Is a new Mac Required?

The mac is in perfect working order and I have no desire to buy a new one. Is there anytging I can do?

By @ifactri

The computer is as good as it ever was. And it can continue to be a great computer indefinitely…as long as you are only running OS and app versions that are closer to its original release date, 2017.

The challenge with newer apps and operating systems is that they’re always optimized for the latest hardware, of course, because newer hardware gives people what they ask for: More capabilities, done faster. For example, many people like the new AI-powered masks, denoise, reflection removal, and GPU-accelerated preview generation (2x faster on my Mac) in recent versions of Lightroom Classic, but those things are either not possible or run painfully slowly with the hardware in a 2017 MacBook Pro.

So even if it was possible to install the latest Lightroom Classic on a 2017 MacBook Pro, it wouldn’t have the hardware to properly run many of the latest features. 

Again, the choice is:

• Keep the current Mac running as long as the hardware keeps working, by sticking to the OS and app versions it supports. Or…
• Use the features in the latest versions of macOS and Lightroom Classic, by moving to an Apple Silicon Mac.

There’s no wrong answer, it just depends on what you need and your budget.

If you do decide to get any new M3 or M4 Mac, you”ll find that what it can do and its speed will far exceed what any 2017 Mac can do. Much of that is because of the revolutionary increase in performance and efficiency of the Apple Silicon processor, compared to the Intel processor.

Your computer will work with macOS 13 Ventura but nothing newer. That will fall out of support in a few weeks when macOS Tahoe 26 is released. That means no more security updates, and third-party developers will start to remove support.

Unfortunately, its probably time to think about getting a new computer.. Eight years is a good run.

Hey, @ifactri. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Community. I'll clarify this for you. 

This machine does not meet the minimum system requirements for Lightroom Classic 14. However, you can install the Creative Cloud desktop app, and if your machine is compatible with Lightroom Classic v13, you can still install that. Head here to get started: https://adobe.ly/4oN7F4r

Also, please head here to learn more about this: https://adobe.ly/41l9qM9

Let me know how it goes.