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What OS is best for MacBook Pro late 2011

RoryW

RoryW

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2017
2
1
France
Hello everyone,

I am still using Mavericks on my MacBook Pro 2011. I have 16Gb and a 1Tb SDD, but I've never felt the need to update. I let Yosemite and El Capitan pass me by... and now I am a bit worried. I don't think Sierra is my option as my hardware wouldn't allow me to profit from half of Sierra's fun.

I've used Apple products for the past 25 years (that's all I know in terms of gadgets and computers), so I was used to a less greedy Apple and like my computers and gadgets to last. That is why I improved mine with a new HD and more memory instead of replacing it.

Questions:

Do you think I should try to update to El Capitan or Yosemite? (Or even Sierra).
Have you any experience with MacBook Pro 2011 and Sierra?
I know previous OS are gone and I wonder if it is even possible to find them outside Apple's website.

Thanks for your advice.

R.
 
El Capitan or Sierra should run ok, since you have an SSD.

BUT... BEFORE you attempt an upgrade... use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (both are free to download and use for 30 days) to create a bootable clone of your current installation.

That way, if you are unhappy with the upgrade, or if some apps don't work, or for any reason you want to "go back", it's EASY to do so.

Without a cloned and bootable backup, getting "back to where you once belonged" is going to be a difficult journey...
 
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Dual or Quad-core CPU?

I have a 2010 dual-core MBP and El Capitan runs okay, but only only.

I've switched to doing most of my work on it by booting into either Windows or Linux because they're both much, much faster, though the battery life is shorter.

It's probably better on a quad-core, but maybe try El Capitan if you're concerned about performance rather than going to Sierra, which ran poorly for me at least.
 
I was running 8 GB and SSD on an early 2011 13" MBP and Sierra was really quick.

After upgrading to High Sierra, it would take about 25 seconds to get to the login screen while it only took 10 seconds on Sierra. Once logged in, High Sierra worked just as quickly as Sierra.
 
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On my 2011 Early MacBook Pro there is currently El Capitan running very well.

Why?

In 10.9 some touch gestures do not work.

10.10 had some issues with Apple Mail and something else I don't remember.

10.11 works very well.
 
Best OS for that machine is High Sierra.

However, it would depend upon what software you run.
 
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boppin said:
and why?
Click to expand...
APFS
HEVC <-- This is essential if you have a recent iPhone and want to save space
HEIF <-- This is essential if you have a recent iPhone and want to save space
Photos 3.0
Metal 2 (although this does not apply to 2011 Macs)
etc.

This is one of the most important OS upgrades in years, and it runs fine as long as you have 8 GB RAM and SSD. It even runs OK on 4 GB RAM and SSD.

The format support alone is worth it, because no OS before High Sierra can natively understand HEVC or HEIF/HEIC. Now, a 2011 MacBook Pro isn't going to be able to play 4K HEVC of any sort well, but it will be able to play 1080p HEVC just fine, and HEIF Live Photos too, and of course it will be able do display HEIF still photos. None of this natively possible on any version of macOS prior to High Sierra, yet these formats are the norm now with some iOS 11 iPhones.

Safari 11 gets some nice upgrades as well, although I believe both Sierra and El Capitan get those benefits too, since they can also run Safari 11. Auto-play blocking is a great feature.

I currently have 5 machines on High Sierra. For two of those machines they only support up to El Capitan officially so I never bothered with trying to get Sierra on them. But once High Sierra was available, I jumped at the chance of getting High Sierra installed on them. For my other three machines, High Sierra is officially supported. One of them is my main desktop, and the machine on which I sync all of my iDevices. Normally I wait a few point updates before upgrading to a new OS, but I upgraded that machine right away because I knew my software worked in High Sierra and because I need to be able to understand all the media files coming out of my iPhone 7 Plus, which in iOS 11 are HEVC and HEIF based. One of the other machines is my main laptop, and I upgraded that one back in the betas for High Sierra. For my third supported machine, it only has a hard drive, but I upgraded that one to High Sierra with APFS too.

One user-facing feature of APFS that I really like is the instant file copy. If you copy say a 5 GB file to another spot, the copy will be instantaneous, and the total combined size of the two 5 GB files together is still just 5 GB, because it doesn't actually make a copy. It just points to the data in the new location. Plus APFS is supposedly better designed to maintain data integrity, but that's not actually something that's directly visible to the user. Another advantage is native and more fine grained encryption, but I don't use encryption so that doesn't apply to me.

---

Put it this way: I suspect going forward, macOS 10.13 is going to be a hard cutoff for a lot of software and even hardware compatibility, because the iPhone 7 together with iOS 11 have started the process of making everything before High Sierra obsolete.
 
Last edited:
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The 2011 13-inch MBPs with 8 GB of RAM and a SSD, run High Sierra very well. Even ones with 4 GB of RAM and a SSD run it quite well.

Your system will work well with any of the modern OS' you choose. I really like the stability of El Capitan, but given its age it may not make sense to upgrade to it (as 3rd party software is already beginning to drop some of their El Cap support, and Apple has dropped support for some of their Apps, like iWork.)
[doublepost=1506995721][/doublepost]
Altis said:
Dual or Quad-core CPU?

I have a 2010 dual-core MBP and El Capitan runs okay, but only only.

I've switched to doing most of my work on it by booting into either Windows or Linux because they're both much, much faster, though the battery life is shorter.

It's probably better on a quad-core, but maybe try El Capitan if you're concerned about performance rather than going to Sierra, which ran poorly for me at least.
Click to expand...

