I am surprised you even got 40 fps in minecraft on this

I have a 15-inch model, just a few years older in my collection. What, I enjoy about these intel Apple laptops in the late 2010's, was the fact that, they still have a DVD super-dive, support the white Apple remote control, and the Apple logo on the top "lights-up" when, the computer is turned on (smile...smile).

I've got one of these, a 5,2 "mid 2009" with black bezel and glossy screen. I bought it new and keep it around running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) in order to run older apps, including PowerPC apps. Snow Leopard was the last version that could do that (via Rosetta). I also installed an SSD. I miss having all those ports and an optical drive with newer Macs.

Crazy how small the trackpads used to be

10:10 Minecraft on macOS full screen acts differently. You have to actually press the full screen toggle in Minecraft, not the window. This is because Minecraft still runs at the full native screen resolution if you press the green. And you have to put the FPS to unlimited, don't limit it to 60, since the cpu will push out more fps and it won't be as laggy. And if you want to see FPS count press FN+F3, and it will show you on the top left Also next time use Lunar Client as that will install FPS boost mods which would help out the old macbook

I have gone through 2 of these in 6 months, the first one just died and won't turn on, the second one the screen starts flashing and glitching after a while and it's not very usable, i think the issue is with the capacitor which the 2010 model also has this issue too. I'm going to try and get both of mine fixed because I really liked using it especially for watching KZfaq videos which you can watch 1080p videos and they look great on the 17" screen. They run Monterey and Windows 10 quite well too.

on these older macs 1.18 and up are quite laggy unfortunately, I have a 2010 imac(unmodified) and I have to play in 1.17 or earlier for a smooth experience

Dang, I didn’t know they even got Big Sur running on these things!

It looks more modern than a new macbook pro.

I still do logic board repair for A1278, A1286 and A1297 models (because I love them and collect them haha). If you are looking for a 17inch A1297, I highly recommend a 2010. The reason the 2010 is the best model is Apple only made the A1297 for 3/4ish years, There's the originals which is the Late 2008 - 2009 A1297, The 2010 A1297 and finally the 2011 A1297, unfortunately Apple did not make a A1297 for the 2012 model year, if they did it would have been the best one. The problem with the 2008-2009 models is the logic board has a design fault on an MCP cap, theres a tantalum cap (C7771) which fails very regularly and when it fails the machine shows a green light on the charger and won't boot. For someone with soldering experience, swapping this cap out with a bigger non tantalum cap is very easy and then the board won't fail again but if you don't know what you are doing it would really ruin your day. The 2010 A1286 does have an issue with the GPU framebuffer circuit on the cap C9560 that causes the machine to randomly have GPU related kernel panics or just randomly reboot because when the cap is failing it causes power spikes in the framebuffer circuit. I have never not once seen this issue on a 2010 A1297 as they changed the cap in this model (it's still tantalum however). So while it's possible it could fail, it's very rare. The 2010 A1297 appears to be the most solid 17inch and having a i7 instead of a C2D is much better, also the GPU doesn't fail on these models! The 2011 has the dreaded GPU failures. While these machines can be fixed by flashing deMux by DosDude1 on the gMux to completely disable the GPU, You loose the dGPU but you are trading it for a 2nd gen i7 instead of a first gen i7 and the ability to upgrade these machines to 16GB and obviously flashing the deMux requires soldering skills. I have done it to both my 2011 A1297's. These machines are often the cheapest out of the 3 to pick up because you can normally score them broken, flash them with deMux which cost only $20 if you know what you are doing and have the equipment. Also cool note about the 2011 machines (if you think they are cool like me) is DosDude1 upgraded one to being technically a "2012" by swapping the PCH and CPU, I plan to do this on one of mine soon! :)

I have that exact Mac. Dropped an SSD in it and upraged the RAM. Works fine. just a collecting Mac. Bro youd love my vintage 2006 17" with the matte screen. It is Mint and works fine. I cant really get websites up but its just a collector too. But it works fine. Wish I knew how to get it higher then Mac OS Lion. I tried open core legacy. Every old mac I have runs ventura or sonoma perfectly.

My two 2011 17" Macs with the matte screens both run baremetal linux amazingly. Fast as f--k man

Does Siri work on Big Sur in this MacBook?

I still use a 2010 MacBook Pro 17 inch, with an Ssd and an extra Ssd for archiving purposes. Works fine. I recommend against using open core as that meant the appearance of a line on the screen. I must now replace the screen. Try High Sierra and else swap to Linux mint via bootcamp windows 8 install. A small partition. Or pre-install a hard disk with Linux and swap the inner drive. I can still use homebrew on the 2010 MacBook Pro but it mutters. And in te end it will not find internet just as my iMacs from 2004 and 2007. Their cut off the internet thru software development. If you want to access the internet with old Mac’s you need to install Debian or an Ubuntu-distribution. The MacBook Pro 2010 can cope with mint 22, MATE. An Ubuntustudio 16 or 17 install. Before installing Linux prepare a Mac Recovery usb, CD or DVD, or use an older server Netinstall from an older iMac.

How do you use the 9600gt? i have monterey in the same laptop, but it only using the 9400m.

How can you tell if its the capacitor or the motherboard gone? I have one and it will not turn on.

Screws and rubber feet are pennies on ebay one whole set up is like 6$

One minor correction: I believe the GeForce 9400M is indeed integrated graphics. It's very misleading, but I think that's the case. The 9600M GT is of course dedicated.

The display was amazing considering its a 2009 Computer. I mean Apples 1080p will be more amazing than other 1080ps.

If you use youtube a lot, i'm sorry, but laptop cpus like core 2 duo can't do more than 480p or 720p30fps video playback without frame skip

Design wise, these things were way ahead of time

No notch on the screen.

No

Downgrade to Catalina for better Minecraft fps

First