Can't upgrade from El Capitan to Catalina?

[Herby Sherby]

I have two Macs. One is a year old and up to date with OS etc. The other is still running El Capitan, as I have been using Photoshop and the CS4 Suite, which requires 32 bit processing. As soon as I upgrade, it will switch to 64 and I will lose it. I can't afford the ridiculous subscription as an occasional user and as I am now proficient with Affinity ( the Mac alternative to Photoshop) the time has come to upgrade my OS. I am now having a lot of problems with my old search engine versions of Safari and Firefox and so I wanted to upgrade to Catalina.

My Mac is Mac Pro ( early 2008).
Processor 2x3.2 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
Memory os 16GB
Fusion Drive
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870
Free storage on Fusion is 628GB
Free storage on H Disc is 117 GB

When I go to the App store and try and download Catalina, I get a message stating "This version of macOS 10.15.7 cannot be installed on this computer.” When I press the “ Learn More” icon nothing happens. I am running Safari Version 11.1.2 (11605.3.8.1)

I am a musician and not that knowledgeable on the serious computing technical side, but I was under the impression I can’t simply upgrade Safari on its own? I think it needs to be supported with the new OS software? Anyway, I want to upgrade and wondered if anyone on the forum could help me please?

Thanks Herby

 

[FreakinEurekan]

El Captain is the highest version officially supported on an Early 2008 Mac Pro. That’s the reason you see that error.

I understand that “there are ways” to get a higher version but I’m not familiar with the process. I’d guess a question in the “Early Intel Macs” forum would get you the information.

 

[surszki]

try it here:

macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

How to update Catalina Machine Support Video Card Support Pre-Metal AMD video cards (Radeon HD 6xxx series and older without acceleration, Radeon HD 4xxx series and older with acceleration.) Pre-Metal Nvidia video cards (GeForce 5xx series and older without acceleration, GeForce 3xx...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MBAir2010]

Yes, Catalina will not run on your Mac Pro.
here is a great informative video on how to install dosdudes patcher for Catalina.
I used these to resurrect a MacBook Air 2010 a few years ago.

I hoped this helped since I still use CS4 and Affinity as well,
seems to me that affinity 9is affordable but the commands and tools are too cluttered compared to CS4.

 

[Herby Sherby]

El Captain is the highest version officially supported on an Early 2008 Mac Pro. That’s the reason you see that error.

I understand that “there are ways” to get a higher version but I’m not familiar with the process. I’d guess a question in the “Early Intel Macs” forum would get you the information.

Thanks - that's starting to explain - I will try the other forum.

 

[Herby Sherby]

Yes, Catalina will not run on your Mac Pro.
here is a great informative video on how to install dosdudes patcher for Catalina.
I used these to resurrect a MacBook Air 2010 a few years ago.

I hoped this helped since I still use CS4 and Affinity as well,
seems to me that affinity 9is affordable but the commands and tools are too cluttered compared to CS4.

Thanks so much - this is a great help.