debating if I want to upgrade my early 2011 MacBook Pro to high Sierra

[pitbull60077]

I am debating if I want to upgrade my early 2011 MacBook Pro to High Sierra when it is released or leave it running Sierra. it seems to run ok on Sierra now and does pretty much everything I want it to with the exception of still needing a windows laptop to run the weather radar I use when I am out storm chasing, since the radar program only will run on windows and I absolutely will not put windows which is a crappy os on my beautiful MacBook Pro.

 

[EugW]

Why do you think High Sierra will be a crappy OS. It looks great to me. All sorts of multimedia enhancements, as well as a next gen file system.

I wouldn't put the beta on it though.

 

[pitbull60077]

I didn't mean High Sierra would be crappy... that was meant for putting windows on my MacBook Pro. I am very interested in the high Sierra upgrade, and I believe my 2011 MacBook Pro can run it. I fixed my original post as well since I really didn't clarify what I was talking about when I posted a crappy os.... thanks for bringing that up. Apple's operating systems are totally awesome and work they way they should.

 

[EugW]

As long as you have 8 GB RAM, and as long as you don't have any mission critical software that won't run in High Sierra, I'd say go for it... after the official release version comes out, and maybe even wait until after several point updates.

For me, High Sierra is pretty much mandatory. I will be running it on both my iMac 2017 and my MacBook 2017. I will even hack my 2009 MacBook Pro to run High Sierra eventually. Luckily the MBP apparently works with no issues, which shouldn't come as a surprise since a later MacBook with the exact same CPU and GPU specs is fully supported.

 

[pitbull60077]

I will probably upgrade the ram on this machine since it has the i7 processor but only has the stock 4gb of ram which runs Sierra decent but I am sure high Sierra will want more. got this machine as a repair or parts only machine, it wouldn't boot and reinstalled the os but think it has that gpu issue that a lot of the 2011 MacBook pros did, but after taking the bottom cover off and blowing it out good it runs cooler and doesn't act up. probably could use another good blowing since I have never seen so much dust come out of a computer but it runs under 140 degrees now on Facebook where it used to get close to 175 and then it would act up badly. now that it is running much cooler it doesn't act up and using it for anything but Facebook it doesn't get much above 112

 

[EugW]

I find that with my 4 GB MacBook Pro, it stalls even in El Capitan. 4 GB is not enough. But I will install High Sierra on it anyway just because it's a secondary machine. If it runs OK, I may upgrade it to 8 GB. I think I can do that for under US$50.

Or maybe it would make sense to just upgrade it to 6 GB as a compromise (with no dual channel support), since it's mainly just a guest machine.

 

[pitbull60077]

now that it is basically behaving the way it should I will probably upgrade the memory and maybe get a nice ssd for it. planning on using it for a few more weeks to make sure it is going to behave properly. it has been basically behaving for about 2 weeks now.

 

[mikecwest]

I am debating if I want to upgrade my early 2011 MacBook Pro to High Sierra when it is released or leave it running Sierra. it seems to run ok on Sierra now and does pretty much everything I want it to with the exception of still needing a windows laptop to run the weather radar I use when I am out storm chasing, since the radar program only will run on windows and I absolutely will not put windows which is a crappy os on my beautiful MacBook Pro.

I recommend not doing it yet. I have seen many reports of the issue with Brightness controls not working, and the sleep/wake issue. In the original beta, you could use terminal to "sudo pmset standby 1 hibernatemode 3" solved the problem, which is no longer the case with the newer betas, and the public beta.

Oh, and I don't mean to NEVER install it, but wait at least until those two bugs are squashed...I might be wrong, but I suspect the two bugs are related in someway.

I wish there was an AppleScript or terminal command to toggle the backlight on and off..

 

[pitbull60077]

I probably wouldn't install it until it was released and not not install a beta on my main laptop. I may attempt to install it on my Mac mini just to see if I am going to want it on my MacBook Pro. seems I do more with the laptop than my desktop now anyway so it could be interesting to see.

 

[TheStork]

Do yourself a favor - upgrade the memory to 16GB. I've have my 2011 17" MBP with 16GB and the world is great! As for upgrading to High Sierra, since I've be using Macs since Moses was a child, I wait for the 10.x.3 release before updating so that the major bugs of the new macOS are fixed. An olde coaches' saying comes to mind when it comes to software upgrading, "Don't rush to fail!" Enjoy reading about the newness of OS and trials of the Early Adopters. Then, proceed when you're comfortable with upgrading. But, upgrade your memory!

