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The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, model A1502, features fifth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and introduces the Force Touch trackpad.

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Can I upgrade the logic board on my Early 2015 MBP Retina?

My Early 2015 MBP (A1502) which I could only afford the 2.7Ghz/8GB/128GB is getting a bit long in the tooth so to speak. I impulsively ordered a used 3.1Ghz/16GB (820-4924-A) which the listing said is compatible with all A1502 MBPs (Early 2015). I'm confident it should be a one-for-one swap, but aside from the hardware swap, is there anything I need to do software wise? I have strong tech skills when it comes to hardware but am a luddite when it comes to the software side of things. One more thing to note (if relevant), I replaced the stock 128GB SSD with a 512GB oem unit which is working great. Thank you in advance guys, this is such a rad forum and resource!

Update (01/20/2018)

Also, how much of a performance upgrade should I be reasonably expecting?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Hello,

Once you have 'enough' memory for all your applications to run, having more memory won't increase performance any further. And in this case, what that means is that for regular desktop work, you'll be hard pressed to find any tangible performance difference between 8GB and 16GB of system memory.

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If you review the two links above you'll see the performance diffierences (Geekbench). The good news here is you've upgraded from an i5 to an i7 CPU which will give you more threads (2 cores - 4 threads) over your older CPU (2 cores - 2 threads) So apps which are multi-threaded will run much better!

The clocking frequency between the two is very little 2.7 Vs 3.1 so a single threaded app won't run that much faster. But! These CPU's do offer Turbo Boost 2.0 so they can ramp up the clock frequency 3.4 Vs 3.1 GHz of one of the cores which helps!

As for the SSD change out a larger SSD does improve things from the die level of the SSD and the ability of the processor to leverage deeper storage. The trick is to make sure you have at least 1/4 of the space as empty (128 GB) for a 512 GB SSD and for a 128 GB SSD we need around 1/3 (40 GB).

RAM gets tricky! Basic word processing won't stress 8 GB of RAM, but deeper apps like photo editing can leverage the deeper RAM as well as video and gaming.

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Dan, thank you for taking the time for explaining a few questions that I was unsure of. One last one, do I do a system restore after installation as if I was just doing a clean install of the OS? Thanks again for the help!

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The logic board swap in its self does not need any alteration to the OS. As you also talk about swapping out the SSD I would do a fresh OS install and then do a restore from TimeMachine.

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I am looking at doing this exact thing. Same MacBook Pro, same specs, same upgrade. And I wanted to get some advice. How did this go? Did it work out? Anything to look out for? I’m looking at embarking on this swap by next week.

Any info would be an awesome help.

Thanks John @scrivs

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john Scrivener will be eternally grateful.
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