macOS Big Sur vs. Catalina Speed & Battery Life Comparison (Official Release!)

[@AJ-mb4qk]

THANKS A LOT for this useful video!! As someone with a Macbook Air 2017 I was a bit sceptical to upgrade to Big Sur and after watching this video I am indeed staying on Catalina only

[@MakingMadBeats]

Same here! Sraying on Catlina as long as possible. Even in 2022! My programs open up way faster in Catalina and boot up is quicker, too. Macbook Air, Early 2015, i5 1.6 Ghz, 8GB RAM.

[@DanieleJava90]

1. I swear, I love your voice. Please, dub something. No matter what. 2. You deserve more views/subs. Finally a video that gets directly to the point. +1Sub

[@psychout3481]

Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for. I'm definitely glad that I didn't update to Big Sur, was for bugs early on the release, now for performance. I mean I would not install something that adds no value to my workflow other than it takes more time to do everything and eats up more battery. 🤷‍♂️

[@riversource7911]

This video is the Top Notch Video!! Thanks for making this update.

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Of course!! Thanks so much and thanks for watching!

[@evetsegap]

I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) and installed Big Sur when it first came out. The Macbook started running hot and the battery never stopped running, resulting in a dead battery very fast. I tried every fix I could find but eventually went through the process of reinstalling Catalina. During that process, I also discovered that there were others who had my same problem. Once Catalina was re-installed (clean install) my Mab ran better than I ever remembered it running. Does anyone know if big sur 11.2.3 resolved those issues or if it's faster?

[@larsandersen9134]

I have the same experience with all of my Intel Macs. That is iMac 2015, Mac Pro 2013 and MacBook Pro 2019. They all run hot and their power draw has increased by 50%. It's like the energy saving feature of Intel CPUs has been disabled. They run so hot that if they just get 5 deg hotter I'll get burden by them. When I installed Catalina the problem where gone.

[@tekdragon]

very well done video and test! I love to see "real world" comparisons like this instead of someone just running geekbench and calling it a day. I think it's the 8GB thats the killer with Big Sur. my MBP 2017 13 inch i5 has similar differences with catalina vs big sur and it only has 8GB of ram as well. keep up the good work!

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Thank you!! It was quite fun to make and I learned a lot myself! I want these videos to be as useful as possible so I really wanted to give you all the best idea of what the differences would be 😁 Yeah 8GB RAM can be quite limiting. I edited this video on an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM on Big Sur and it worked quite well!

[@leonn1196]

Great Video with amazing comparison and a pro and con conclusion for every OS. Keep it up!

[@adityarai7335]

After i updated my macbook pro 13” (mid 2018) to big sur, it would freeze so much and so often, while using multitabs on chrome and safari, that i had to downgrade to Catalina again. My mac runs like new now. (Your video helped me very much to understand that big sur may stress the processor, and cause lags too) Thank you so much for the video!

[@Richiebxrry]

Finally I've been looking for some feedback on this as I have the same setup. Now i don't regret not updating. Thanks for sharing

[@isagani4435]

dont use google chrome lol it slows down your mac just use firefox or safari

[@Esso7]

@@isagani4435 why it will slow down our macs? What’s the reason

[@NoelCarson]

i'm using a 2017 macbook air. came here to check if i should upgrade as i did expect the additional features causing a performance and battery life trade-off on older macs. Got what i wanted and hence not upgrading my Mac.

[@rolandocespedes8950]

Thanks a lot for this video bro! I was hoping a lot for this!

[@javierortiz8005]

Great Video! You have awesome editing skills.

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Ahh thank you so much!! I put a lot of time into it-I wanted it to be a great one :D

[@us_er_Max]

Does anyone have experience with Big Sur on a 13” MacBook Pro mid 2014? Is Catalina better?

[@estheryeung2934]

Like your video and the clear comparison!

[@jiggier]

Great video. This is exactly the comparison I was looking for. Had doubts upgrading to Big Sur and glad I watched your video. Sticking to Catalina and hope to upgrade laptop until Apple ends the support. Running early 2013 MacBook, so even Catalina feels sluggish.