From what I have observed, if the 2010 13s have SSDs, they can run the more recent OS' reasonably well when certain services are disabled. However, they still face a huge bottleneck with the Core 2 Duo CPU, as there is a massive difference between the C2Ds of 2010 and the i5/7's of 2011.
 
ZapNZs said:
From what I have observed, if the 2010 13s have SSDs, they can run the more recent OS' reasonably well when certain services are disabled. However, they still face a huge bottleneck with the Core 2 Duo CPU, as there is a massive difference between the C2Ds of 2010 and the i5/7's of 2011.
Click to expand...

Mine is a Core i5, not Core 2 Duo, and with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD, El Capitan runs okay, but not great.

Everyone has different ideas of what performance is acceptable, though. Windows and Linux run so much better that it's breathing new life into my machine.
 
boppin said:
Safari 11 is also available for El Capitan.
Click to expand...
HEVC and HEIF aren't though. Your computer wouldn't be fast enough for 4K HEVC, but it's more than fast enough for 1080p HEVC, and HEIF Live Photos now often use 1080p HEVC.
 
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Commenting here to save this thread. I am about to update my wife's Early 2011 15" MBP to High Sierra. Hoping to see some performance gains.

System has a core i7 Processor and I put in new 16Gb RAM and 525Gb SSD about six months ago. Will update here after.
 
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What about the mid-2012 MBP? 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB ram hoping to upgrade to a 512 SSD, in which i would install the newer OS, i'm looking to do a clean install. Like OP, i let all the updates pass me by and now i'm stuck in Mountain Lion with no support on any of my apps, even dropbox kicked me out this week! I was thinking of trying Yosemite, but would i have any luck with Sierra on my system? I have an iPhone X so i'd really like to use some of the new cool compatibility features they've introduced over the years.
 
I feel like El Cap was more stable than Sierra for me on my 2011 MBP. Haven't tried High Sierra yet though because I'm afraid that AFS might slow it down too much.
 
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Mobster1983 said:
Commenting here to save this thread. I am about to update my wife's Early 2011 15" MBP to High Sierra. Hoping to see some performance gains.

System has a core i7 Processor and I put in new 16Gb RAM and 525Gb SSD about six months ago. Will update here after.
Click to expand...
Hi, Thanks for keeping the thread open. I became ill and wasn't able to come back until now. Did you install HS? How did it go?

As some have commented here, I am beginning to experience that left behind thing. I can't update the software on my phone unless I update to at least Yosemite.

I am really a neophyte, so I'll appreciate any help I can get --and don't hesitate to macexplain things to me ;-)

To recap: if I have a MacBook Pro 2011. I have 16Gb and a 1Tb SDD, Intel Core i5. And I use basic Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator) and basic video editing software (iMovie). What is my best upgrading option and, if it is not High Sierra, how can I upgrade to an older version since they are no longer available from Apple, yes?
Thanks everyone for your patience.
 
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RoryW said:
Hi, Thanks for keeping the thread open. I became ill and wasn't able to come back until now. Did you install HS? How did it go?

As some have commented here, I am beginning to experience that left behind thing. I can't update the software on my phone unless I update to at least Yosemite.

I am really a neophyte, so I'll appreciate any help I can get --and don't hesitate to macexplain things to me ;-)

To recap: if I have a MacBook Pro 2011. I have 16Gb and a 1Tb SDD, Intel Core i5. And I use basic Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator) and basic video editing software (iMovie). What is my best upgrading option and, if it is not High Sierra, how can I upgrade to an older version since they are no longer available from Apple, yes?
Thanks everyone for your patience.
Click to expand...

any word ?
 
RoryW said:
Hello everyone,

I am still using Mavericks on my MacBook Pro 2011. I have 16Gb and a 1Tb SDD, but I've never felt the need to update. I let Yosemite and El Capitan pass me by... and now I am a bit worried. I don't think Sierra is my option as my hardware wouldn't allow me to profit from half of Sierra's fun.

Do you think I should try to update to El Capitan or Yosemite? (Or even Sierra).
Have you any experience with MacBook Pro 2011 and Sierra?
I know previous OS are gone and I wonder if it is even possible to find them outside Apple's website.

Thanks for your advice.

R.
Click to expand...

I'm using my early-2011 15" MBP because my mid-2014 rMBP is at the Apple Service Center getting its swollen battery replaced. On this early-2011, it still has the 750 G hard drive and 8 G of RAM. Running High Sierra 10.13.5 beta 2 without any issues. The integrated and discrete graphics chips are behaving themselves.

You can go to the Mac App Store, purchased tab. I can download all installers including Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite. El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra aren't appearing in my purchase history.
 
KRLK -

If the 2011 15" is still doing ok as you said, it might be worth the trouble to find a cheap 500gb SSD and put it in there. Doing so will speed it up and extend its life as a "backup unit"...
 
Fishrrman said:
KRLK -

If the 2011 15" is still doing ok as you said, it might be worth the trouble to find a cheap 500gb SSD and put it in there. Doing so will speed it up and extend its life as a "backup unit"...
Click to expand...

I once had a 480 Gbyte Crucial in here but it is now in my work HP laptop. Once I retire later this year I'm going to get it back.
 
With 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD Sierra and even High Sierra should run well on your computer. I'm on an unsupported 2008 MacBook with a 160 GB HDD and 8 GB of RAM and High Sierra is running amazingly.
 
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EDIT: I see this thread isn't that recent, but the advice below still applies!

I used Sierra on my quad-core 2011 15" (8GB RAM, SSD) before changing it for a 2016 MBP. No complaints, it ran very well.
 
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