Every Mac OS update I expect my Mac to run a little faster. Yet over time I have not noticed any speed bumps after any of the system updates. Yes I have noticed the new features just not any head spinning wow. It's like looking for a Unicorn.
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Will iMac Pro performance improve with Monterey or not?
- Thread starter rjtiedeman
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you want more than just 'faster'. stability. better functionality. improvements that matter (not just, of course, shiny new apps & GUI tweaks).
your processor doesn't change with each new update. so, perhaps stop looking for 'faster', and decide if the updates take you to 'better'.
New macOS versions offer new features. New features require resources. As is generally the case. Expect new OS or really any new software versions to be slower. Although single versions don't usually make much difference. It'll take a few versions until the differences are appreciable.
This really depends though. Some updates or versions are meant to address performance issues. Such as making use of hardware acceleration features or instruction sets not utilized previously. Those will be faster. At least for parts of the software which utilize that hardware acceleration. Other times they might address poor code optimizations in updates.
Mostly updates are for fixing stability, security or other problems. Occasionally adding minor features.
Of course right now a lot of software will change on ARM Macs. As they'll generally get a big improvement moving from Intel/Rosetta 2 to native ARM. Then as ARM (Mac) is new. Software vendors will likely have multiple iterations of optimizations for ARM chips. As they clean up the code and better optimize it.
But I wouldn't hold my breath on macOS. Apple's had a lot more time to optimize it. I'm sure they've been working on ARM builds many years before Big Sur. They probably have builds for RISC V macOS and x86 iOS in their labs. Heck even in 1992 the Star Trek project had Macintosh System 7 working on x86.
Really, the last times macOS version seemed faster was 10.0 to 10.1 and 10.1 to 10.2. As early macOS X was horribly optimized. Those were major changes. Especially 10.0 to 10.1.
This really depends though. Some updates or versions are meant to address performance issues. Such as making use of hardware acceleration features or instruction sets not utilized previously. Those will be faster. At least for parts of the software which utilize that hardware acceleration. Other times they might address poor code optimizations in updates.
Mostly updates are for fixing stability, security or other problems. Occasionally adding minor features.
Of course right now a lot of software will change on ARM Macs. As they'll generally get a big improvement moving from Intel/Rosetta 2 to native ARM. Then as ARM (Mac) is new. Software vendors will likely have multiple iterations of optimizations for ARM chips. As they clean up the code and better optimize it.
But I wouldn't hold my breath on macOS. Apple's had a lot more time to optimize it. I'm sure they've been working on ARM builds many years before Big Sur. They probably have builds for RISC V macOS and x86 iOS in their labs. Heck even in 1992 the Star Trek project had Macintosh System 7 working on x86.
Really, the last times macOS version seemed faster was 10.0 to 10.1 and 10.1 to 10.2. As early macOS X was horribly optimized. Those were major changes. Especially 10.0 to 10.1.
I guess it would be too much to ask that we be warned that the update will have no practical effect other than pushing new features that most will not even know that they are there.
you must have skipped my post. there is always work under-the-hood; OS updates aren't (just) about new features, or greater speed. that 'unseen' work is important, for stability, efficiency, better performance. these things matter most, or should...
In my experience that is mostly true. It certainly adds up over a few updates. For example, for my 2016 MacBook (8 GB RAM): a) definitely more responsive than when new, and b) Monterey beta is slightly but noticeably better than Big Sur.
Of course the CPU has not got faster. I put the improvements down to better memory management, changes to interprocess communication, and other minor tweaks to the kernel. As @fisherking, these are all under-the-hood.
I saw your post. Thank you. It makes sense. After the latest Big Sur update I ran geek bench CPU test and my Imac Pro scores increased by a little. So yes it got faster. On the software side Adobe seams to keep pace better than my 3D CAD software. So far everything I need works but the CAD software does not take advantage of all the MULTI cores and I am not sure it will ever be optimized to process complex geometry until they can catch up with Apple. My 3Dspacemouse is working with BETA drivers and they have been playing cat & mouse with Apple updates for years. Spacemouse users are at the mercy of both hardware and software developers having to change code to accommodate Apple updates. So if it doesn’t work speed is irrelevant.
Yes. Some Upgrades come with FIRMWARE updates that change your hardware. I think the process is permanent and the process can brick your mac if you don’t follow the direction to the letter. No going back. To date I have not had any issues. Just a long scary black screen and you wait.