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Resolved Question

Upgrade to Lion or stick to Snow Leopard?

Dec 5, 2011 10:03PM PST

My iMac with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor runs with OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard. Been holding off on upgrading, unsure if Lion is "necessary". Also, I have 2 GBs of RAM, and I do lots of graphic projects. Should I also upgrade those too?

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prettypinksundress has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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First off
Dec 5, 2011 10:19PM PST

First off, you can't upgrade an iMac graphics card. They're special form factors known as MXM. Theoretically, if you want to be extortionist prices for a better card that came from a similar model to yours, it could be done, but I wouldn't advise it.

As for Lion being necessary... I'd say no, at least not right now. If you have 2GB of RAM, then you have a Late 2009 or earlier model, so you'll probably be looking to upgrade in a year or two, which will probably coincide nicely with 10.8's release and the retirement of 10.6 support.

Otherwise, if nothing in the new features list of Lion really jumps out at you as a must-have feature, feel free to keep waiting it out.

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I would take the RAM from 2GB to 4GB
Dec 6, 2011 7:30AM PST

It's cheap enough

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The OP said
Dec 6, 2011 10:43AM PST

The OP said "should I upgrade those too?" Now, maybe I misread things, it was early and I got a bit less sleep than usual, but I was taking that to mean the OP was asking about upgrading the RAM and graphics card.

I will say upgrading RAM is never, well almost never, a bad idea... But it's really rather amazing what OS X can do with just 2GB of RAM. My workstation/server (original model Mac Pro) at work only has 2GB of RAM, still seems faster than my 2010 i7 iMac with 12GB of RAM at times.

So to the OP I'd say upgrading RAM, regardless of the OS, wouldn't be a bad idea... HOWEVER, if 2GB is doing it for you presently, and money is a bit tight, then don't worry about it. If you can swing the cost of an extra 2-4GB of RAM, then by all means go for it. But maybe wait until after you've recovered financially from any holiday shopping you've done/will do. There will never be a shortage of deals on these things, holiday shopping season or no. It's probably about that time again when the RAM manufacturer's get busted for price fixing and the price on RAM drops like a stone anyway. Happens almost like clockwork every couple of years.

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Just the RAM, not graphics
Dec 6, 2011 10:08PM PST

I wasn't talking about the graphics card. I know you can't upgrade that. I just simply mentioned my graphic projects to clarify if 2 GB of RAM is enough for it.

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I stand corrected
Dec 7, 2011 9:20AM PST

I stand corrected then. Still might not be a total waste though, since someone else may come along some day and see that.

I think I covered the RAM angle fairly well in my other post to this thread, so guess there's really nothing left to discuss.

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Happy I upgraded
Dec 9, 2011 10:25AM PST

I have Lion on my iMac and Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro and I totally prefer Lion to Snow Leopard. It's a major upgrade in my opinion. Is it necessary? Too subjective a question for me to answer. But in my case, it was definitely worth it.

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Rosetta
Dec 17, 2011 1:23PM PST

how do you know if a program needs Rosetta?

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Find the program,
Dec 17, 2011 11:17PM PST

usually in the Applications folder.
Right Click (Control + Click) and Get Info
If the kind says Application (Intel or Universal Binary), then you do not need Rosetta
If the kind says Application (PPC), then you do need Rosetta

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How do you know if a program needs Rosetta?
Dec 27, 2011 2:27PM PST

The easiest a fastest way is to open the Apple System Profiler (Apple menu, About This Mac) select Sofware/Applications and a list of your applications will be generated. One of the columns in the list is for "Kind." If you click on the column's heading it will sort by kind and the Power PC apps will be identified.

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Answer
I'd check my apps
Dec 10, 2011 5:52AM PST

I haven't switched to Lion because Intuit Quicken won't run on it.