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Upgrading 2009 MBP 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 16GB to Yosemite?

K

khomer2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 20, 2012
9
0
Hi Folks,

Im presently running my mid 2009 2010 MBP with 16GB Ram, 256GB Crucial SSD on SL 10.6.8
Ive been running this setup for several years now and was thinking to upgrade to Yosemite.
It runs strong and fast, no issues.
I use it for the usual stuff as well as photoshop, streaming movies, etc, nothing high powered.
I realize if I upgrade, some of my software will need to be upgraded to.
I also use my iphone 6+ ios 8.1.2 with some of the mobile apps tie into the Osx apps I have.

I would like to hear from comments from others on this upgrade and the possible benefits.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
khomer2 said:
Hi Folks,

Im presently running my mid 2009 MBP with 16GB Ram, 256GB Crucial SSD on SL 10.6.8
Ive been running this setup for several years now and was thinking to upgrade to Yosemite.
It runs strong and fast, no issues.
I use it for the usual stuff as well as photoshop, streaming movies, etc, nothing high powered.
I realize if I upgrade, some of my software will need to be upgraded to.
I also use my iphone 6+ ios 8.1.2 with some of the mobile apps tie into the Osx apps I have.

I would like to hear from comments from others on this upgrade and the possible benefits.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Sounds like your Mac will be fine on Yosemite, although El Capitan is right around the corner.

I have Yosemite on my mid-2009 MBP 2.26ghz 8gb with 500gb HDD. It does fine, but the older hard drive can sometimes bottleneck things. It's not my everyday laptop anymore, so I don't worry about it too much.
 
khomer2 said:
Hi Folks,

Im presently running my mid 2009 MBP with 16GB Ram, 256GB Crucial SSD on SL 10.6.8
Ive been running this setup for several years now and was thinking to upgrade to Yosemite.
It runs strong and fast, no issues.
I use it for the usual stuff as well as photoshop, streaming movies, etc, nothing high powered.
I realize if I upgrade, some of my software will need to be upgraded to.
I also use my iphone 6+ ios 8.1.2 with some of the mobile apps tie into the Osx apps I have.

I would like to hear from comments from others on this upgrade and the possible benefits.

Cheers
Click to expand...
2009 MBP's do not support 16GB RAM. 13" 2010's do, and all models from 2011 onwards. Are you sure that's the model you have?
 
KUguardgrl13 said:
...although El Capitan is right around the corner.
Click to expand...
This. Just wait for El Capitan.

Or... I held on to SL for quite awhile, but eventually had to go to Mavericks. That might get you somewhat more current but allow you to keep some of your older software...?
 
Some things I noted after upgrading my Late-2009 Macbook (8GB, SSD):

1- nVidia WebDrivers and CUDA require hacks to be installed since Mavericks and sometimes crash. Using the default driver without CUDA, you'll be fine;
2- 1280x800 is a bit tight for Yosemite GUI elements;
3- You won't get HTML5 support on Netflix with Safari. Chrome 64 bit with Widevine CDM plugin will do the trick, though. It looks like Apple doesn't care too much with older graphics adapters;

In the end, I think it's worth upgrading.
 
Just upgraded my wife's 2009 13" MBP to El Capitan 10.11.1 because 10.7.5 didn't support an iTunes versions that would enable her to restore from an i5s to a new i6s. Had tried to update iTunes, but I couldn't bump its version far enough to support the i6s.
I had bumped the RAM to 8Gb and installed a 256Gb SSD a couple of years ago and that made a noticeable improvement at the time.
Anyway, the upgrade went remarkably well and so far I'm very happy with the performance, but it is early days.
She mainly uses it for personal email and photo-books in iPhoto, so the load is light.
 
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snaky69 said:
2009 MBP's do not support 16GB RAM. 13" 2010's do, and all models from 2011 onwards. Are you sure that's the model you have?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your comments, appreciate it.

Snaky79, 2009 2010 can handle 16GB ram unofficially. There's a thread that explains and discusses this process. Add an ssd with this upgrade and its cheap, slick and fassst. Keeps up with the present macs and works great for my applications.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16gb-ram-in-a-mid-2010-macbook-pro.1511196/

I decided to keep SL on this and picked up a 13" Mba (i7 512flashdrive ) running Mavericks .

Apologies folks, corrected to reflect the proper year of my mbp. :D
 
Last edited:
khomer2 said:
Snaky79, 2009 can handle 16GB ram unofficially. There's a thread that expains and discusses this process.
Click to expand...

The 2009 MBP models all used the MCP79 chipset from NVIDIA, which also contains the memory controller. Everything I've ever read about this chipset states that it maxes out at 8GB of RAM.

Do you have a link to the thread?
 
Last edited:
khomer2 said:
Thanks for all your comments, appreciate it.

Snaky79, 2009 2010 can handle 16GB ram unofficially. There's a thread that explains and discusses this process. Add an ssd with this upgrade and its cheap, slick and fassst. Keeps up with the present macs and works great for my applications.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16gb-ram-in-a-mid-2010-macbook-pro.1511196/

I decided to keep SL on this and picked up a 13" Mba (i7 512flashdrive ) running Mavericks .

Apologies folks, corrected to reflect the proper year of my mbp. :D
Click to expand...
Yes I know. I said so right in the post you quoted.
 
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