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What OS is best for MacBook Pro late 2011

MacOS Sierra runs fine on my Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro with an SSD. Have yet to try High Sierra on that hardware.
EugW said:
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.
Click to expand...
The update is much more compelling for newer hardware than it is for older hardware. I'm considering downgrading my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro to Sierra because the performance is slightly worse now on High Sierra, but have no reason to do the same on my primary 5K iMac. My iPhone is still on iOS 10, but admittedly I'm probably in the minority there.

As for third-party developers cutting off MacOS Sierra well before High Sierra, I'm doubtful that will happen in too many cases. More likely the two will be grouped together, as Lion and Mountain Lion were for many (but not all) apps that no longer support either one.

Edit: Concerning HEVC support, since it is a standard codec and not Apple proprietary, third-party software such as VLC should be able to play it fine on Sierra, though it might not be able to play in Quicktime Player or iMovie (I have not checked specifically).
 
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redheeler said:
MacOS Sierra runs fine on my Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro with an SSD. Have yet to try High Sierra on that hardware.

The update is much more compelling for newer hardware than it is for older hardware. I'm considering downgrading my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro to Sierra because the performance is slightly worse now on High Sierra, but have no reason to do the same on my primary 5K iMac. My iPhone is still on iOS 10, but admittedly I'm probably in the minority there.

As for third-party developers cutting off MacOS Sierra well before High Sierra, I'm doubtful that will happen in too many cases. More likely the two will be grouped together, as Lion and Mountain Lion were for many (but not all) apps that no longer support either one.

Edit: Concerning HEVC support, since it is a standard codec and not Apple proprietary, third-party software such as VLC should be able to play it fine on Sierra, though it might not be able to play in Quicktime Player or iMovie (I have not checked specifically).
Click to expand...
Yeah, Sierra is good, esp. for older hardware. It's mature, and actually a lot of programs that worked fine on Sierra don't work so well on High Sierra. The under the hood changes in High Sierra seem to have caused more problems with legacy software than usual.

vlc is not very good for HEVC playback. There are other third party players that are better than vlc for HEVC playback, but they cannot leverage hardware acceleration of HEVC without High Sierra. Just as importantly though, Apple software just don't work properly with the new formats (HEIC and HEVC) in Sierra or below, and iPhones already encode in these formats (if you select them in the settings, to save space).
 
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...


Sorry for the old bump but did you get round to doing this?
 
Everyone here talks about "if you have an SSD..."

I think most Early 2011 MBP doesnt, .. I'd like advice on which macos to use without having to spend money on SSD or RAM.

Apple states High Sierra as the latest supported, but is it the fastest? (Again, considering NO upgrades to RAM or SSD, so 4GB RAM and just a normal 512 HDD)
[automerge]1579541893[/automerge]
EugW said:
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.
Click to expand...
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...
cambookpro said:
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.
Click to expand...


Everyone here talks about "if you have an SSD..."

I think most Early 2011 MBP doesnt, .. I'd like advice on which macos to use without having to spend money on SSD or RAM.

Apple states High Sierra as the latest supported, but is it the fastest? (Again, considering NO upgrades to RAM or SSD, so 4GB RAM and just a normal 512 HDD)
 
I’d be more worried about the hardware. Every 15” 2011 machine is a ticking timebomb due to Radeongate.

If you’re on a 2011 15” MBP, now is a perfect time to buy the 16” machine.
 
Kagio said:
Everyone here talks about "if you have an SSD..."

I think most Early 2011 MBP doesnt, .. I'd like advice on which macos to use without having to spend money on SSD or RAM.

Apple states High Sierra as the latest supported, but is it the fastest? (Again, considering NO upgrades to RAM or SSD, so 4GB RAM and just a normal 512 HDD)
Click to expand...
Personally, I think any version of macOS / OS X worth running on that machine really needs an SSD. You probably want to run at least 10.10 for software compatibility reasons, but 10.11-10.13 would be preferred. However, all of those OSes are quite slow on 5400 rpm laptop HDs. Actually, 10.11 El Capitan is probably faster than 10.10 Yosemite BTW.

