I have a MacBook Pro 2011 17 inch which actually runs Sonoma very well. The fans spin constantly but the performance is not bad. The screen is very good and I can put as much storage as I want in it... So as old as it is, it still has some 'assets' which my MacBook Air and other Macs clearly lack.
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OpenCore Legacy Patcher worth doing?
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I have a MacBook Pro 2011 17 inch which actually runs Sonoma very well. The fans spin constantly but the performance is not bad. The screen is very good and I can put as much storage as I want in it... So as old as it is, it still has some 'assets' which my MacBook Air and other Macs clearly lack.
Powerbooky
macrumors demi-god
I have the 15 inch 2011 Macbook Pro and upgraded up to Monterey. It too works fine even with the broken AMD GPU. As it was my main Mac for work, I didn't dare to upgrade further.
Just last week I did an upgrade to Ventura on my MacPro 2008, which actually works quite smooth (Nvidia 710 card) even with the Arcade games. The only thing that still doesn't work is the HDMI audio output to my screen. It did work with Dosdude's Mojave patcher, but not with OCLP.
Probably why they cottoned on to not let the newer macs be so adaptable for changing RAM, batteries, and SSD. The difference in price for SSD size has gone mad with Apple on the latest machines. 200£ 1TB and 600 for 2.. Just mad
You mentioned the casing with the 3.0 USB, but presumably as the old MBP is only at 2, it won't make any difference?
A cheap 2tb ssd for this old Macbook Pro would only cost me about €120-€180 at this point. Although apple’s ssds are higher quality their prices are still absolutely ridiculous.
Adding £600GBP for 2TB is madness when you compare to other brand laptops, not that we want them, but the 2TB drives are around £150 stand alone here yeh
1) I have a 13-inch 2011 MacBook Pro with:
-dual core Intel Core i5 chip
-upgraded to 8GB RAM
-upgraded to 250 GB SSD drive along with moving the 500 GB spinning hard drive in the DVD slot
2) I bought a 2020 Intel MacBook Pro so the old 2011 one was sitting around doing nothing, so when I came across OCLP, I decided to try it out as it didn't matter to me if OCLP killed it.
3) My experience is that using OCLP I upgraded the 2011 MacBook Pro to macOS Monterey, but it is a bit on the slow side. After typing my password, it takes a few minutes for it to load stuff up before it is ready to use. During that time, in the summer time, the fans are spinning up and it gets warm.
After that it works, but everything is a bit on the slow side, you have to wait some 10-20 seconds for apps to load up. I don't really use those fancy apps so I can't tell you about compatibility, but just be prepared for a slow macOS user experience with Monterey on that Mac.
With Ventura or Sonoma, I would guess it would be even slower, so I wouldn't recommend it.
Powerbooky
macrumors demi-god
No. Of course it won't reach the potential USB3 speeds with a MacBook Pro 2011, you'll get USB2 speed at most.
But having an USB3 casing is good for newer Mac's as well.
Yes, I suspected the experience won't be great. Going from Sierra to High Sierra has made the fans work much harder than they did before, which wasn't great. Even on Snow Leopard. Also on an i5 with 8GB instead of the installed 4. No idea how much difference that has made because it was changed at the same time as the SSD.
I guess High Sierra will have to see this one out then. Thanks
Hello, Rocknrotty, Is the Macbook pro 2012 still running well or it had some problems with Sonoma, Could you install and run new softwares as MS Office and Adobe?
MacinMan
macrumors 68000
Hey all,
Just thought I would share my OCLP experience here. I have a late 2015, 27" iMac and Monterey is the last officially supported OS for this Mac. I've tried OCLP a few times with Sonoma, and Ventura, and while it's an overall nice experience with this mac, there are a few things I ran into that would affect this being a long term solution.
1. 3D acceleration doesn't work in Virtual machines on this particular Mac with OCLP because of the patched graphics drivers.
2. Protected videos don't play in HD+, and also some sites such as Disney+ don't work in Safari. Neither are a big deal to me personally, as I would prefer using an HDR supported device to watch content as well as my 5.1 sound system. However, mentioning this for those who do like to watch their content on their mac.
3. Had some iCloud / Apple ID related issues e.g. the Mac wouldn't sign out correctly and had to force it out of my account after signing in with a supported OS, and do a clean install / login. Beyond those items mentioned OCLP was a fairly stable solution for the daily tasks.
