iM 4,1-14,4 Questions about Unsupported Patches

[tolozen]

I have two Early Intel iMacs which are currently just updated to the newest officially supported macOS versions. I would be interested in upgrading them to unsupported versions, as long as I would not need to make any hardware modifications and they could run reasonably well (without too much lag). I have:

An iMac4,1 which is running Snow Leopard and an iMac9,1 which is running El Capitan. I've linked both with the EveryMac page for the exact models, if any of the particular specs are important.

For the iMac4,1, I see that with macOS Extractor I could get up to at least El Capitan, but would I need a hardware mod for that?

Then for the iMac9,1 I see with dosdude's patches I could get it up to Catalina, but I was wondering if anyone knew how laggy or non-functional it might get if I do that? Catalina would obviously be a big step up in support from El Capitan if it's actually reasonably usable. Thanks to anyone who might have some insight here.

 

[theMarble]

For the iMac4,1, I see that with macOS Extractor I could get up to at least El Capitan, but would I need a hardware mod for that?

To run any release of OS X/macOS higher than Snow Leopard, you need to have a 64-bit CPU, and the iMac4,1 has a 32-bit CPU. Even if you installed a C2D, all 10.10/10.11 patchers for 2006 Macs (excluding the Mac Pro) are horrifically un-optimised and slow, even with max-RAM and an SSD.

Then for the iMac9,1 I see with dosdude's patches I could get it up to Catalina, but I was wondering if anyone knew how laggy or non-functional it might get if I do that? Catalina would obviously be a big step up in support from El Capitan if it's actually reasonably usable.

Without an SSD, performance on both Mojave and Catalina will be almost as bad. This is because they use APFS (Apple File System), which has zero optimisation for mechanical/spinning drives.

Without any hardware upgrades, Snow Leopard and/or XP are your best options for the iMac4,1, and I would stick to El Capitan on the 9,1. If you're willing to give up some performance, you could try High Sierra.

Linux could be another option for the 9,1, as long as you stick to lightweight distros.

 

[tolozen]

To run any release of OS X/macOS higher than Snow Leopard, you need to have a 64-bit CPU, and the iMac4,1 has a 32-bit CPU. Even if you installed a C2D, all 10.10/10.11 patchers for 2006 Macs (excluding the Mac Pro) are horrifically un-optimised and slow, even with max-RAM and an SSD.

Thanks. I was wondering exactly that as for the C2D aspect.

Without an SSD, performance on both Mojave and Catalina will be almost as bad. This is because they use APFS (Apple File System), which has zero optimisation for mechanical/spinning drives.

Interesting. I'm new to fiddling with Apple computers so I wasn't aware that APFS was so SSD dependent.

Without any hardware upgrades, Snow Leopard and/or XP are your best options for the iMac4,1, and I would stick to El Capitan on the 9,1. If you're willing to give up some performance, you could try High Sierra.

Thanks. I'll stick to Snow Leopard for the iMac4,1, and probably will just stick to El Capitan as for the iMac9,1. But I might give Sierra or High Sierra a go if I'm looking for another random project to work on. I was under the impression High Sierra was the one that started using APFS? Or does it just have support for both systems?

 

[theMarble]

I was under the impression High Sierra was the one that started using APFS? Or does it just have support for both systems?

High Sierra supports booting from APFS-formatted drives, but it wasn't made mandatory until Mojave. For mechanical drives, HFS+ was still the default.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Go ahead and put High Sierra on that 9,1.

I had an 8,1 that ran it wonderfully after installation with one of dosdude1's patchers. Rock solid stable and plenty fast with SSD installed and memory maxed to 6 GB. Your 9,1 will do even better.

 

[tolozen]

Go ahead and put High Sierra on that 9,1.

I had an 8,1 that ran it wonderfully after installation with one of dosdude1's patchers. Rock solid stable and plenty fast with SSD installed and memory maxed to 6 GB. Your 9,1 will do even better.

I just did it the night after making this thread with dosdude1's patcher. No issues, except one of the security updates wasn't able to install. I sent a message in the High Sierra on Unsupported Macs thread if you have any tips on that front. I still have an HDD in it as I alluded to above, but I did get it with 8MB (max) memory already installed, so that helps out a lot especially with having lots of browser tabs open and whatnot. High Sierra should be a lot better for modern app compatibility, so that'll be fun.

 

[Raging Dufus]

I just did it the night after making this thread with dosdude1's patcher. No issues, except one of the security updates wasn't able to install. I sent a message in the High Sierra on Unsupported Macs thread if you have any tips on that front.

Nice, congrats on your upgrade! Afraid I have no tips to offer, as I've never run into that specific issue. But you've sought help in the right place, hopefully someone will chime in with an answer.