Independent guide. Not affiliated with Dortania or the OpenCore Legacy Patcher project.Official project on GitHub
OCLP Field Guideoclp.dev
OCLP 2.5.1/3.0.0 RC5

MacBook Pro · 2011

MacBook Pro 2011: the newest macOS it can run

Every MacBook Pro sold in 2011, what Apple supports, what OpenCore Legacy Patcher adds, and what to expect on each macOS version. Generated from the OCLP 3.0.0 source.

Checked against OCLP 3.0.0-rc.5 sourceUpdated 9 min read
On this page 6 sections
  1. Which MacBook Pro 2011 do you have?
  2. macOS versions compared
  3. Model by model
  4. Installing on the MacBook Pro 2011
  5. Common questions
  6. Other Macs from 2011

Short answer

Apple stopped at macOS High Sierra. With OpenCore Legacy Patcher the MacBook Pro 2011 runs macOS Big Sur through macOS Tahoe 26. Our pick for most people: macOS Monterey (its GPU has no Metal support, so newer versions lose more apps). No Intel Mac can run macOS 27.

Which MacBook Pro 2011 do you have?

Apple sold 3 different models as the MacBook Pro 2011. They can behave differently with OCLP, so check your model identifier: choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then More Info > System Report, and read Model Identifier. Or open Terminal and run sysctl hw.model

IdentifierSold asGraphicsApple's last macOSOCLP
MacBookPro8,1MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)		Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge)
AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2)		High SierraYes
MacBookPro8,2MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)		Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge)
AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2)		High SierraYes
MacBookPro8,3MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge)
AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2)		High SierraYes

macOS versions compared

  • Apple supported by Apple, no patcher needed
  • OCLP runs with OpenCore Legacy Patcher
  • Legacy runs with OCLP; older “legacy Metal” GPU, more patches
  • No Metal runs with OCLP; GPU without Metal, apps that need Metal fail
  • No not possible
ModelCatalina10.15Big Sur11Monterey12Ventura13Sonoma14Sequoia15Tahoe26Golden Gate27
MacBookPro8,1NoNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo
MacBookPro8,2NoNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo
MacBookPro8,3NoNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo MetalNo

Model by model

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) · MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)MacBookPro8,1

Model identifier
MacBookPro8,1
Board ID
Mac-94245B3640C91C81
CPU generation
2nd-gen Core i (Sandy Bridge)
Graphics
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge)
AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2)
Wi-Fi
Broadcom BCM4360 (802.11ac)
Last macOS from Apple
macOS High Sierra
T1 / T2 chip
None
Battery rating
1,000 cycles to 80% capacity, Apple

Our pick

macOS MontereyNewest possible: macOS Sequoia

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge) + AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2), without Metal. Monterey keeps the most apps working on it. How we pick

MacBookPro8,1: macOS Big Sur to Tahoe, and what OCLP patches on each
macOSStatusRoot patches OCLP applies
macOS Big Sur11.7.11No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2
macOS Monterey12.7.6No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2
macOS Ventura13.7.8No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2
macOS Sonoma14.8.9No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless
macOS Sequoia15.8.2No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless
macOS Tahoe26.7.2No MetalIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless · Modern Audio
macOS Golden Gate27NoNo Intel Mac can run macOS 27, with or without OCLP.

Compared with the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) MacBookPro7,1

WhatMacBookPro7,1MacBookPro8,1
CPUCore 2 Duo (Penryn)2nd-gen Core i (Sandy Bridge)
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce (Tesla)Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge) + AMD Radeon HD 5000–6000 (TeraScale 2)
Wi-FiBroadcom BCM4331 (legacy)Broadcom BCM4360 (802.11ac)
BluetoothBRCM2046BRCM2070
  • Root patches on Tahoe. New compared with the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010): Intel Sandy Bridge, AMD TeraScale 2 and Modern Wireless. No longer needed: Nvidia Tesla, Legacy Wireless and Legacy USB 1.1.
  • Kexts OpenCore loads. Added: AirportBrcmFixup.kext, IOSkywalkFamily.kext, IO80211FamilyLegacy.kext, AirPortBrcmNIC-Tahoe.kext and BigSurSDXC.kext. Dropped: AAAMouSSE.kext, telemetrap.kext, NoAVXFSCompressionTypeZlib.kext, NoAVXFSCompressionTypeZlib-AVXpel.kext, NoAVXFSCompressionTypeZlib-AVXpel-Tahoe.kext, corecaptureElCap.kext and IO80211ElCap.kext. (23 kexts on the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010), 21 here, from our builds.)

How much patching MacBookPro8,1 needs on each macOS

macOSPatch setsFiles installedFiles removedKDKMetallibSupportPkg
Big SurIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 22856NoNo
MontereyIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 23456NoNo
VenturaIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 23656YesNo
SonomaIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless3856YesNo
SequoiaIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless4156YesNo
TahoeIntel Sandy Bridge · AMD TeraScale 2 · Modern Wireless · Modern Audio4456YesNo

OCLP installs 28 files for this Mac on Big Sur and 44 on Tahoe. A Kernel Debug Kit is needed from Ventura.

