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jesusplay

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2007
540
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would the 2011 17' MBP be a huge downgrade from the 2016 retina touch bar 13 mbp? All I do is watch netflix on my macbooks.
 
For watching Netflix, not really. IIRC the best resolution you can get with Netflix is 1080p through a laptop (and only 720p with Chrome) so you might not even notice much of a difference in picture quality. The larger screen would likely be a nice upgrade.

That said, do keep in mind the 2011 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros are ticking GPU time bombs. If the GPU on the 2011 has not already failed, it will. If it just had a new logic board installed, that one will fail. The options are disabling the GPU permanently to force the system to always use integrated graphics, replacing the logic board with another faulty logic board, or putting components of the computer in your oven (with very mixed results).
 
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For watching Netflix, not really. IIRC the best resolution you can get with Netflix is 1080p through a laptop (and only 720p with Chrome) so you might not even notice much of a difference in picture quality. The larger screen would likely be a nice upgrade.

That said, do keep in mind the 2011 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros are ticking GPU time bombs. If the GPU on the 2011 has not already failed, it will. If it just had a new logic board installed, that one will fail. The options are disabling the GPU permanently to force the system to always use integrated graphics, replacing the logic board with another faulty logic board, or putting components of the computer in your oven (with very mixed results).
thank you for the reply. The gpu failed and the logic board thing was covered under the warrenty.

So to be clear you suggest disabling the dedicated GPU and using the intel one only to keep the 2011 from failing again?
 
You DO NOT WANT a 2011 15" or 17" MacBook Pro.
Do you know what "RadeonGate" was all about...?
 
It's also worth adding the 17" is Obsolete in Apple terms. You'd have to go to a 3rd party for a repair.
 
thank you for the reply. The gpu failed and the logic board thing was covered under the warrenty.

So to be clear you suggest disabling the dedicated GPU and using the intel one only to keep the 2011 from failing again?

If I were in your situation, I would disable the GPU if I was keeping a 17-inch and using it mainly just for Netflix. The GPU will fail again. How long is anyone's guess (it might fail on day one, it might last several years), but it eventually will fail. There are numerous methods to disabling the GPU. To my understanding, the ones that use pure software fixes necessitate that the system be quasi-functional enough to boot. A failed GPU can render the system nonfunctional to where it doesn't complete startup, potentially preventing you from being able to do the software fix. There are some other more invasive methods that use hardware solutions, although I do not know enough about them to say very much.
 
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