OTOH, if you upgrade to SSD, upgrading past 10.11 won't be a problem performance-wise if you don't hit the system too hard. RAM then becomes the bottleneck once you have an SSD installed. 8 GB is preferred, but 4 GB is manageable with light usage.

If I were on a budget, this is what I would do:
Buy a cheap SSD and install it.
Install 10.13 High Sierra.
Keep the 4 GB RAM.

----

tl;dr:

At least 10.10, but actually 10.11 is probably faster so just install 10.11 (or later).
However, if you install 10.11, you probably want an SSD.
10.13 runs fine on an SSD. 8 GB is preferred, but 4 GB is usable for light work.
 
EugW said:
Personally, I think any version of macOS / OS X worth running on that machine really needs an SSD. You probably want to run at least 10.10 for software compatibility reasons, but 10.11-10.13 would be preferred. However, all of those OSes are quite slow on 5400 rpm laptop HDs. Actually, 10.11 El Capitan is probably faster than 10.10 Yosemite BTW.

OTOH, if you upgrade to SSD, upgrading past 10.11 won't be a problem performance-wise if you don't hit the system too hard. RAM then becomes the bottleneck once you have an SSD installed. 8 GB is preferred, but 4 GB is manageable with light usage.

If I were on a budget, this is what I would do:
Buy a cheap SSD and install it.
Install 10.13 High Sierra.
Keep the 4 GB RAM.

----

tl;dr:

At least 10.10, but actually 10.11 is probably faster so just install 10.11 (or later).
However, if you install 10.11, you probably want an SSD.
10.13 runs fine on an SSD. 8 GB is preferred, but 4 GB is usable for light work.
Click to expand...

thanks for the reply really appreciate it

Im just finding a little confusing to get the concrete answer given my “limitations”. Like, whats the answer assuming ill NEVER do SSD or more RAM?

you mean ANT new os NEEDs ssd?
 
I’m running an early 2011 MacBook Pro on High Sierra and it runs great, no problems.

edit: it has 16g ram and a SSD. But it’s the lowest spec base i5 13” available in early 2011. It’s snappy, not a slow computer, it just keeps going.
 
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Kagio said:
thanks for the reply really appreciate it

Im just finding a little confusing to get the concrete answer given my “limitations”. Like, whats the answer assuming ill NEVER do SSD or more RAM?

you mean ANT new os NEEDs ssd?
Click to expand...
10.11 will run on a laptop 5400 rpm hard drive, but it will feel slow. It’s noticeably better on a desktop 7200 rpm hard drive but it’s much, MUCH better on an SSD.

SSD/8GB > SSD/4GB >>> HD/8GB > HD/4GB

In contrast, 10.6 for example will run very fast on a hard drive, but it’s pointless because 10.6 is pretty much useless. I retired a fully functional 10.7 MacBook because it had way too many software / OS limitations, and I couldn’t easily install a later OS on it.

I consider 10.11 the real minimum. 10.10 would work but 10.11 is actually probably faster.

Ironically, that 10.7 MacBook was a 2008 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook4,1, and I replaced it with a slower 2008 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook5,1, because the latter computer could be upgraded officially to 10.11 (and easily to 10.13 unofficially).
 
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Up. Any ideas for macbook pro 13 late 2011, 16 gb, 256 ssd nowdays?
Thinking about Maverics or El Capitan, need for garageband and logic pro. Need speed and stability.
 
lopuxilo said:
Up. Any ideas for macbook pro 13 late 2011, 16 gb, 256 ssd nowdays?
Thinking about Maverics or El Capitan, need for garageband and logic pro. Need speed and stability.
Click to expand...

Get rid of it. The igpu on that (HD3000) isn't even supported on chrome for hardware decoding of anything. It also runs hot as hell.
 
splifingate said:
These will invariably be found elsewhere.

For basic, general Operating Use, you could go with High Sierra...

...or, just start using Linux.

VOID Linux is extremely efficient, and very performant.
Click to expand...
I'm below zero in Linux;) plus nоt sure about music creation in linux;) high sierra...maybe. Thx
 
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