From OCLP's own documentation

Universal Control. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth hardware: Wi-Fi 4 + BT 2.1 EDR. Not out of the box. Replace stock AirPort card with a BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX/BCM94331PCIEBT4 card Dortania, Universal Control guide

OCLP changelog entries that name this Mac, newest release first, word for word:

  • 0.6.2 Work around Black Box rendering issues on certain Display Color Profiles → Applicable for HD3000-based machines (ex. MacBookAir4,x, MacBookPro8,x, Macmini5,x)
  • 0.4.5 Add GUI Prompt for booting mismatched OpenCore configs → ex. Booting MacBookPro8,1 config on MacBookPro11,1
  • 0.3.0 Add Legacy GMUX patchsets → Applicable for dual GPU MacBookPro5,x and demuxed MacBookPro8,x
  • 0.2.5 Allow disabling of TeraScale 2 Acceleration during root volume patch → Use for MacBookPro8,x with heavily degraded dGPUs

On Tahoe this Mac needs Intel Sandy Bridge, AMD TeraScale 2, Modern Wireless and Modern Audio. What each of those restores, and what to keep ready when root patching: macOS Tahoe: what works and what does not.

Known issues

  • non-Metal GPU (macOS 11+) (source) Dortania, Supported Models
What OCLP puts on the EFI partition for MacBookPro8,1 OpenCore 1.0.6 RELEASE · 21 kexts

From our build with the OCLP 3.0.0-rc.5 app's command line (--build --model MacBookPro8,1) on a GitHub macOS runner, 2026-11-05. Boot arguments: keepsyms=1 debug=0x100 -lilubetaall -btlfxallowanyaddr amfi=0x80.

Kexts Reasons are shown for kexts that set this Mac apart; the rest are explained in the kext glossary.

  • Lilu.kext 1.7.2
  • CryptexFixup.kext 1.0.5
  • AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext 1.0.0
  • AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient.kext 1.0.0
  • ASPP-Override.kext 1.0.1 Forces ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin to outmatch X86PlatformPlugin and disable firmware throttling
  • CatalinaBCM5701Ethernet.kext 1.0.2 Inject old Broadcom Ethernet kext to resolve networking in Big Sur Needed on: 2011 and older Broadcom Ethernet require.
  • ECM-Override.kext 1.0.0
  • CatalinaIntelI210Ethernet.kext 1.0.0
  • AirportBrcmFixup.kext 2.2.1
  • IOSkywalkFamily.kext 1.2.0
  • IO80211FamilyLegacy.kext 1.0.0
  • AirPortBrcmNIC-Tahoe.kext 1.0.0
  • AppleALC.kext 1.6.3-Jazzzny
  • BlueToolFixup.kext 2.7.2
  • Bluetooth-Spoof.kext 1.0.0 Injects extra data into certain bluetooth chipsets for recognition by the system Needed on: Models with the BCM2070 or BCM2046 chipsets.
  • BigSurSDXC.kext 1.0.0 Restores SDXC Support in Pre Ivy-Bridge Macs
  • CSLVFixup.kext 2.6.1
  • AMFIPass.kext 1.4.1
  • RestrictEvents.kext 1.1.7
  • AppleUSBTopCase.kext 1.0.0 Restore USB Keyboard support on Mac OS Ventura
  • AppleUSBMultitouch.kext 1.0.0 Restore USB Trackpad support on Mac OS Ventura

Settings specific to this Mac

  • Overriding ACPI SMC matching 41 of 86 builds
  • Enabling Windows 10 UEFI Audio support 21 of 86 builds
  • Enabling BCM943224 and BCM94331 Networking Support 24 of 86 builds
  • Using known ARPT Path: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1C,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0) 19 of 86 builds
  • Setting RestrictEvents patch arguments: sbvmm 43 of 86 builds

10 more settings are applied to most of the 86 Macs we built; they are listed in the full build log.

Full build log · config.plist · file list

Our build for MacBookPro8,1 loads 21 kexts in an EFI folder of 36.5 MB. Across the 86 Macs we built, the median is 18; 60% of builds load fewer.

What owners reported for MacBookPro8,1 16 reports on GitHub

16 issues were filed in OCLP's tracker with MacBookPro8,1 as the machine model (16 closed, 0 open), filed 2021 to 2025; the newest is from 2025-04-04. The topics that come up most, by keyword match in the title and text: install or update (5), graphics (3) and black screen or boot failure (2). These are owners' reports, not confirmed bugs, and older ones were filed on earlier OCLP versions.