[@raulandrea9608]

I think Big Sur OS is just for apple chip m1 optimized. I don't understand why they release Big Sur for older Mac

[@Tech-geeky]

If Apple wanted to brag about how much it ran on Intel, they would... but all they care about is their new tech they outperformances the competition. Now deliberately done,, as they always do that, but it just more fitting how because the bases for it can be more valid towards another company, Plus it gets get marketing but publicly showing everyone how "slow big sur runs on Intel Macs" Why wouldn't Apple do this?. That's want I think... A double-whammy

[@KingAndRaiAdventures]

Do you have the updated test with Big sur updated version vs catalina ?

[@ewolam]

The battery life is still hasn't been improved on Big Sur. I would hold until that fixed.

[@joby3kpro104]

mark my words, Apple will never fix that.. Apple just want the customer to buy the latest version of their product. Apple just want to slow down their customer's device by making an upgradable OS, then the customers buy a new device :D

[@Krolitian1]

@@joby3kpro104 then why did iOS 15 improve my phone's battery life and performance drastically?

[@joby3kpro104]

@@Krolitian1 maybe it's just an exception.. but most of all apple product when you upgrade to newer OS version, they just get slower

[@ObristPlayep]

@@joby3kpro104 if anything that's opposite

[@danialnabil]

from my opinion , if you guys using Macbook 12 inch. 2016, 2017 , go replace the thermal paste , put on thin Cooper shim or thermal pad to body , I have done that , and its faster than before plus no throttle , at that time using m3/8/256 , and for those using old Macs stuck with Catalina 2012 Macs , please go update to OpenCorePatcher Big Sur ( more stable plus some not required to patch at all ) , if you like more features like Monterey can update to that as well depends on model need patch like graphic , based on my experience using 15 Retina 2012 i7/8/256 High Sierra user with non retina go upgrade your ram to the max 16GB or some model 8GB with SSD of course and. then go for dosdude patch Catalina or for want to try ( Big Sur or Monterey ) there abit glitch in graphics like transparency etc , still usable , for the sake for user using it in 2022 STOCK 4GB ram with HDD storage won't cut it in today stuff , based on my experience using 2010 , 2011 MacBook Pro to other retina user with late 2013 to 2015 and MacBook Air at that same year please go upgrade ur storage to m.2 nvme like EVO , WD Black , Corsair MP510 etc lots of speed improvements u you will notice immediately , based on my experience both late 2013 and early 2015 MacBook pro for retina mid 2012- early 2013 or MacBook Air 2010- 2012 go upgrade to SATA EVO m.2 fast branded SATA ssd available. based on my experience using mid 2012 retina MacBook pro ( upgrade to larger storage help in memory swaps for MacBook Air or pro using 4GB ) non Touch Bar model 2016-2017 also can get the speed and storage upgrade all my comments here based on experience using all those model , please use branded thermal paste like mx4 , thermal right tf4 , kyronaut , etc , really help in cpu/graphic throttle and heat.

[@SAMMIXGAMINGTV]

How about today? Which is better of that two?

[@larsandersen9134]

Thanks for a great video. All my Intel Macs are running hot even though I'm not really using them for anything else than checking mail or surfing the web. This happened after I installed Big Sur, but the problem are still present with Monterey. Can you also make a comparison video about power draw and temperatur fluctuations between Catalina and the newer macOS version, please? I genuinely believe that there is a really problem here that Apple has not yet addressed. I get a 50% increase in power consumption on these machines, and reverting to Catalina fixes the problem for all my Intel Macs. This is a real issue.

[@TheQuyetPham]

Catalina vs Monterey test pls

[@kerimtim]

Thank you! Really interesting. I'm still running Catalina, and not going to update anytime soon. If I do, that should a really worth reason

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Nice! What Mac do you have? It might be worth it depending on your Mac.

[@hamzaelk2304]

Latest Big Sur 11.6 seems to be very good compared to previous versions when it comes to Battery.. tried it on MacBook Air 2015 getting around 4 hours battery now and no more overheating.. might be the new safari ? or the system was stabilised somehow ??

