Downloading Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro for my RMCAD class.

Apple sells the M4 Mac mini new for US$599 and retailers have been selling M2 MacBook Airs for about US$750-800 if you need a laptop. Either of those computers will run circles around your old Mac and are currently supported by Apple and Adobe.

High Sierra is long out of support which mean no security fixes, and your computer is officially obsolete meaning that Apple won't repair it if it breaks.

Hi @Matthew_Grisham9418,

We appreciate you reaching out to the community. As the experts mentioned, you have to make sure the system meets the minimum requirements before installing the app. It is important to achieve optimum performance from the app usage.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Previous versions won't help you.  Sierra is 10 years out of date, and 8 OS versions behind the current one.  Sorry, but this won't work.

You need an excellent computer to support pro-level software like PS, PP and AE.  

Make sure your new computer exceeds the minimum CPU & GPU requirements below. And allow additional wiggle room for your operating system and other apps.  There's nothing worse than an underpowered computer.

Most Creative Cloud apps work on these systems, no more than 2 versions back

• Windows 11 (64-bit) versions 23H2, 22H2; Windows 10 versions 22H2, 21H2;
• MacOS 15 (Sequoia), 14.7 (Sonoma), 13.6.7 (Ventura).

- https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

Happy shopping.

...there are somethings you can do, update or upgrade your computer to meet specs, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/system-requirements.html

When you have a subscription you may install the current and ONE previous version

If the one previous version isn't compatible with your old operating system there is nothing you may do