Chosen Solution
Hi guys, I just upgraded my original mbp early 2011 320GB HDD to a SSD and 16GB RAM, and just due to curiosity, can I actually upgrade graphic card for it, as I’ve seen apple official store lists the graphic card sales under macbook accessories section. Thanks in advance.
Short answer: No Long answer: The problem with upgrading your graphics card is it is soldered to the motherboard. If you were super confident, found the exact same pin arrangement on another graphics card, and were able to desolder the old one and resolder the new one without breaking anything then it would theoretically work. But I don’t think its ever been done.
Some of the bigger (15" - 17") MacBook Pros had 2 GPUs. The one, low power, soldered to the motherboard, and the second, high power and only activated on demand by certain apps, was on a little extra circuit board. I’ve read somewhere that on these models, the secondary GPU could be upgraded.
ahhhh i dont think 2011 macbook pros were soldered. thats the 2012 retinas and beyond, making the 2011 upgradeable
A1278 macbook pro can we add new GPU as metal does not support new OS. so i think what is the use of upgrading SSD and ram if it cannot install new softwares?
Im running Big Sur on my early 2011 13inch pro i7 with a 500 gb ssd and 16 gigs of ram. I used open core legacy patcher to install big sur and the required patches to get gpu acceleration to work. My computer is running very well and fast. There is noo need to try a gpu upgrade. If you can try to get a new airport card to get airdrop working, i feel as that would be the only other worthwhile hardware upgrade.