[@Bioherby-Jiaogulan]

what processor type are you running on your mac ? Big Sur is optimized for the Silicon Processor..

[@mooreshady]

I am late to the party! but thank goodness i almost installed Big Slur!

[@texemplarstudios5481]

There's no being late here!

[@alexkafr]

Thank you for this video 👍🏻

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Of course! Glad you enjoyed!

[@wiredmind]

Welcome back!

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Thanks 😁😁 hope you enjoyed!

[@mvr29]

I'm using Macbook Pro 2020 i5 intel.., mac is freezing sometimes...in Big Sur. I want to downgrade to macos catalina.

[@user41938]

thanks for the video! I own a MB12 2017 with core i5 and still sitting on Catalina 10.15.7 the only downside seems to be an older design

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Yeah! Catalina works quite well in 2021. I'm not sure of a single program that doesn't support it-even the latest Apple apps do I'm pretty sure. And... well... the 12" MacBook and macOS Big Sur don't mix very well either... 😂

[@tesomrkonjic1660]

Macbook Pro 13. 2014 8/256 Battery 90 cycles. I installed about 20 times, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, El Capitan. In the end, I still went back to Big Sur. It is advisable to wipe the disk and do a clean installation. I am satisfied with how the Mac works on Big Sur Instead of Safari, I started using Mozilla for the Web, because it works much better. For some serious work, you still need a Mac with 16 ram.

[@usedgifs5927]

My concern is about security, am I in trouble if I don't update?

[@HafizKurniaAji]

MacOS Big Sur VS Monterey comparison please!

[@Esso7]

That will be great !

[@joelgermain1988]

Wow. Booting my macbook 2015 on sierra takes only 9-10 seconds. How is it that slow on catalina?

[@MeMe-zv4og]

I have a 16” Mackbook pro i9 and I’m using it for architecture, especially with adobe apps and rhino. Do you recommend updating it to big sur? And what will happen if we don’t update?

[@AnuragGanguly]

Wait for Monterey.

[@heartmommyinpa]

My Catalina has been freezing up but I’m not sure if I should update

[@DDElectrical]

What a shame.. Apple needs to stop releasing a version of MacOS every single year and actually focus on getting speed and efficiency back.

[@Tech-geeky]

speed wouldn't be much of an issue now because you have the M1... OS could still run like a dog, but how many performance issues do you know people have on an M1 ? The points would be more valid about an Intel Mac than an ARM chip "designed" with performance in mind.. (....Intel however had "overheating' in mind..) and that's what they got.

[@MoeTechhh]

Can I go back to Catalina or am I stuck on big sur

[@luffygear5362]

I really wanna ask something i always go nuts thinking about. Is a macbook battery life still respectable at 70% battery health? My battery capacity is dropping very fast and is already at 85%. Thats why im worried if it’ll be unusable after it goes below 80%

[@texemplarstudios5481]

It all depends on how much battery life you need! That's it :)

[@texemplarstudios5481]

70% health isn't great, but it should still be quite usable.

[@luffygear5362]

@@texemplarstudios5481 i need like 3-4 hours on safari daily. If i get that i’m more than good. Also playing some 4k music videos in between. So in total if i can 4 hours its good.

[@brcrdsb]

after update to big sur my macbookpro 2019 i5 battery drains 20percent faster.. And perfomance is worst than catalina, but its not bad as battery performance..

[@llamaisms]

my 2017 MacBook 12" m3 lags when scrolling on Monterey does anyone else have this issue and if so does Catalina fix it?

[@dante_ele]

Mojave is the answer. It's the best I ever used. I'm on Monterey and the battery drain is epic

[@danialnabil]

try reapply thermal paste for this model really helps

[@ScrubzOnYT]

Great video! I recently acquired a 2012 mac mini that runs perfectly fine in 2021 and was curious about which Version of mac os I should run currently have Catalina and was considering big sur but after this I think I'll stick to Catalina 😅🤙

[@maksimtross4197]

Hey! Do you still have a macbook 12”? Could you run Geekbench 5 on it and say results? Would be thankful!