 

[Taz Mangus]

Do yourself a favor - upgrade the memory to 16GB. I've have my 2011 17" MBP with 16GB and the world is great! As for upgrading to High Sierra, since I've be using Macs since Moses was a child, I wait for the 10.x.3 release before updating so that the major bugs of the new macOS are fixed. An olde coaches' saying comes to mind when it comes to software upgrading, "Don't rush to fail!" Enjoy reading about the newness of OS and trials of the Early Adopters. Then, proceed when you're comfortable with upgrading. But, upgrade your memory!

Since Apple is moving to the new APFS, I think it will be even more important to wait until at least 10.13.3 for the major bugs to be worked out.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you decide to try High Sierra, a bit of advice that you should heed:

BEFORE you install it, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup of your current Sierra install on an external drive.

With a cloned backup, if High Sierra isn't working, you'll have an easy way to "get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged".

WITHOUT such a backup, you might be able to eventually get back, but it's not going to be easy...

 

[bbfc]

I’ve tried High Sierra on my early 2011 MBP with 4GB RAM and an SSD. It runs ok, but it’s not optimised for older Macs yet and isn’t really usable. Lots of memory usage. The release notes mention systems with less than 4GB RAM will have issues. I think with more RAM it will perform better. The SSD is a necessary upgrade though.

 

[mikecwest]

I’ve tried High Sierra on my early 2011 MBP with 4GB RAM and an SSD. It runs ok, but it’s not optimised for older Macs yet and isn’t really usable. Lots of memory usage. The release notes mention systems with less than 4GB RAM will have issues. I think with more RAM it will perform better. The SSD is a necessary upgrade though.

There is no need for "free memory" , "free memory" is wasted memory, "used" memory will get flushed as needed for more currently needed memory.

• Memory Pressure: The Memory Pressure graph helps illustrate the availability of memory resources. The graph moves from right to left and updates at the intervals set in View > Update Frequency. The current state of memory resources is indicated by the color at the right side of the graph:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464


In any case, you should upgrade the memory on that machine, it not really that expensive to push it up to 16GB (go with the 1600 MHZ as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-16G...196109?hash=item46667d43cd:g:kfoAAOSw42dZHQ2R

That is for name brand, you can find it much cheaper on there, and with a web search, probably even cheaper. I got mine years ago, and paid much less. I suppose the price is higher now, because more people are upgrading to 16GB....back in those days 16GB was considered overkill, on a machine that came with 2 or 4 GB. Mine actually came with 4GB, but I never ran it with 2, I put in an upgrade before I ever turned it on, and dropped the 4GB into the empty slots on the iMac.

 

[bbfc]

There is no need for "free memory" , "free memory" is wasted memory, "used" memory will get flushed as needed for more currently needed memory.

• Memory Pressure: The Memory Pressure graph helps illustrate the availability of memory resources. The graph moves from right to left and updates at the intervals set in View > Update Frequency. The current state of memory resources is indicated by the color at the right side of the graph:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464


In any case, you should upgrade the memory on that machine, it not really that expensive to push it up to 16GB (go with the 1600 MHZ as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-16G...196109?hash=item46667d43cd:g:kfoAAOSw42dZHQ2R

That is for name brand, you can find it much cheaper on there, and with a web search, probably even cheaper. I got mine years ago, and paid much less. I suppose the price is higher now, because more people are upgrading to 16GB....back in those days 16GB was considered overkill, on a machine that came with 2 or 4 GB. Mine actually came with 4GB, but I never ran it with 2, I put in an upgrade before I ever turned it on, and dropped the 4GB into the empty slots on the iMac.

I know all about memory usage. The pressure graph is constantly orange/red. This has never been the case on any version of macOS I’ve had. Not even developer builds. It’s clearly not yet optimised for older Macs. The swap is always over 1GB, which isn’t normal.

 

[mikecwest]

I know all about memory usage. The pressure graph is constantly orange/red. This has never been the case on any version of macOS I’ve had. Not even developer builds. It’s clearly not yet optimised for older Macs. The swap is always over 1GB, which isn’t normal.

In your case, you really should upgrade to 16GB, if not, at least 8GB. 16GB will cost more, but if you are going to crack open the case, you might as well throw in 16GB.

