Thought and bought MBP Retina 2012 for ±200USD. My experience

[vorob]

Yep, that's the question I want to experiment with a Retina MacBook. My previous experience was only with the pre-retina 2011 model and the 2006 model with a Core 2 Duo processor and X1600 graphics. As for the price, that's the lowest I could find in Russia; there's no way to purchase on eBay right now.

The first one has a basic i7 processor at 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and a GT650M; the second one has an i7 at 2.5GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and a GT750M.

Can these laptops be upgraded to the latest macOS with custom patches?

Is 8GB DDR3 still relevant in 2024?

Is 1GB of VRAM a problem?

Most likely, I'll be doing some easy tasks like reading info, watching YouTube, editing photos from a 2013 camera, and playing retro games from the laptop's era.

P.S. The 2015 Retina model with R9 graphics is too expensive. The Touch Bar models have issues with the screen cable and keyboard, and they are even higher in price, closer to the M1 MacBook Air, which makes such a purchase nonsensical.

P.S. It's not a money issue; I just want the cheapest Retina MacBook with a discrete GPU to experiment with. So it's not a vital question, just for economy and fun.

 

[Andrey84]

Can these laptops be upgraded to the latest macOS with custom patches?

Please see https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/MODELS.html
The later the release date of the laptop, the more chances it has to be supported by OCLP. However, it seems like both are supported.
If your experiments involve updating to Sonoma or even higher in autumn this year, go with the 2014.

8GB of RAM might still be enough if you're just browsing the internet and watching YouTube on it.

Otherwise, without knowing the nature of your "experiments", it's very hard to advise anything.

 

[vorob]

Found third variant - i7@2.6/8Gb/512SSD/gf650m for 212$, cleaning and setupping it now. It’s in overall good condition, but has a tiny dot on a screen. It’s pretty visible on black screen and almost nonexistent on white. Since it’s not in the center guess I can live with it.

Decided to go for High Sierra at first.

 

[vorob]

I've been continuing my research on this machine. With my Steam library fully loaded, it would be a crime not to try gaming natively on macOS. I installed Steam, Borderlands PS, and Metro Last Light Redux. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster. In Borderlands, I struggled to maintain around 30 fps with constant stuttering, while Metro Last Light proved to be a complete mess, dropping to 15-20 fps in certain locations. And I'm sure I'm not playing in native res.

However, installing Windows 10 via BootCamp made a world of difference. Borderlands now runs smoothly at 40+ fps with consistent frame rates, and Metro sits comfortably at 40-50 fps. I can't fathom why the developers didn't thoroughly test their games.

There's one nagging issue though. Initially, the GPU clock reaches 900mhz but later drops to 800mhz and remains there. Even overclocking the GPU only provides a temporary boost before reverting to the lower clock speed. It feels as if some software override is in play, but I can't pinpoint the exact cause.

Another curiosity is whether the CPU in macOS is officially undervolted. Unfortunately, I haven't found a tool to undervolt the CPU in Windows either. ThrottleStop lacks the necessary options, and Intel XTU is missing crucial buttons.

 

[vorob]

Guys there any special limits for gpu / cpu in mbp 2012? Specs states I’ll have GeForce 650 at 900mhz and Intel I7-3720QM at 2.6ghz. And I see these values on single load or in light tasks. But then I launched the game that loads both CPU and GPU, that’s the result:

GPU stock at 800 MHz
CPU stuck at 1200 MHz or somewhere near.

When I forced CPU to work at higher clock my GPU frequency dropped significantly