macOS Sierra on MacBook Pro (Early 2011)

[gorskiegangsta]

I just said that I have the 256MB card.

It runs well. I don't have any issues, but I do have an SSD in there.

I believe video memory allocation depends on the amount of RAM you have installed.
For example, since I've upgraded to 16GB, it shows 512MB video memory

 

[Brammy]

I believe video memory allocation depends on the amount of RAM you have installed.
For example, since I've upgraded to 16GB, it shows 512MB video memory
View attachment 666490

Mine has the discrete GPU. So I think the dGPU has its own ram.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Mine has the discrete GPU. So I think the dGPU has its own ram.

You're correct. I wrongly assumed the conversation was about the 13" 2011 version, so my apologies.

 

[miscend]

After much thought and research online, I decided to upgrade to Sierra. I had backups for everything just in case.

I must say overall I am very happy with the result and I would recommend an upgrade if and only if you have the exact same configuration/setup as mine. System is faster to boot, apps open quicker, UI is snappier.

My setup: MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 2.0Ghz, 1TB EVO SSD, 16GB 1333Mhz RAM. Everything else are Apple components. Here are some of my observations (these have been pointed out many times already)...

Positives

• Upgrade itself took about ~40-50 minutes.
• There is a very small amount of jitter with Mission Control or side swiping to switch to full screen apps when you invoke it the first time after doing something else. But its very hard to notice and/or it's not intrusive. Since I use gestures the BIG difference is Mission Control opens as fast or as slow as you complete the gesture, it appeared to 'lag' a bit when I move my fingers slowly. But if I move them quick it looks snappy.
• Geekbench 64-bit Multicore speeds improved significantly! Hitting 9300 on my MacBook whereas I used to get 8700 and the likes before the upgrade.
• Boot times are much snappier.
• Some apps appear to open quicker (many stock apps and some third party apps) and some do appear slower (like Sublime or IntelliJ).
• Picture in Picture is awesome, I use it to watch snippets on youtube while I am doing other work. To invoke it is very awkward -- you need to right click twice on the video and then select PIP menu option. And to think the Mac users never had to deal with "right click" about a decade or more back, in todays Apple we have 3D touch menus and double right clicks. The atrocities...!!
• Safari 10 seems to be the same (although I didn't test Safari 10 on El Capitan).
• Siri works well -- haven't used it much. But it was great pressing and holding Cmd+Space (not holding invokes Spotlight as normal) to invoke Siri saying "Show me the latest email from Sharon" rather than having to click on Mail and type in Sharon. For searches I think this will come in handy provided you don't have an accent and have had luck with Siri in the past. The problem with Siri or any voice assistant is that in the times it gets you wrong, you've already wasted time trying it and it would have been much faster just typing. But they're getting there...
• Storage management: It's "okay". I have set it to empty my trash automatically. I don't pay for Cloud storage with Apple and never will entrust the data there. Google cloud I am much more comfortable with. It was most useful in getting me to delete some older files (as it provides a historical overview of files you haven't accessed or used). I like the Disk Inventory X app UI better though for larger files than Storage Management UI.
• I have more space on my hard drive now as the OS occupies less space.
• Parallels 11 works flawlessly. Had to upgrade Little Snitch.

Negatives

• MacBook PRO runs hotter when plugged in. But mostly due to Photos (see below). This will take days to settle if you have a large photo collection (mine's not too bad around 100GB but its been going at it for about 12 or more hours and still hasn't settled).
• Photos app -- DUH, they are now running some heavy hitting AI algorithms on your Mac. Processes eating my CPU: photoanalysisd, diskkimages-helper, Photos app in general. Note: these only kick up if I connect to power, on battery the CPU is almost same as what I remember seeing in El Capitan. I wish there was a way to turn this off. I use Google Photos anyway for my automatic albums and don't plan on using Apple's photo products.
• Battery life: Haven't tested it yet but plan to.
• If you are a developer and you've upgraded to El Capitan, you know the drill of re-installing command line apps.

Hope this helps. If you are adventurous and have back ups, I'd recommend the upgrade from El Capitan on a similar configuration as mine.

Are the Photos app processes always running?

 

[darcyf]

Anyone here still rocking the factory installed HDD on their 15" MBP with Sierra? I don't have an SSD and am considering upgrading to Sierra from Yosemite. Am I crazy to do this without an SSD? I have the 750GB drive, 2.4Ghz i7, 16GB ram, AMD Radeon 1GB.

 

[saudor]

Anyone here still rocking the factory installed HDD on their 15" MBP with Sierra? I don't have an SSD and am considering upgrading to Sierra from Yosemite. Am I crazy to do this without an SSD? I have the 750GB drive, 2.4Ghz i7, 16GB ram, AMD Radeon 1GB.

It will feel like a new computer. I found the ssd to be the greatest upgrade (even more than going from 4gb to 8gb)

 

[darcyf]

It will feel like a new computer. I found the ssd to be the greatest upgrade (even more than going from 4gb to 8gb)

I'm not adding an SSD. I'm considering upgrading to Sierra and wondering if not having an SSD will make Sierra more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Brammy]

I'm not adding an SSD. I'm considering upgrading to Sierra and wondering if not having an SSD will make Sierra more trouble than it's worth.