  • #1161 2025-04-04 · closed · macOS 10.14, Mojave · 1 comment Minor issue: Installer window still shows "Opencore Legacy Patcher 2.2.0" when installing version 2.3.1
  • #983 2022-02-26 · closed · Monterey · 1 comment Continue button is missing in Stocks app
  • #967 2022-02-17 · closed · Monterey · 3 comments Post install patch is not allowed do to unsupported board id.
  • #764 2021-11-29 · closed · Monterey, macOS 11, Big Sur · 8 comments Intel HD 3000 Showing strange shadows
  • #654 2021-10-28 · closed · Monterey · 14 comments Bluetooth not working BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) · MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)MacBookPro8,2

OCLP treats this model exactly like MacBookPro8,1: the same CPU, graphics, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth data, the same root patches on every macOS, and the same kexts in our build. What differs: board ID Mac-94245A3940C91C80 instead of Mac-94245B3640C91C81, a 15-inch screen instead of 13-inch and sold as MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) · MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011). The macOS table, patch timeline and build details above apply unchanged.

What owners reported for MacBookPro8,2 35 reports on GitHub

35 issues were filed in OCLP's tracker with MacBookPro8,2 as the machine model (35 closed, 0 open), filed 2021 to 2022; the newest is from 2022-05-16. The topics that come up most, by keyword match in the title and text: install or update (16), graphics (12) and black screen or boot failure (6). These are owners' reports, not confirmed bugs, and all of them were filed on OCLP versions from before 2024, so many describe problems that have since been fixed.

  • #989 2022-05-16 · closed · Monterey · 2 comments Issue with OpenCore-Patcher-GUI.app.zip 0.4.5
  • #966 2022-02-17 · closed · Big Sur · 1 comment macBook 8,2 no brightness control.
  • #905 2022-01-23 · closed · Monterey · 11 comments Can't install post volume patch, MBP late 2011
  • #589 2021-10-19 · closed · Big Sur · 11 comments unable to log in after post install patch upon reboot
  • #220 2021-05-13 · closed · 14 comments MacBookPro8,2/3 Display Sleep Wake Issues

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)MacBookPro8,3

OCLP treats this model exactly like MacBookPro8,1: the same CPU, graphics, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth data, the same root patches on every macOS, and the same kexts in our build. What differs: board ID Mac-942459F5819B171B instead of Mac-94245B3640C91C81, a 17-inch screen instead of 13-inch and sold as MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011). The macOS table, patch timeline and build details above apply unchanged.

What owners reported for MacBookPro8,3 11 reports on GitHub

11 issues were filed in OCLP's tracker with MacBookPro8,3 as the machine model (11 closed, 0 open), filed 2021 to 2022; the newest is from 2022-01-23. The topics that come up most, by keyword match in the title and text: install or update (6), black screen or boot failure (3) and graphics (2). These are owners' reports, not confirmed bugs, and all of them were filed on OCLP versions from before 2024, so many describe problems that have since been fixed.

  • #903 2022-01-23 · closed · Big Sur · 1 comment Booting from "Kanex Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet + USB 3.0 Adapter" works, with help
  • #756 2021-11-24 · closed · Monterey · 4 comments Menu Bar Text Color always black
  • #686 2021-11-03 · closed · macOS 10.15, Catalina · 8 comments An error occurred loading the update (MacBookPro8,3) with Monterey release 12.0.1[Bug]:
  • #544 2021-10-05 · closed · Big Sur · 2 comments Airplay only shows black screen
  • #446 2021-08-16 · closed · Big Sur · 4 comments Big Sur won't boot after applying post-install volume patch [Bug]:

Installing on the MacBook Pro 2011

Choose MacBookPro8,1 or MacBookPro8,2 or MacBookPro8,3 as the target model when OCLP builds OpenCore (it detects it automatically when you run OCLP on this Mac). Before that, install the newest macOS Apple offers for it, macOS High Sierra, so the firmware is current. The steps themselves are the same for every Mac: How to install OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

Common questions

What does OCLP patch on a MacBook Pro 2011 running Tahoe?

The root patches for its hardware: Intel Sandy Bridge, AMD TeraScale 2, Modern Wireless and Modern Audio. Which one applies depends on the model identifier; the table above lists each. Updates to macOS remove them, and Post-Install Root Patch puts them back.

What is the latest macOS for a MacBook Pro 2011?

Officially, macOS High Sierra. With OCLP: macOS Tahoe 26.7.2. macOS 27 does not support any Intel Mac.

Why do some apps not work on a patched MacBook Pro 2011?

Its graphics processor does not support Metal, Apple's graphics API. OCLP restores OpenGL acceleration, so the system runs smoothly, but apps that require Metal cannot run. That gets worse with each macOS version, which is why we suggest Monterey for these Macs.

Other Macs from 2011

Keep going

How to installThe complete step-by-step guide for OCLP 3.0macOS TahoemacOS 26 on unsupported Macs with OCLP 3.0Mac compatibilityEvery Intel Mac and the macOS it can run, with and without OCLP

Something wrong or out of date on this page? Email hello@oclp.dev and we will fix it (see our corrections policy).