I'm looking to buy a used mac for my daughter who is entering high school in the fall. I tend to compare benchmarks to try to find a good mix of value and performance, but that's apparently not enough. Apple is clearly not focussed on CPU benchmarks when obsoleting older macs, so I'm wondering exactly what hardware components Apple is focussing on? Metal 2 compatibility for GPU, obviously. Any other technologies that I should be certain it supports? I would hope she could get a couple major OS X upgrades with a decent second-hand mac.
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Mojave hardware requirements
- Thread starter bjwhite3114
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You don't have to know the facets that determine Mohave compatibility to pick a Mac...just look at this list.
I was looking at that but the i7 from 2013 gets decent comparative benchmarks. Did they update any other technologies from 2013 to 2015?
What Apple looks at varies from OS to OS. Sometimes it's something as minor as Bluetooth version.
They promise support for at least 5 years though, and that's usually a conservative number. Going by year is much safer than going by spec.
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Loads. But again, it's not all something that'll clearly hit you in a spec sheet. Like Bluetooth, wireless and various other elements of the logic board, like the SMC controller and how it operates.
For a lot of Mac Pros especially but also other Macs, it's possible to upgrade to officially unsupported OS'es via some clever hacks to include Kexts (kernel extensions) for hardware the OS no longer supports, like older networking cards or whatnot.
[doublepost=1528461733][/doublepost]PS. It's spelled Mojave. It's a Spanish J
They promise support for at least 5 years though, and that's usually a conservative number. Going by year is much safer than going by spec.
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Loads. But again, it's not all something that'll clearly hit you in a spec sheet. Like Bluetooth, wireless and various other elements of the logic board, like the SMC controller and how it operates.
For a lot of Mac Pros especially but also other Macs, it's possible to upgrade to officially unsupported OS'es via some clever hacks to include Kexts (kernel extensions) for hardware the OS no longer supports, like older networking cards or whatnot.
[doublepost=1528461733][/doublepost]PS. It's spelled Mojave. It's a Spanish J
Oops. I took german in high school.
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Thanks for the great info. My 2011 MBP is on the losing side of this upgrade, and I am following the discussion about progress toward hacking Mojave onto unsupported macs. I know my bluetooth version is older since it doesn't support airdrop or continuity (much) with newer iOS devices. My laptop still runs smoothly, so may just need to hang with High Sierra for a couple of years in hopes that the MBP lineup gets some improvements.
I had German for 4 years, Spanishg for 3..... Sucked so hard at German that I was better at Spanish after half a year (Spanish started after the 4 years of German)... Hehe
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Whenever I see 2011 MBP I still feel sour over my dead 15" model. It suffered under the GPU issue
- I got it fixed for free about a week after I bought a replacement....
I had German for 4 years, Spanishg for 3..... Sucked so hard at German that I was better at Spanish after half a year (Spanish started after the 4 years of German)... Hehe
German definitely not easy, but I just wanted to "think different" then the bulk of the students who were flooding to spanish class. I just figured out how to correct the spelling of the thread title.
Well I mean, I'm Danish, so I'm pretty sure the majority of people here would say German is easier. They're our neighbour , and our languages are sure more similar than Spanish and Danish. But I found Spanish easier regardless.
Main changes with the 2015 Airs were Intel 6000 graphics and Thunderbolt 2. The primary impact of those changes is that the 2015 Air can do 4K resolution @ 60Hz on an external monitor. 2015 has a slightly faster SSD and processor offerings are a bit faster. Other than that though, they're the same.
Apple usually decides which devices get OS upgrades by specs, not benchmarks. So even if they benchmark similarly, the 2015 has a 2-generation-newer professor which would make much more of a difference. In almost every case, I’d rather have a newer Intel processor than one that’s older but benchmarks higher. I’d go with the 2015 i5 any day over the 2013 i7. Usually with Apple they’ll cluster their upgrades together (like any Mac of a certain year will have the same generation Intel processors, same Bluetooth version, same integrated graphics, and same WiFi version) so you don’t have to do too much homework. 2015 should last a long time. I just bought a 2012 retina MacBook Pro and it is amazing on 10.13
Thank you all. You've sold me on finding a 2015 Air for her that has the max processor for that year (2.2 I think). Ought to last her for at least four years high school and then we can use college savings account to get something nice and shiny for college.