I wouldn't.

Auto unlock won't work on your device. Siri isn't something worth the upgrade unless you really want to use it. The iCloud Optimization might leave you without a local copy if you don't have an internet connection. Plus there are the battery issues.

That said, I'd still upgrade to an SSD. It will breathe new life into that machine.

 

[EDF]

I wouldn't unless you know your AU's and other plugins are going to work fine.

 

[miscend]

How about battery life and general performance on the older macbooks?

 

[RichardC300]

How about battery life and general performance on the older macbooks?

Hard to tell with aging batteries. I don't notice significant battery differences at the time of major updates, so it should be negligible.

 

[Brammy]

Sierra 10.0 was a dumpster fire of battery on my 2011 Pro and 2014 Air. That said, I haven't tried lately. I might try 10.2 once it's released.

 

[srhelnsmth]

After much thought and research online, I decided to upgrade to Sierra. I had backups for everything just in case.

I must say overall I am very happy with the result and I would recommend an upgrade if and only if you have the exact same configuration/setup as mine. System is faster to boot, apps open quicker, UI is snappier.

My setup: MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 2.0Ghz, 1TB EVO SSD, 16GB 1333Mhz RAM. Everything else are Apple components. Here are some of my observations (these have been pointed out many times already)...

Negatives

• MacBook PRO runs hotter when plugged in. But mostly due to Photos (see below). This will take days to settle if you have a large photo collection (mine's not too bad around 100GB but its been going at it for about 12 or more hours and still hasn't settled).
• Photos app -- DUH, they are now running some heavy hitting AI algorithms on your Mac. Processes eating my CPU: photoanalysisd, diskkimages-helper, Photos app in general. Note: these only kick up if I connect to power, on battery the CPU is almost same as what I remember seeing in El Capitan. I wish there was a way to turn this off. I use Google Photos anyway for my automatic albums and don't plan on using Apple's photo products.
• Battery life: Haven't tested it yet but plan to.
• If you are a developer and you've upgraded to El Capitan, you know the drill of re-installing command line apps.

Hope this helps. If you are adventurous and have back ups, I'd recommend the upgrade from El Capitan on a similar configuration as mine.

Thanks for the helpful post. I have the exact same setup that you do, and am wondering if the photos sorted themselves out? I'm still running Mountain Lion, just upgraded to a 1.0 TB SSD and 16 GB of RAM. It's awesome, and I know that the computer could handle Sierra, but, I'm not interested in any upgrade that's going to slow down the machine long term, which it sounds like an overextension on the CPU would. Also - I have about 124 GB of photos, only likely to grow over time thanks to my job. How did the photos management turn out?

 

[Apple 26.2]

After much thought and research online, I decided to upgrade to Sierra. I had backups for everything just in case.

I must say overall I am very happy with the result and I would recommend an upgrade if and only if you have the exact same configuration/setup as mine. System is faster to boot, apps open quicker, UI is snappier.

My setup: MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 2.0Ghz, 1TB EVO SSD, 16GB 1333Mhz RAM. Everything else are Apple components. Here are some of my observations (these have been pointed out many times already)...

Hope this helps. If you are adventurous and have back ups, I'd recommend the upgrade from El Capitan on a similar configuration as mine.

I know this post/thread is a little old, but I wanted to say thanks to @dashwin: Your information helped me make up my mind to install Sierra (vice El Capitan, coming from Mavericks) on a similar hardware... very well articulated and summarized. Along with Sierra, I also installed a new SSD, 16GB RAM, and a new battery... it's almost like I have a new computer. Cheers!

 

[CreativeSeoul]

#22
I have an MBP Early 2011 15'' and facing the problem with the blurred screen when I reduce / change the resolution size from standard to a lower one. I don't have this problem, when I have the standard scaled resolution. I tried everything from PRAM to SMC Reset, restarting, quitting all apps. Nothing worked. Also I never used Photos before, but i started and quit it by myself. Still the blurred screen / fonts are there since I updated from El Capitan to Sierra (10.12.2). In El Capitan and also before I never had this kind of problem. It is very frustrating and I cannot use my setup like before. Aynonelse facing these issues or has other suggestions?

Also in the Apple forum 2011 MPB owner are reporting this problem. (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7725238?start=0&tstart=0)
--- Post Merged, 2 minutes ago ---
↑
See the thread about how Sierra causes MBP screens to become blurred at lower resolutions.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sierra-makes-my-2011-mbp-screens-blurred.2019636/

Anyoneelse facing the same issues?!

 

[intelssd]

I have a early 2011 MacBook Pro 8GB Ram and 2012 CRUCIAL SSD and actually upgraded directly from Lion 10.7.5 to 10.12.2 Sierra. I find it hard to believe it worked and no issues to report just fyi.

