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Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:07 am
by Christian_R
Hello!
I want to upgrade to Ableton Live 10, but I'm not sure if my Mac will handle it. I have an iMac from 2013 (Mojave, 27-inch, 3,2 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB memory).
Does anyone know if Live 10 is a lot "heavier" on the computer? I don't have many issues with my Live 9 on this Mac (unless I have MANY tracks in a project), but I would love to hear if anyone has experience with Live 10 and an older computer
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:42 am
by jlgrimes
Christian_R wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:07 am
Hello!
I want to upgrade to Ableton Live 10, but I'm not sure if my Mac will handle it. I have an iMac from 2013 (Mojave, 27-inch, 3,2 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB memory).
Does anyone know if Live 10 is a lot "heavier" on the computer? I don't have many issues with my Live 9 on this Mac (unless I have MANY tracks in a project), but I would love to hear if anyone has experience with Live 10 and an older computer
Im guessing you should be ok.
I didnt know of any CPU use changes going from 9 to 10.
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:23 pm
by jestermgee
Download the demo, load up one of your decent projects and test. Can probably find the answer easily enough that way.
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:27 pm
by xyz023
I still use an iMac from 2011. You'll should be good.
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:00 pm
by Pasha
iMac 21.5" Late 2013 here with 8GB RAM on 10.14. Booting from external USB 3.0 enclosure and SSD, otherwise the internal 5400 RPM is very slow.
Live 10 Suite - no problems. The Ableton Live 10 Performance Test shows I can make 64+ tracks of the Lesson Project with no problems. At 128 I got 100% CPU and distortions - dropouts. For me, 32 tracks are more than I do actually. Usually around 18 (Drum Rack counts as 1 here). Hope this helps
- Cheers
- Pasha
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:39 pm
by doghouse
I have an iMac a year older than yours, with slower CPU and less RAM...no issues.
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:37 pm
by Christian_R
doghouse wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:39 pm
I have an iMac a year older than yours, with slower CPU and less RAM...no issues.
Thank you guys for the answers!
I still use Mojave. Does anyone know if it's okay to upgrade to Catalina too?
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 7:15 am
by Tuur
I'd guess most are running Catalina by now.
No probs over here...
Re: Is my iMac too old for Ableton Live 10?
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 6:08 pm
by TLW
Christian_R wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:37 pm
I still use Mojave. Does anyone know if it's okay to upgrade to Catalina too?
Check you’ve no non-Apple vital software that’s 32 bit first (the Mac’s system report tool can tell you which applications are and aren’t 32 bit), do the same with plugins.
Other than that I think you should be OK. Catalina doesn’t seem to need more resources than Mojave and if anything runs smoother and with a slight improvement in the graphics, particularly on non-Retina screens.