been using it for over a month now and even with my daily heavy usage (as a Digital Marketing Manager) I can report that the whole experience is 10/10 for me.

 

[Hessel89]

Absolutely fine. I have an M1 Mac Mini 512+16 and a Macbook Pro 2017 15'' and both run Big Sur just fine. No performance difference.

 

[marianodaniel]

working great on both my macs (including, amazingly, my 2016 12" macbook)...

Hey @fisherking ! How have you been?

I'm planning on moving to Big Sur. Catalina too laggy for me on my Early 2016 12" Macbook. I rolled back to El Capitan, it's lightning fast, but I'm having trouble finding a proper browser for it. (FF ESR still buggy, Vivaldi is a battery hog on YouTube).

How is Big Sur still behaving on that 12" beauty?

Thanks in advance for any input.!

 

[mindquest]

Hey @fisherking ! How have you been?

I'm planning on moving to Big Sur. Catalina too laggy for me on my Early 2016 12" Macbook. I rolled back to El Capitan, it's lightning fast, but I'm having trouble finding a proper browser for it. (FF ESR still buggy, Vivaldi is a battery hog on YouTube).

How is Big Sur still behaving on that 12" beauty?

Thanks in advance for any input.!

Wondering the same thing if upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur instead of Monterey might be the better choice for my 2020 27 iMac i9.

 

[mindquest]

Wondering the same thing if upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur instead of Monterey might be the better choice for my 2020 27 iMac i9.

Can you still get the Big Sur software to update? If so anyone have a link?

 

[decafjava]

Wondering the same thing if upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur instead of Monterey might be the better choice for my 2020 27 iMac i9.

Honestly do as you think best but Monterey runs better than Big Sur on my 2015 iMac so your 2020 model should do very well on it.