Tag Archives: upgrading

Internet & Technology, Photography

Upgrading your Mac to 10.7–Lion

The upgrade path to Lion or 10.7 is going to be different. This time, you must have Snow Leopard first. But your Mac may not be Lion compatible because of it's hardware.

One of the realities of being a digital photographer is that for better or for worse, you will be tied to your computer platform.

My Intel MacPro was one of the early models Quad core 2006 model.

It used the Xeon processor.

Apple’s latest operating system 10.7 Lion will be leaving my MacPro and some Mac users behind.

The specs for Lion will require Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better.

How can you tell what your computer has? See the screenshot below:

Mouse over to the "Apple" icon on the top left, click on "About this Mac," you should see this

It is inevitable.

Five years in computer years is an eternity.

In fact when I went to download the latest version of Final Cut Pro X, I saw the following dialog box.

Shocking to be sure.

Rude shock--I had to cough up an additional $150 to upgrade the video card on my MacPro. At least I had that option. Imagine if I had an iMac! That would have meant I have to buy a new workstation.

Research thoroughly before you upgrade

Before you upgrade your software, it’s prudent to research, compare your hardware specs to make sure they are compatible.

If you don’t, you will might end up spending much more than you’re prepared to.

Anyway, when I saw that my MacPro didn’t have the video card needed, I had to cough up $150 to replace the stock video card which only had 256MB of video RAM.

My MacPro may be coming to the end of its useful life sooner than I expected.

How about your Mac?

Do you have some upgrading tales or nightmares to share?

Here’s how you can figure out your Mac’s specs.
Peter Phun Photography

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