Mid-2012 Macbook Pro Upgrade Help

[Asris]

Earlier today, I read that that the system requirements for running WoW on Macs are going up by quite a bit and I've realized that I need to upgrade my Mac if I want to continue playing the game. However, I have never actually upgraded my Mac since buying it so I decided to come to the forums for help, advice, referrals, etc., for what to buy to get my Mac ready in time for Legion.

My specs for my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro are as follows:
- Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
- Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB

Any and all sites would be appreciated as well.

[Kagthul]

The only thing you can upgrade is the RAM and the Hard Drive.

There's no way to get a better GPU or CPU.

[the boar]

My specs for my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro are as follows:
- Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
- Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB

well, actually.. a mid-2012 macbook pro has a Nvidia GeForce GT 650M with either 512MB or 1GB video ram depending on whether you have the 13" or 15" respectively

as stated above, ram and storage are really the only things you can upgrade. your ram will be 2x 2GB, so if you do want to upgrade to 8 GB you'll have to buy 2x 4GB (or 1x 8GB but unless i have been wrong all these years, 2 sticks perform better than 1)

i reckon you'll be able to play legion, but i can't know how good of an experience it'll be. i was able to run pandaria on a macbook (not pro) from around 2003 and it was pretty awful in lfr, but was actually playable in dungeons. - however i used to raid icc heroic on a toaster and became quite accustomed to raiding at 5-10fps (anyone else who had to suffer this kind of thing knows that when it is constantly that low, you can actually play through it quite well) and of course everyone's standards of playability vary.

tl;dr

only real easy way to upgrade a macbook pro to the point you want to is probably buying a newer model, sadly.

vv - good info below, thank you

[Artorius]

(or 1x 8GB but unless i have been wrong all these years, 2 sticks perform better than 1)

It's practically meaningless nowadays because RAM speed is too high regardless. I'd go with 1x8 so he can go up-to 16 later if possible.