Upgrade to El Cap or clean install?

As predominantly a Windows user who's always been recommended to clean install a newer version of the OS, I'm wondering if this applies to Macs as well? I'm wondering if all performance benefits from Metal would be felt after an upgrade from Yosemite or would a clean install simply be better (considering I'll be reinstating the very same apps I have now)? I'm asking since I clearly noticed the El Cap beta I was running a while ago was a lot faster than my current system on El Cap after the upgrade from Yosemite, but then again that may be because I never installed any apps on the clean install of the beta.


Kind regards
Prasad

There is no reason to do a clean install each time you upgrade unless you want to. I have been upgrading OS X since Leopard (10.5.X) and have never done a clean install and my system seems to run very well. Doing a clean install may lead to other difficulties like having to re-install your applications. Simple applications are no trouble to re-install but there are others that will require some work. Apps such as MS Office, Photoshop, and some others may also complain about activation.

Even when I used Windows I never did a clean install although I know that was recommended. I never ran into problems there either.

From most of the info posted by members. The vast majority of folks do the upgrade (not clean install)…and everything goes smoothly.

- Nick

I am not one of the 'vast majority'. I think it all depends on what was the most recently clean install operating system. Some folks jump from Snow Leopard OS X.6 to El Capitan and wonder why there are problems. I would think if your Mac was clean installed with either OS X.9 or X.10 simply upgrade. Earlier I would do a backup to an external drive, copy El Capitan to a USB thumb drive using DiskmakerX version 5.0.2 and do a clean install.

You're probably right Harry. The "vast majority" folks I'm thinking of are those that consistently upgrade one version at a time as new versions are released. For example Yosemite to El Capitan (or maybe even Mavericks to El Capitan)…versus the BIG UPGRADE from Snow Leopard to El Capitan.

I think that the OP mentioned Yosemite. So if the OS upgrade is Yosemite to El Capitan…I think that the OP should be ok going the upgrade route.

- Nick

My completely unscientific or backed-up opinion is that it's a good idea to do a clean install every three or four years, presuming you've been upgrading routinely. I'm just about to install a new drive (a 1TB SSD) and so I *might* do a clean install of El Cap for that ... but frankly its running so well on the two drives I have it on now (one for the 10.11.1 beta) that I suspect my inherent laziness will take over ... maybe next year ...