Upgrading Firm Ware to support Catalina

I currently have a 27" late 2009 iMac. I'm running a 2.8 GHZ processor, 8 GB memory,, 1067 MHZ DDR3, SSD w/406 GB Storage available. I would like to upgrade to Catalina from Sierra but I keep getting an "error" that says it cannot be upgraded. I realized that my iMac is later than the 2012 that is supported but is there a way to upgrade the firm ware to support the OS upgrade or is there more to it than that?

Posted on Apr 6, 2020 7:45 AM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2020 8:58 AM

The reason being is Catalina requires a GPU that has Metal in it. Metal did not become available on iMacs until the 2012 iMacs were released. You cannot retrofit your iMac, if you really need Catalina it is time to buy a new iMac.

6 replies

Apr 6, 2020 10:14 AM in response to Jeanneofthebottle

You can donate it, recycle it (use Apple's recycling plan) of keep it. Trying to continue using any extremely old computer is a challenge and at some point becomes technically impossible as technology continues to move forward. My suggestion is to upgrade to a new iMac. If money is the problem, consider an Apple Refurbished iMac or you can get financing from Apple that is very attractive if you have good credit or even buy a used Mac from a creditable source such as macsales.com.

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Upgrading Firm Ware to support Catalina

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