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Hey! If you want to check it out, I actually ran GeekBench 5 as one of the tests on my previous Big Sur vs. Catalina video and shared what the scores were on both operating systems! I didn't include it this time as the results didn't differ much between the OSs.

[@santiagobedoya877]

excelente video, gracias

[@wastube5301]

Thanks for the video! It would be helpful if you put the version of the software in the description, so that people know which release you are comparing. I do not think this is macOS 11.3, is it?

[@ir8649]

Thanks a lot!

[@stoneman2405]

when you use big sur for 2015 model macbook or macbook pro pls get to 30% then charge it pls otherwise capacity reduced when you get to low battery

[@stoneman2405]

a lots

[@mattsummers8807]

I miss the older version of osx looks much nicer and I miss the old style of the MacBooks but the one good thing about usb c charging is I can charge the laptop on any side of the computer

[@Tech-geeky]

the visual colourful look of Big Sur makes Catalina look outdated.... The dialogs compare that now to iOS in Big Sur..

[@mkiii1447]

I really want to but an older MacBook because of the price, i can pick up a MacBook Air 13” 2017 for €400. It’s still got Catalina on it. However, i hate the fact that apps become ”non-supported” pretty quickly on the older macOS versions. It puts me off from the idea.

[@Ytmmery878]

oh my god, I wasn't expecting that, even with apple m1 chip.

[@texemplarstudios5481]

The performance difference?

[@hyphinx]

Not only is Catalina faster, it looks way better. (in my opinion.) The new design is just unfamiliar, and feels weird.

[@boltok1732]

its just like ios

[@hyphinx]

@@boltok1732 ios 10 was peak but then they fucked everything up with ios 11

[@Valonix]

Catalina just roasted Big Sur, that’s why I’m going back on Catalina

[@Miltonbosss]

Idk about the battery cause my Big Sur is way better than the Catalina. I use photoshop and Lightroom all day and with Catalina my Mac 2020 was sounding like a ps4 jet engine but now with big sur it’s so smooth and runs longer as well

[@tallmommy]

Great video! Good to know it wasn't all in my head that big sur drained my battery out really fast lol

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Thanks!! Yep, Big Sur can tank battery life more than you'd expect in some cases. What Mac do you have?

[@noeljude19]

pro trick : you can watch series at Kaldrostream. Me and my gf have been using them for watching all kinds of movies lately.

[@gustavokeegan961]

@Noel Jude Yea, I have been using KaldroStream for years myself :D

[@everettlondon1384]

@Noel Jude Yup, been using KaldroStream for months myself :)

[@laynelane9080]

@Noel Jude Definitely, I have been using KaldroStream for months myself :)

[@louisczar6483]

Well Catalina was more optimized for a 12 inch MacBook when Big Sur was very optimized for M1 so I can see why Catalina “seems” faster but Big Sur is more stable, preforms better, etc.

[@Tech-geeky]

I still sat : Catalina = Intel Mac / Big Sur and above : ARM Only reason why I can think 'in addition" Apple pushes so much for "optimised for ARM" Unless you take a careful look, you'll find nothing about Intel Mac on Big SUr.... Why would you? Apple doesn't sell them much anymore,. Their trying to push the new technology of what they reckon they archived is the "Best" On some fronts: battery, performance big 100%, but that's about it..

[@stoneman2405]

pls don't get low battery otherwise capacity reduce and lots so that not good you must to get to 30% battery then charge it

[@abhayjot]

I downgraded my mac. I have an Early 2020 Air with an i3, and it ran terribly on Ventura and Sonoma (Beta) so I decided I'll go back to Catalina as it's the macOS Version that it came with. Ever since I've downgraded, it's no longer hot, fan doesn't randomly go off, feels a lot faster/snappier, and the battery lasts much longer. But I miss the look of Big Sur/Monterey/Ventura/Sonoma, so I want to upgrade back to Big Sur, but I wasn't sure, so thanks for making this video.

[@crilon12]

I like you video. Like it

[@DissanayakeDinal]

now i regret to upgrade to big sur

[@emeraldmasta7752]

I’m running a Mac virtual machine in Linux while watching this

[@wes9000]

well now i regret updating

[@nixtoshi]

Do you notice too much of a difference?