However, the other challenge for me is, while I could simply get a new M series Mac and call it a day, I prefer the X86 platform for backwards compatibility, and switching to Apple's new platform would get rid of almost all my options there.
So, I've considered the following for the time being: Stay on Monterey until I'm forced to upgrade. If I need newer, I can stick Sonoma in a VM with Fusion, and use the typical daily stuff that would require a newer OS. For legacy support, run a copy of Mojave, or one of the Sierras from an external drive for 32 bit support (older DOS games, etc) not updated to run on modern systems.
At the end of the day, I really like OCLP as a concept, but I think in practice there are too many variables to take into account to make it a perfect solution for everyone's specific needs that a supported OS would provide.
Just thought I would share my OCLP experience here. I have a late 2015, 27" iMac and Monterey is the last officially supported OS for this Mac. I've tried OCLP a few times with Sonoma, and Ventura, and while it's an overall nice experience with this mac, there are a few things I ran into that would affect this being a long term solution.
1. 3D acceleration doesn't work in Virtual machines on this particular Mac with OCLP because of the patched graphics drivers.
2. Protected videos don't play in HD+, and also some sites such as Disney+ don't work in Safari. Neither are a big deal to me personally, as I would prefer using an HDR supported device to watch content as well as my 5.1 sound system. However, mentioning this for those who do like to watch their content on their mac.
3. Had some iCloud / Apple ID related issues e.g. the Mac wouldn't sign out correctly and had to force it out of my account after signing in with a supported OS, and do a clean install / login. Beyond those items mentioned OCLP was a fairly stable solution for the daily tasks.
However, the other challenge for me is, while I could simply get a new M series Mac and call it a day, I prefer the X86 platform for backwards compatibility, and switching to Apple's new platform would get rid of almost all my options there.
So, I've considered the following for the time being: Stay on Monterey until I'm forced to upgrade. If I need newer, I can stick Sonoma in a VM with Fusion, and use the typical daily stuff that would require a newer OS. For legacy support, run a copy of Mojave, or one of the Sierras from an external drive for 32 bit support (older DOS games, etc) not updated to run on modern systems.
At the end of the day, I really like OCLP as a concept, but I think in practice there are too many variables to take into account to make it a perfect solution for everyone's specific needs that a supported OS would provide.
The OCLP developers stress that Sonoma support is still somewhat experimental, so opting for Monterey is a wise choice.
I think OCLP works great and is easy to use, but it is not something I can recommend to regular users (just like running Windows 11 on an unsupported machine).
MacinMan
macrumors 68000
I'm someone who would opt for Linux as an alternative OS for unsupported Macs. However, as far as Linux has come in maturity finding replacements isn't always easy. For example one main thing that keeps macOS around for me is the ability to text from the mac instead of relying on a touch screen for typing, or speech to text e.g. dictation, as that can be unreliable. Even with Ventura being a more stable solution than Sonoma for OCLP, it's still not perfect, the graphics related issues i mentioned above also exist in Ventura being patched vs natively supported. Either way I will agree that overall OCLP works well except for graphics specific tasks, depending on the particular hardware being used. (At least that's been my impression) I will also add that in testing, most of my stuff still works in Mojave, so if an OS release that far back still works for a majority of stuff. Monterey should be even better for non Apple specific support.
Hey@Powerbooky, I've tried all manner of things to update the iMovie I have but it just doesn't want to know, and the App store is a nightmare for that, so if I delete the 9.0.4, I should just be able to install this one instead, in theory?
Is it the Archive.Org link pkg for 10.1.12 in that thread for the iMovie download and are they safe to use? Thanks
Macdctr
macrumors 65816
You can pick up a decent configured MacBook Pro (either a 13-inch or 15-inch) for around $300 on eBay and then you can use this laptop with OCLP and install MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1 with no issues.
This is the route I went as the 2015 laptops have metal support and can support the current MacOS on them. So far I have not had any issues updating the OS as long as you stay current with OpenCore which is very easy to do.
The process of installing OpenCore Legacy Patcher is not hard and you can to to the Mr. Macintosh web site to download the MacOS you want to run. It is as simple as that.
Here's a few links:
Apple MacBook Pro 15" A1398 (2015) 2.5GHz Quad i7 16GB Ram 128GB SSD OS Monterey | eBay
This MacBook Pro is in really good working and cosmetic condition. It has been fully tested and upgraded and is ready to go. This laptop is in really nice condition, with only minor scuffs on the bottom. Please refer to the photos for computer specs and more details. It will come with a power...
www.ebay.com
These are just a few examples but you can find a used laptop for a deal and then use it for many years to come.
