I was doing the same until last week, happily chugging along on my pet project when my 2011 15" MBP screen went white as a ghost. Diagnostics all point toward a problem with the GPU; apparently that generation has a known defect that's only (temporarily) repairable by replacing the logic board. A repair too costly for me to justify.
My recommendation would be to avoid graphically intense work if you hope to continue using the machine for a long time.
I was seriously bummed when my machine died. Fortunately I was able to buy one of the very last Apple refurbed 2015 MBPs, which is still user upgradable to some extent, and avoids all the horrendous design trade-offs of the more recent generations.
My recommendation would be to avoid graphically intense work if you hope to continue using the machine for a long time.
I was seriously bummed when my machine died. Fortunately I was able to buy one of the very last Apple refurbed 2015 MBPs, which is still user upgradable to some extent, and avoids all the horrendous design trade-offs of the more recent generations.
Best of luck keeping the old machine going!