[@wes9000]

@@nixtoshi I did 4 months ago, now I don't know about big sur's performance cause I went back to macOS high Sierra

[@Giljrg]

Big Sur = Windows Vista, Mac OS has lost it's way, wait for the next version I think

[@texemplarstudios5481]

I think Windows Vista wasn’t too bad actually! It just took computers and companies a long time to adjust to it. Windows 10 is heavily based on it, and Windows 7 is essentially Vista SP3 with a taller taskbar. Big Sur is similar in that sense-it’s quite a radical shift in terms of macOS, but it will eventually be one that proves monumental and fundamental.

[@surajhegde1304]

I just want the performance. I dont car about the sleek design bla bla or whichever Operating system I am on.. Just downgraded from Bigsur to Catalina.. Cheers!

[@yuihimgaming1517]

mojave might have worked even better if your mac is old

[@texemplarstudios5481]

I didn't notice much of a change from Mojave to Catalina on my 12" MacBook, but maybe!!

[@yuihimgaming1517]

@@texemplarstudios5481 I saw a huge battery performance jump, when upgrading to Catalina. I think Catalina uses 1.5x more battery than Mojave! I regret upgrading 😣. And also Catalina doesn't support 32 bits app anymore 😭.

[@texemplarstudios5481]

The removal of 32-bit app support is my biggest gripe with Catalina, though most of the 32-bit apps I use are very old games I can run on older Macs/another partition. If you can, try dual-booting Mojave and Catalina-I'd be curious to see whether the battery life drop is truly because of Catalina itself! I didn't notice any major changes when upgrading.

[@SurahmanDuang]

Bug sure?

[@St-hu3om]

Nice video, thank you!

[@R2N81]

Interesting results! I wonder how Catalina would work on an M1 device?🤔

[@texemplarstudios5481]

For sure! It would run slower as it the entire operating system would have to be emulated. With how good Rosetta 2 is, though, maybe not too much slower!

[@Tech-geeky]

@@texemplarstudios5481 haha... if only anyone could test that publicly though... because it wouldn't not be possible to install. chipst/drivers wouldn't be available on new older installers. I guess the it would show M1 CPU really is fast... and it's only the OS that brings it down.... But then to believe that, you have to disprove all the evidence out there... Really??

[@arinpunk]

Bottomline is Big sur is for M1

[@Tech-geeky]

Ok, so the moral of the story then is "All the visual crap slows Big Sur down"

[@texemplarstudios5481]

If you have a slow Mac like this 2015 12" MacBook, that is! I wonder what it actually is that slows it down though. There's not too much in the OS that is more graphically demanding than Catalina, but something is more demanding, that's for sure...

[@cheesebusiness]

Yes, you shouldn’t upgrade to Big Sur for many reasons

[@texemplarstudios5481]

Depends on the Mac!

[@cheesebusiness]

@@texemplarstudios5481, not only on the hardware. The system has many lacks despite the performance. I personally don’t like that the toolbars are giant, the icons are square, and some icons are blurry on a 1x display.

[@texemplarstudios5481]

@@cheesebusiness They did increase the size of many of the UI elements, and on something like the 12" MacBook, that really does shrink the size of the useful screen real estate quite a bit! You can see how much more space Safari's Address bar takes in Big Sur!

[@justvibing9663]

Catalina vid download dpeed 2 min 56 secs less battery life-big sur wins

[@konyctg]

Also, reading all of the comments, why does everyone still use Catalina. Please, grow up and change your minds, you might actually love MacOS Monterey or Ventura after upgrading, please, just give it a go at least,if you don’t like it then you can revert if you want to. Also MacOS Catalina has so many design inconsistencies like, WHY does safari have a skeuomorphic design in Catalina, iOS has never had that since iOS 7. Whereas Big Sur and above fixed all those design inconsistencies and safari, control center etc. are now very clean and consistent. Please, grow up and try something new, you cannot remain babies, look, if you cannot grow up and try new operating systems, then you will see many apps go out of support and you will not survive in this complex world 🌎 of os’s and apps.