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Powerbooky
macrumors demi-god
Thanks, so you're saying a 2015 would make that much difference over my 2011 MBP?
Thank you!
Macdctr
macrumors 65816
Absolutely! The 2015 laptops can support the much faster NVMe M.2 storage drives whereas the 2011 can not. I currently have a 2TB Western Digital NVMe M.2 drive in my mid 2015 15-inch MBP with disk transfer speeds of as much as 2400mb/sec to 2500mb/sec. At best your 2011 disk access speeds would be around 400mb/sec. A huge difference.
Also the graphics processor found in the 2015 laptops are metal-based so it can run MacOS up to the current vers 14.5 Developer Beta which my 11-inch AIR and 13-inch MBPs are currently running without any issue.
I was able to obtain all my 2015 laptops (see sig below) for around $300 with my Air being the cheapest acquisition at $95. The Air was advertised as not being able to power on so everyone stayed away from it. I purchased the Air and found out the reason is because the battery was completely discharged and the seller chose to sell it as a non functioning laptop rather than try charging it up first.
The point being if you really know what you're buying and know what to look for in an eBay auction you can source a very nice near mint 2015 laptop and then get a Western Digital NVMe M.2 and Syntech adapter to boost your read/write speeds for faster performance and then run the latest MacOS using OCLP and have a decent laptop for minimum investment. In my humble opinion, not everyone requires cutting edge performance from their computers and rather than throw money away on a device that will rapidly depreciate over time, I would rather source one of these build to order laptops (in their day) for pennies of what they originally sold for and still be able to have years of good usage from them without throwing away lots of money. Of course if you have to have cutting edge performance from your computer so that you can access the internet, watch videos, check your email and do simple video editing/photo processing then by all means feel free to get the newer Apple products but keep in mind you can not upgrade your storage drives or change out components like your display, trackpad, or logic board without it being disabled for some reason due to Apple's anti-rights to repair attitude.
Yes the writing is on the wall for all Intel devices but for now I am content using my 2015 laptops for at least another 6 more years before I have to decide to either upgrade or run a different OS on them. Sorry about being on my soapbox there. 🙂
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Interesting that the iMovie I've been using all this time is about 400MB, and that one is 3GB
Thank you for all this info, I had no clue it would be so different, and a quarter of the price
Macdctr
macrumors 65816
No problem. I just wanted to make sure you got all the info before doing anything. I highly recommend upgrading to the 2015 models if you would like to somethat future-proof your laptop for many more years of usage as I have done with mine
When people realize they can do what I have been doing to my laptops they will most likely start grabbing these like I have and pricing for both the Early 2015 and Mid 2015 laptops will begin to rise. Keep this in mind . . .
Thanks again! And the 2015 models still use the SSD that you can swap out yourself or was it different by then?No problem. I just wanted to make sure you got all the info before doing anything. I highly recommend upgrading to the 2015 models if you would like to somethat future-proof your laptop for many more years of usage as I have done with mine
When people realize they can do what I have been doing to my laptops they will most likely start grabbing these like I have and pricing for both the Early 2015 and Mid 2015 laptops will begin to rise. Keep this in mind . . .
Macdctr
macrumors 65816
From the 2011 laptop you have the 2013 thru 2015 models use a different type of SSD. A much faster version. You can install the faster NVMe M.2 SSDs using a Syntech adapter and have much faster transfer rates over Apple's stock 400mb/sec transfer rates.
cosmolv
macrumors regular
Installed Monterey on my MacPro 5.1 GPU GeForce 980Ti Sadly After Effcts and Premiere not supporting GPU and crashing when editing. Now I'm back to High Sierra and have the same problem on it. EA and Premiere don't support anymore my GPU Premiere crashing when GPU acceleration enebled and After effects are without display acceleration.
Seems that Open patcher sometnig changed in hardvare that caused this problem to pop up.
Have somebody experienced this and what are the solution?
Seems that Open patcher sometnig changed in hardvare that caused this problem to pop up.
Have somebody experienced this and what are the solution?
Sweetfeld28
macrumors 65816
I would suggest it to anyone, as long as they are willing to wait a month or so after major releases of macOS... if you do that patches usually come out soon after for fixes.