Early 2011 MBP Very Sluggish and Laggy with Sonoma 14.7.4

Early 2011 MBP Very Sluggish and Laggy with Sonoma 14.7.4

Just upgraded my early 2011 MBP to Sonoma. First time doing it and had a hell of a time. After finally getting and installing all the root patches, it is very sluggish, basically unusable. Should I install Ventura or earlier instead? Also, how can I verify that it can actually use the 16g or RAM, I upgraded it myself years ago (had 8g originally) and I’m worried I didn’t get it from a reputable source.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Author: @JganticJon