I haven't seen any reports of anyone putting in more than that, but if I see someone do it without issue, I would follow suit.

I don't plan on replacing my 2011 Pro, until I absolutely have to.....and at that, I have a spare 13" here, that I can pop my 16GB into, in place of the 8GB I dropped in it when I got 16GB in this one.

 

[bbfc]

In your case, you really should upgrade to 16GB, if not, at least 8GB. 16GB will cost more, but if you are going to crack open the case, you might as well throw in 16GB.

I haven't seen any reports of anyone putting in more than that, but if I see someone do it without issue, I would follow suit.

I don't plan on replacing my 2011 Pro, until I absolutely have to.....and at that, I have a spare 13" here, that I can pop my 16GB into, in place of the 8GB I dropped in it when I got 16GB in this one.

I’ll probably go for 8GB. I’ve just put in an SSD and that has made such a difference.

 

[smgord]

Thought I'd revive this thread to share my experience. I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro, with 16 GB RAM. I never upgraded it to Sierra for fear it would be even slower. For the past couple of years, the machine has been insufferably slow -- like spinning wheel for such labor-intensive things as typing or double-clicking on a doc. Last night, I bit the bullet and went straight to High Sierra so that I could run an app that was updated and is important to my work flow. It took a LONG time to update, and then was worryingly slow for a little while -- but now it is running better than it has in ages.

 

[EugW]

Thought I'd revive this thread to share my experience. I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro, with 16 GB RAM. I never upgraded it to Sierra for fear it would be even slower. For the past couple of years, the machine has been insufferably slow -- like spinning wheel for such labor-intensive things as typing or double-clicking on a doc. Last night, I bit the bullet and went straight to High Sierra so that I could run an app that was updated and is important to my work flow. It took a LONG time to update, and then was worryingly slow for a little while -- but now it is running better than it has in ages.

Did you get an SSD? I don't have that problem with a 2009 MacBook Pro with 8 GB RAM, but I have an SSD.

 

[tmoney468]

I would not. I upgraded my late 2013 MBP and regret it big time. Plan on going back to 10.12

 

[EugW]

I would not. I upgraded my late 2013 MBP and regret it big time. Plan on going back to 10.12

What's your hardware? Memory? SSD?

What's the problem?

 

[tmoney468]

2.6 i7, 16GB of Ram, 512 SSD, Nvidia GT 750M.

Everything is slower compared to Sierra, I've had graphical glitches that others have, I have some weird disk space issue where it doesn't update in real time. Last night tried to use Lightroom to edit a couple photos and my system crawled to a halt. Never experienced anything like this with Sierra. Also can't stand the way the media keys work now either

 

[Phil in ocala]

I probably wouldn't install it until it was released and not not install a beta on my main laptop. I may attempt to install it on my Mac mini just to see if I am going to want it on my MacBook Pro. seems I do more with the laptop than my desktop now anyway so it could be interesting to see.

______________________________________________________________
Remember...if you don't like it...you can NEVER back..............NEVER.

 

[EugW]

2.6 i7, 16GB of Ram, 512 SSD, Nvidia GT 750M.

Everything is slower compared to Sierra, I've had graphical glitches that others have, I have some weird disk space issue where it doesn't update in real time. Last night tried to use Lightroom to edit a couple photos and my system crawled to a halt. Never experienced anything like this with Sierra. Also can't stand the way the media keys work now either

Which graphics glitch? Same as the 9400M glitch with rare h.264?

 

[Fishrrman]

Phil wrote above:
"Remember...if you don't like it...you can NEVER back..............NEVER."

This is... absolute nonsense.

It's trivially easy to "go back" from High Sierra to ANY previously-installed version of the OS... IF you do the following first:
1. Get an external drive
2. Get either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (if you don't have these, either is free to download and use for 30 days)
3. Use CCC or SD to create a bootable cloned backup of your previous OS -BEFORE- you do the High Sierra install.

Then... to "get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged"... you do this next:
1. Boot from the bootable cloned backup
2. Use Disk Utility to ERASE the internal drive. NUKE IT BACK TO HFS+ with journaling enabled.
3. Use either CCC or SD to "re-clone" the contents of the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.
4. When done, you'll be "right back where you started from", as if you'd never touched High Sierra.

Easy as pie!