All reference to the Radeon Card is gone.Ĥ – If you go back in to preferences, and then Energy Saver, the “Automatic Graphic Switching” option is now unchecked. If your computer works, thats the main thing.ģ – When you click the Apple icon in the top left and then select “About This Mac”, it will say “Intel HD Graphics”. Don’t worry about it even though it appears wrong. I had one start up where it looked like the screen had crashed but I let it go and it righted itself, and hasn’t done it again since.ġ – Even though I have checked “Load gfxCardStatus at startup” in the preferences multiple times, the check mark always disappears, but the program still loads at startup every time – Awesome! Just leave it.Ģ – Even though we have selected Integrated for everything, for some reason it shows a “d” in the menu bar (indicating dynamic or discrete). I have been using this fix for over a week now and it hasn’t skipped a beat. Now, hopefully, your Macbook Pro will work again and be reasonably stable.
When its plugged in the power hungry faulty card is used, so disconnect from power. My machine kept crashing not long after it would boot, which made it impossible to work on, until I found out that if you don’t have it plugged in to the power, it should boot using the integrated graphics. This is not a guaranteed permanent fix – But it has been working for me, and hopefully you experience similar results. **THIS HAS WORKED FOR ME – I HOPE IT WORKS FOR YOU, BUT I CANT GUARANTEE IT** The truth of the matter is, if you aren’t a gamer, the Integrated Intel Graphics Processor is just fine, and thankfully this chip is what allows you to get your machine up and running again. The reason Apple included two graphics processors is that the ATI Radeon is super fast, which is great for the gaming experience and video, and when you are working on spreadsheets or sending emails, the integrated Intel processor uses way less power and considerably increases battery life. There are actually two graphics processors in these machines, the Discrete Card which is an ATI Radeon (This is the one that fails) and an Integrated one, which is an Intel Chip integrated into the motherboard. The problem stems from the Graphics Card. I paid over $3000 for it, and whilst it is 6 years old now I have grown incredibly fond of it, and I really wanted to revive it. I'm likely going to get a 16" model next year.If you are reading this, there is a good chance it is because your 2011 Macbook Pro bit the dust big time, just like mine did.
But my needs and usage is not the same as others. I would rather personally keep my 15" MacBook Pro Unibody then give up the screen size. You also need to do it at time of purchase as you can't alter it later (unlike the 13/15" Unibody MacBook Pro's. The newer retina 2016 (butterfly) or older 2015 (scissor) I think that's getting closer in the comparison.Īs far as costs most of the 2012 13/15" Unibody logic boards are in the $450~650 where the buying the newest 2020 13" MacBook Air is $1000 ~1300 range at the base and adding RAM & storage gets expensive! And the 2016 ~ 2019 MacBook Pro retinas they are still more expensive and they also force you into USB-C. Whereas the 2012 has a better GPU and not as badly CPU throttled.
The new air has a very nice screen, but it doesn't have the GPU power and is thermally limited. I think you need to reword what you wrote as your first statement, doesn't jive with what you say at the end.Īs far as the pro's and con's of refitting a 2012 logic board into a 2011 system Vs buying a MacBook Air 2020.