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I'm currently running 10.13.6 and have a MacBook pro 8,3, 2.2 GHz.

How can I upgrade my GPU for my 2011 17" early to run Mojave?

I've heard I could replace the logic board with a newer GPU and processor but can't seem to find the company.

I also heard they offer a 1 year guarantee.

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    Welcome to Ask Different :) What is the model of Mac you are talking about? Is it a MacBook Pro? Kindly edit it in the post.
    – Nimesh Neema
    Commented Jul 10, 2019 at 22:08

2 Answers 2

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To run Mojave on this machine you might to check out macOS Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs. A software solution that allows installation – and offers some serious limitations for an unsupported configuration. It does work, but it's probably not worth it in every case. Although you can't beat the price at 0 Dollars…

Test it out to see if you can live with the limitations inherent to this solution.

The 17 inch being a major obstacle for this plan:

In 15 inch MacBook Pros you might source a newer logic board that fits into the case. That is probably what "you heard they offer…"
But 17 inch was never made by Apple after your model. So there never will be anything that was once officially supported by Apple and or Mojave.

So your hackish options for that machine are:

  • making your own logic board (perhaps not overly realistic)
  • upgrade just the GPU on your existing logic board

The second option is doable (just one example showing the effort and equipment needed). Albeit quite complicated. But it also requires you to find an independent repair shop or other expert willing to do that, and source a replacement GPU. People willing and actually being capable of this will be rare in any case. This is absolutely forbidden by Apple to do for anyone being an Apple Authorized Service Provider. Forget about asking a genius at the bar about this.

You'd need to find a 'hacker'-type to solder that in. That will probably not be very cheap, not overly reliable, and again completely unsupported. One problem is that graphic switching gets in the way.

Only exchanging the GPU would still leave you with the Intel 3000HD integrated into the Sandy-Bridge CPU. Which is still commonly used then when graphics switching is enabled.

So upgrading from a Terascale Radeon HD 6000 series to a Radeon GCN. For example going from a Radeon HD 6490M to a Radeon HD 7730M. Note how confusing AMD named, and re-branded their chips and cards. And compare how these 'newer' but now equally old chips compare to for example newer integrated Intel iGPUs of the type HD Graphics 620.

It also would sensibly require a CPU swap as well. Going to Ivy Bridge, generation 3. Or advanced tinkering with hackintosh configurations, boot loaders, drivers or patches.

With "support" I not only mean "never bring that again near an ASAP" but hardware and software of such a FrankMac (including EFI, smc, OS…) were never tested in this config. The electro-physical connectivity is one thing, the limited compatibility of options Apple decided to ship and support are another. Laptops are so highly integrated these days… I doubt it would be worth it, neither in terms of money, time, effort or ensuing reliability and lifetime of the machine – except for "we made it do".

The realistic run down is:

  1. Stay below 10.14
  2. Use the patcher
  3. Make the machine stationary and use an eGPU (also not supported and obviously taking away mobility)
  4. Buy a newer machine
  5. burn some money on an adventure that may very well ruin the still functioning hardware you have for an exciting experiment with unclear outcomes
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  • my machine is 8 years old and still very functional so the hack is the only answer i was looking for. I could care less of Apple support because i breached that the moment it came off warranty which i loaded up excessive RAM and SSD that is not supposed to be supported but works fine.
    – steve
    Commented Jul 11, 2019 at 14:42
  • im totally fine doing the soldering myself but need a GPU that matches the circuit and thats beyond me.
    – steve
    Commented Jul 11, 2019 at 14:42
  • @steve with "support" I not only mean "never bring that again near an ASAP" but hardware and software (EFI, smc, OS…) were never tested in this config. The electro-physical connectivity is one thing, the limited compatibility of options Apple decided to ship and support are another. Laptops are so highly integrated these days… (In case still fixated: contact Louis Rossman if in US, or people like Sadaghian if in Germany and ask their opinion on you desires. If you do and they respond, you may well post that as answer?) Commented Jul 11, 2019 at 15:08
  • Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to give you kudos but couldn't figure it out.
    – steve
    Commented Jul 11, 2019 at 17:38
  • You claim that "the second option is doable". Can you provide any evidence that this is actually possible, or is this purely a conjecture on your part?
    – user101978
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 4:09
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It is not possible to update the MacBook Pro 17" Early 2011 hardware for supported use with macOS Mojave. It is simply not supported.

It is not possible (in any practical sense of the word) to replace the GPU with a newer model, nor do any third party company produce alternative logic boards with newer GPUs that run macOS Mojave. An external GPU won't make it possible to upgrade either as they're not supported on your hardware with Mojave.

As hardware upgrades for obtaining compatibility are unrealistic, you might want to look at a software option instead - namely the macOS Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs. Basically it removes compatibility checks to make it possible to run Mojave on unsupported hardware, while making various changes to have some support for older hardware:

http://dosdude1.com/mojave/

Note that it is not a supported option by Apple. It will most probably break at some point during a point-upgrade of macOS. You're also likely to experience various GPU-related problems with your hardware - they advise to disable the discrete GPU. This means that you'll experience lower performance.

Note that on your model, it is advised to reflash the logic board to disable the switching between GPUs. You'll need an FGPA programmer and the software detailed here:

https://computeco.de/Demux

If you don't do that, you'll need to either run without any GPU acceleration (extremely slow), or manually disabling the dedicated GPU like described here:

http://dosdude1.com/gpudisable/

However it also wrecks sleep mode and brightness control.

So all in all, it's not going to be an ordinary Mojave experience - you'll find problems, glitches and lower performance.

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