Snow Leopard to Lion performance

theaks2002 · Post by **theaks2002** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:56 am

Hi List..
a while ago I posted a message re: migrating back to Snow Leopard from Lion. I had bought a mid 2011 imac quad i7 in November and heard some not so nice experiences with Lion and DP (along with other apps). It wasn't easy but I got SL on my iMac. Everything is working fine but Geekbench tells me the performance of memory/processor has been reduced almost 50% (from 10,200 score to 5500). John from Geekbench told me that the late 2011 Macs were optimized for Lion hence the performance hit.
My question: Can I simply install Lion over Snow Leopard and are things stable on that platform now? Would I need to move things out of the way? Will I lose anything? I realize Mountain Lion is coming but if things are now good with Lion, I would strongly consider installing it. I want to take full advantage of the power of my iMac.
thanks for any input!
~john theaker
Windsor Ontario

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:48 pm

I had no performance hit on anything that ran in Lion when I upgraded. Even DP 5.1.3 which I still use more than 7.24 works great. (5.1.3, 6.0.3 and 7.x before 7.24 work but must be installed and authorized in SL before upgrading to Lion).

Even WORD 2008 and Photoshop Elements 6 run faster. The current versions of WORD and PE run much faster still however.

There are some legacy apps and files that don't work in Lion. Until I get that sorted out, I keep a G4 on Tiger. Its monitor is also the 2nd for my iMac. There's a way to switch from one computer to the other on those rare occasions I need to fire up both simultaneously.

You will lose the ability to run .AVI files in Lion until you download a freeware plugin and configure it to run with QuickTime 7.6.6. I have detailed instructions on Apple's support site but can repost here if need be.

If you used QT Pro in the past, run the installer for QT 7.6.6 found in the Extras folder of the SL and Lion installers or download it free from Apple. It will install in your Utilities folder so as not to conflict with QT 10 in your Applications folder. QT 7.6.6 contains a lot of functionality missing from QT 10 - even more if you have a purchased Pro Key from QT 6 or 7.

If you have QuickTime 7.7 (the last version for Leopard) installed on SL or Lion, trash it - it no longer works. Afterwards, install 7.6.6 as above.

Important: Resolve duplicate fonts in FontBook.app. Important in SL, critical in Lion (Finale won't work if not done). Takes a few seconds to clean up everything.

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 2:22 pm

mikehalloran wrote: You will lose the ability to run .AVI files in Lion until you download a freeware plugin and configure it to run with QuickTime 7.6.6.

Mike, all I had to do was install Perian 1.2.3 on day 1 with Lion and AVI and most other formats were handled fine in QT 7.6.6.

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:49 pm

bayswater wrote:
mikehalloran wrote: You will lose the ability to run .AVI files in Lion until you download a freeware plugin and configure it to run with QuickTime 7.6.6.
Mike, all I had to do was install Perian 1.2.3 on day 1 with Lion and AVI and most other formats were handled fine in QT 7.6.6.

You discovered the correct solution on your own. Even the Perian developers don't seem to know this - their solution is to download the 1.2.2 driver which doesn't work either. Everyone is trying to make it work in QT-10 -- it doesn't. You need QT 7.6.6 which may or may not be installed - it's in the extras folder for 10.6 and 10.7, also downloadable free from Apple.

If you have QT 7.7 installed from a 10.5.x upgrade, you need to trash it and install 7.6.6 into the Utilities folder. Then do a Get Info on any .avi file and tell it to open in QuickTime Player 7, apply to all and you're set.

bad andy · Post by **bad andy** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:32 am

To the OP, I recall reading about users' downgrading to SL since they didn't want Lion yet. They key info I recall was that the open firmware gets rewritten for Lion optimization... hence, your lower scores with SL. What process did you perform to downgrade? IIRC the best way was to wipe drive entirely, reformat and perform something in order to get the lion-optimization reverted to the firmware for SL. I don't recall details but some searching should yield results.

Of course at this point, it might be best to forget all those shenanigans and put Lion back on. I heard it's running pretty well now.

theaks2002 · Post by **theaks2002** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:50 am

Thanks everyone for responding..
Ok.. basically my question is... can I download and install Lion right over SL and retain all my stuff?
Or would I need to move some things out of system/libraries and put them back once Lion is on there.. thanks!
~john

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Wed May 02, 2012 8:02 am

theaks2002 wrote:can I download and install Lion right over SL and retain all my stuff?

It worked for me. As usual, have a backup.

dosuna11 · Post by **dosuna11** » Thu May 03, 2012 7:47 pm

I have the same machine and before I installed anything I had the Apple store wipe the drive and install 10.68 from their hard drive. I then called Applecare and got the original DVD restore disc. I did not lose any performance. The key if you've committed to lion and want to go back is to have the original restore disc not a store bought snow leopard disc. What a great machine!

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:58 pm

The OP had Lion installed originally.

Go ahead and re-run the Lion installer. You can do that from your Restore disk.

If you feel that your performance still isn't peak, you can always wipe the drive, do a complete Restore from disk, then restore your applications and files from Time Machine using Migration Assistant.

daveyboy · Post by **daveyboy** » Fri May 04, 2012 6:58 am

Unless you have a ton of free time on your hands it's way more prudent to clone your working drive and either update the clone or update the main drive. I installed Lion last year on another partition but only started using it this week (5 months later). I'm working everyday just to get things updated and sorted out. But, I still have sessions to run so I'm glad I have the trusty 10.6.7 partition to use incase disaster strikes! If it's not your living it's still probably worth spending the time and $ on cloning just to avoid headaches.

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