Would updating a 2013 21.5 iMacs software speed it up or hurt its performance?

[Joshmakey12]

I have a 2013 21.5 iMac and It is currently on Mac OS Mojave. it is very slow and lags a lot and will freeze sometimes when typing or when I open an application even just safari. Would updating the machine to Mac OS Catalina have any performance improvements or make the machine run even slower?

[AMD A10-9600P]

3 minutes ago, Joshmakey12 said:

I have a 2013 21.5 iMac and It is currently on Mac OS Mojave. it is very slow and lags a lot and will freeze sometimes when typing or when I open an application even just safari. Would updating the machine to Mac OS Catalina have any performance improvements or make the machine run even slower?

Since you're already on Mojave there's probably not much worse you can do in terms of hurting the performance, my parents have a late 2012 iMac with Catalina which is honestly painful to use. Maybe avoid Catalina just to be on the safe side though

[Electronics Wizardy]

That 1tb hdd is why its so slow. A ssd will make the system much faster. You can get a external ssd for these if you don't want to deal with taking it all apart.

[LloydLynx]

Do a clean install, Catalina should run fine on those specs. Most operating systems get slower and slower over time on an HDD. An SSD would help massively, especially in the long run.