 

[realtwang]

I have a early 2011 MacBook Pro 8GB Ram and 2012 CRUCIAL SSD and actually upgraded directly from Lion 10.7.5 to 10.12.2 Sierra. I find it hard to believe it worked and no issues to report just fyi.

I was very wary of upgrading before now, but reading this thread makes me feel confident I'll have good results, with maybe even a slight improvement performance-wise. I'm using the elusive 17" Early 2011 with 16GB RAM, a 1TB Crucial SSD, and the AMD discrete GPU card with 1024MB. Here goes nothing!...

 

[realtwang]

Mine has the discrete GPU. So I think the dGPU has its own ram.

Discreet GPUs have their own RAM. Upgrading your Mac's RAM will not change that factor.

 

[realtwang]

I was very wary of upgrading before now, but reading this thread makes me feel confident I'll have good results, with maybe even a slight improvement performance-wise. I'm using the elusive 17" Early 2011 with 16GB RAM, a 1TB Crucial SSD, and the AMD discrete GPU card with 1024MB. Here goes nothing!...

After using Sierra for almost a month now, I can report it's running smoother and more efficiently with Logic than El Capitan was (no more cursor lag!). So far, so much better! I don't know how much having a quad-core CPU makes the difference, but I would take it into account. But I would definitely upgrade your RAM to 16GB. Just for the record, I'm also running a 27" LED Cinema Display.

 

[33quentin]

Hi, I have a big trouble!

I replaced my MacBook Pro 2011 airport card with a BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX one. But when I started macOS, it says Bluetooth: not available. The same thing appeared with an old BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX that I trashed because thinking Bluetooth part was dead... my question is: is there any solution to make it work, I know this trouble happened to several users under macOS Sierra.

Thank you for your answers!

OS : macOS Sierra 10.12.4
MacBookPro8,1 Late 2011

 

[mac98aop]

It works great for me, I don't use the apps you mentioned, but I have had no issues with the beta versions. It does work with CAT, in case you have modified you machine for that. Just make sure to download the newest CAT tool.

Forgot to mention, I use it on the early 2011 MBP 13 and 15 inch.

Hi there
I'm thinking of updating to Sierra, on Early 2011 MBP 13, SSD but still only 4GB Ram.
I'm not editing video (!) but do use it as a work machine and like the Finder to run smoothly (it's running delightfully on Mavericks!)
Wondered if any have it installed with the original 4GB Ram and find it OK? I heard it takes a few days to settle down with indexing and Photos etc?
Thanks everyone

 

[simon lefisch]

Hi, I have a big trouble!

I replaced my MacBook Pro 2011 airport card with a BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX one. But when I started macOS, it says Bluetooth: not available. The same thing appeared with an old BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX that I trashed because thinking Bluetooth part was dead... my question is: is there any solution to make it work, I know this trouble happened to several users under macOS Sierra.

Thank you for your answers!

OS : macOS Sierra 10.12.4
MacBookPro8,1 Late 2011

You need to run CAT (Continuity Activation Tool) to restore Bluetooth functionality. Search this thread for CAT.

 

[simon lefisch]

Hi there
I'm thinking of updating to Sierra, on Early 2011 MBP 13, SSD but still only 4GB Ram.
I'm not editing video (!) but do use it as a work machine and like the Finder to run smoothly (it's running delightfully on Mavericks!)
Wondered if any have it installed with the original 4GB Ram and find it OK? I heard it takes a few days to settle down with indexing and Photos etc?
Thanks everyone

Should work fine. I have a late 2011 with 16GB RAM but since you have an SSD, it should run smooth. Maybe upgrade the RAM later to 8GB/16GB.

If you really want to try it out, here's what you can do:

If you have an extra external HD available, you can download Carbon Copy Cloner (free for 30 days) and make a bootable clone of your current drive/OS. Then update your machine to Sierra and give it a test run. If you find it to your liking, keep it in you machine.

If it's not running that good for you, connect your external drive that has the clone, reboot your machine into Startup Manager (hold Option button), choose your external drive to boot from, open CCC, and clone your original system back to your internal drive. You'll pick up right where you left off from the time the clone was made.

**Note: any file changes from the time you start running Sierra will be deleted when cloning the original OS back to your machine. Make sure to backup those files before you start cloning.

 

[WarezChewy]

Hello everyone!

I have a MacBook Pro 13 Inch (Early 2011) with an SSD hard drive and 16 GBs of Ram. I'm currently running OS X El Capitan and it runs very smoothly! I work with apps like Logic Pro X, Adobe, Kontakt, Sibelius etc...

So I am wondering wether it would be a good idea to update to macOS Sierra when it comes out (today I think). The new features look great and I'd love having them but I'm a bit worried about updating because I don't want my computer to get slower. So does anyone have any experience with how Sierra runs on an Early 2011 MacBook Pro?

Thanks in advance

[doublepost=1498228536][/doublepost]Quick Question, I know the earlier Macs like the 2011 can be Finicky with Ram Upgrades. Do you have a PN or link for the 16GB of ram running in your 13" MBP 2011?

 

[mikecwest]

I am running the 1600 MHZ DDR3, I believe its Kingston