Is My iMac good enough for Designer ?

[Dodgeruk]

I have Affinity Designer on iPad Pro 1st gen , and must admit , it’s a total enjoyment.  

I am thinking about getting Designer for our iMac , but not sure who to ask ?

The iMac is a Late 2012 27inch screen , 3.4ghz ,2gig graphics Nvidia , 8gig memory and a fusion drive running El Capitan , ( As Apple still haven’t sorted High Sierra to work on fusion drives ) .

I’ve read conflicting reports and just don’t need to buy £50 worth of good software if my iMac ain’t good enough. 

Thanks in advance everyone 

[Gear maker]

Dodgreruk, I've been running AD since 2014 with some very good sized projects, on a late 2009 27" iMac, 3.06 GHz, running Sierra.  I've been very happy with the operations.  I had 8 gig memory and upped it to 12 when I had the hard drive replaced, but didn't see any difference in performance.  I can't guarantee what you will think, but as I stated I'm very happy with it.

[firstdefence]

Couldn't you download the trial and see if you like what you see. As Gear Maker I have a 2011 and a 2015 version and both run Affinity well. I suppose it really comes down to what you actually do with Affinity.

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

download the trial

https://affinity.store/get/designer/trial/

Please be aware that the trial period is strictly limited to ten days, counted continuously from the first time you launch the app.

[R C-R]

Check my sig below for the specs of my 2012 iMac, which is somewhat lower performance than yours. Designer runs quite well on it, so it should be OK on yours, too. 

EDIT: I forgot to say it ran fine when I was using older OS X versions, & has not slowed down or had any other issues as I progressed through the OS updates to High Sierra, where I am now.

[Dodgeruk]

Looks like my problem lays with Apple as my iMac with a fusion drive , unless you guys know different , can’t update to High Sierra yet . Leaving me stuck with El Capitan . 

And I’ve read that Designer works best in Metal mode ? Ho hum 

Thanks for your reply’s . . .

[v_kyr]

I use Designer on a pretty old (outdated, no Metal mode) iMac running El Capitan with no problems so far. So it should run pretty fine on your much more powerful and more modern iMac hardware version. - Download the Affinity Designer MacOS tryout version first, give it a good test run and you will see for yourself.

[h_d]

FWIW I have an early 2008 24-inch iMac, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, running El Cap (it won't go any higher).

Affinity Designer 1.6.1 runs very smoothly on it. 

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Dodgeruk said:

Looks like my problem lays with Apple as my iMac with a fusion drive , unless you guys know different , can’t update to High Sierra yet .

It should not be a problem because from what they said at WWDC, APFS won't be supported for fusion drives in earlier macOS versions than Mojave. But if you still have any concerns about that, you should be able to upgrade to Sierra or just keep running El Capitan.

We don't have any Macs with fusion drives here so it is a non-issue for us, but if I were you I would at least consider upgrading to Sierra because sooner or later Apple will quit issuing security updates for El Capitan. As always, it is a good idea to clone your current startup drive to a separate external drive you can disconnect from your iMac before upgrading just in case anything goes wrong so you can clone that back if it does.

[Dodgeruk]

@R C-R .... WILL I be able to update my Late 2012 iMac with fusion Drive to Mojave do you know , can’t find any info  ?

[R C-R]

38 minutes ago, Dodgeruk said:

@R C-R .... WILL I be able to update my Late 2012 iMac with fusion Drive to Mojave do you know , can’t find any info  ?

From Tekreview's  Can Your Mac Run Mojave? macOS Mojave System Requirements:

Quote

macOS Mojave System Requirements

To run macOS Mojave, you’ll need a Mac that was introduced in mid-2012 or later, with the exception of 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros that have Metal-capable graphics cards installed. So, to break that down by model:

• MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
• MacBook Air (Mid-2012 or later)
• MacBook Pro (Mid-2012 or later)
• Mac mini (Late 2012 or later)
• iMac (Late 2012 or later)
• iMac Pro (all models)Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• Mac Pro (2010 or later with Metal-compatible GPU)

The same info is available from other sites like osxdaily.com, techradar.com, appleinsider.com, or just about any site that covers Apple WWDC.

[Dodgeruk]

Cheers R C-R , could be my saviour, fingers crossed. .