EDIT: FOR DISCUSSION ABOUT THE MACBOOK PRO 2010 BUGS IN SIERRA, ALL RELEVANT INFO FROM THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO A SEPARATE THREAD INSTEAD: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...h-affect-all-macbook-pro-2010-models.2000559/
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Installation took about 25 minutes on a MacBook Pro 2010 with an SSD.
I barely notice any difference. I am gonna have to install a new desktop wallpaper to make it feel new.
This is stable and uneventful.
Siri is nice, but its servers are overloaded right now.
MacBook Pro 2010 also has the usual issue with overzealous switching to the dedicated GPU. Currently these apps require the dGPU for me:
- gfxCardStatus 2.3 (yes this app itself has a bug caused by Sierra and the developer isn't active anymore; read all about it here
https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus/issues/240).
- SiriNCService (Siri requires the dedicated GPU and it stays like this all the time except if I disable Siri; hopefully Apple fixes that later, after lots of MBP 2010 users complain to them about the fans running all the time and the battery life sucking).
- BetterTouchTool 1.86 (and I also tried the previous 1.83 version and saw the same issue. the app already has "NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching" in Info.plist, so that's not it. this shows that Sierra has changed some frameworks and how graphics switching works, and that this app and gfxCardStatus, and very likely other ones too, will now trigger the dGPU whereas in the past they didn't).
Temporary workaround: Disable Siri, Quit gfxCardStatus and BetterTouchTool.
So, to summarize it:
- Sierra has modified some graphics framework which now causes the MacBook Pro 2010 to enable the dedicated GPU in a few more apps than in the past. But it still seems to be a very specific, isolated thing... because heavy apps like Apple Pages and Zengobi Curio do NOT trigger the dGPU for me. So hopefully BetterTouchTool and gfxCardStatus can be fixed!
- Siri requires the dedicated GPU in the MacBook Pro 2010.
- Hopefully Apple fixes these. I can't live without BetterTouchTool and gfxCardStatus, and come on Apple, what the hell is so hard about not using the dedicated GPU? I don't get how Apple still hasn't figured that out.
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Edit: Meh, decided to check all my apps to see which ones trigger the dedicated GPU on the MBP 2010:
- 1Password 6: No
- Affinity Designer: YES, but it did that on El Capitan too. (Note: The app has an option to "use only integrated GPU" but it doesn't work in Sierra, not sure if it worked on El Capitan. May never have worked on MacBook Pro 2010s, since Apple's frameworks require MBP 2011 or later for certain integrated GPU capabilities)
- Affinity Photo: YES, but it did that on El Capitan too. (Note: The app has an option to "use only integrated GPU" but it doesn't work in Sierra, not sure if it worked on El Capitan. May never have worked on MacBook Pro 2010s, since Apple's frameworks require MBP 2011 or later for certain integrated GPU capabilities)
- Airflow: No
- Alfred 3: No
- Anki: No
- Apple's built-in apps: No (except Apple Photos, which strangely requires the dGPU!)
- Apple's iWork apps: No (except iMovie, but that's logical to require the dGPU since it's heavy)
- Arq: No
- Audio Hijack 3: No
- BetterTouchTool: YES, and it DIDN'T do that on El Capitan!
- BetterZip 3: No
- Caffeine: No
- Curio 10: No
- DEVONthink Pro Office 2: No
- Disk Sensei: No
- Dropbox: No (but be sure you're running the latest 10.4.26 beta or later, because the latest public release requires the GPU (even on El Cap), and they fixed that in the next Dropbox beta)
- Fantastical 2: No
- Gemini 2: No
- gfxCardStatus 2.3: YES, and it DIDN'T do that on El Capitan!
- Google Chrome: YES, but it did that on El Capitan too.
- Helium: No
- Logic Pro X: YES, as soon as you open a project it requires the dGPU, but it did that on El Capitan too.
- OmniFocus 2: No
- Skype 7: No
- Transmission: No
- Typinator 6: No
- Vitamin-R: No
- VLC: YES, and I don't remember if it did that on El Capitan. Can anyone with a MacBook Pro 2010 and El Capitan check?
- Xee: YES, but it did that on El Capitan too. (Note: The app has an option to uncheck "use discrete GPU if available" but it doesn't work in Sierra, not sure if it worked on El Capitan. May never have worked on MacBook Pro 2010s, since Apple's frameworks require MBP 2011 or later for certain integrated GPU capabilities)