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One time I saw it climb as high as 102º C—hot enough to boil water. If doing anything slightly intensive, my 15" MBPR is the same; I've had it hover at 100-105

One time I saw it climb as high as 102º C—hot enough to boil water. If doing anything slightly intensive, my 15" MBPR is the same; I've had it hover at 100-105C for periods. Why not scale down the CPU at crazy temperatures? Intel CPUs have a cutout, but the entire machine needs a more gradual solution. Running at 90C+ is not viable long term. Now it's over 2 years old, I might just buy a entry level MBP instead rather than maxing out as I usually do. They seem fast enough now and what's the point if I can't even use the full power?

Kurtz79 12y ago
Same here. I bought the version with dedicated graphics for some light gaming, but the GPU throttles almost immediately, I doubt I'm getting better performance than I wold have with just Intel integrated graphics. I have reapplied thermal paste (which improved things a little bit), used a cooling laptop stand (useless), fiddled with smcfancontrol and other applications, to no avail. But I'm not drilling holes on the case, as someone said it would be hard to explain when reselling it :).
- petercooper 12y ago
  My problem is more with the CPU than GPU. However, there's an app that lets you switch to using the integrated graphics only (which is fine for most situations, unless you plug in an external display) which is well worth trying.
IgorPartola 12y ago
Not to try to convince you to get something different, but FWIW there are more differences in the MBP and MBA lineup than just CPU and GPU. For me, the two major factors were RAM amount (couldn't get 16 GB's with anything but MBP 15" at the time), and ability to hook up multiple external displays. My current setup is the laptop screen + two external displays. At least as of a year ago MBA's and 13" MBP's could do this. At best, you could drive two external displays with a 13" MBP (but not its own screen). USB video cards are a solution, but consider that they drive CPU usage through the roof unless you are staring at a very static screen. I used to use one of these to display my terminal. Then one day I put the browser on this screen and was checking GMail when I heard my laptop basically lift off the desk from the heat and speed of the fans.
tbrock 12y ago
Actually it's my understanding that they are all essentially the same chip cut from the same dye. What differentiates the chips with the higher clock speed from hose with the lower speeds is that they heat up less quickly during testing and were therefore able to be clocked higher for sale.
lookrealclose 12y ago
>Why not scale down the CPU at crazy temperatures?. Are you kidding me? What's the point of even buying the faster CPU then? You could just, you know, design the computer properly. You hive-minded Apple fans are so unaccustomed to critical thinking that you don't see Tim Cooks writing on the walls.

Kurtz79 12y ago

Same here. I bought the version with dedicated graphics for some light gaming, but the GPU throttles almost immediately, I doubt I'm getting better performance than I wold have with just Intel integrated graphics. I have reapplied thermal paste (which improved things a little bit), used a cooling laptop stand (useless), fiddled with smcfancontrol and other applications, to no avail. But I'm not drilling holes on the case, as someone said it would be hard to explain when reselling it :).

petercooper 12y ago
My problem is more with the CPU than GPU. However, there's an app that lets you switch to using the integrated graphics only (which is fine for most situations, unless you plug in an external display) which is well worth trying.

IgorPartola 12y ago

Not to try to convince you to get something different, but FWIW there are more differences in the MBP and MBA lineup than just CPU and GPU. For me, the two major factors were RAM amount (couldn't get 16 GB's with anything but MBP 15" at the time), and ability to hook up multiple external displays. My current setup is the laptop screen + two external displays. At least as of a year ago MBA's and 13" MBP's could do this. At best, you could drive two external displays with a 13" MBP (but not its own screen). USB video cards are a solution, but consider that they drive CPU usage through the roof unless you are staring at a very static screen. I used to use one of these to display my terminal. Then one day I put the browser on this screen and was checking GMail when I heard my laptop basically lift off the desk from the heat and speed of the fans.

tbrock 12y ago

Actually it's my understanding that they are all essentially the same chip cut from the same dye. What differentiates the chips with the higher clock speed from hose with the lower speeds is that they heat up less quickly during testing and were therefore able to be clocked higher for sale.

lookrealclose 12y ago

>Why not scale down the CPU at crazy temperatures?. Are you kidding me? What's the point of even buying the faster CPU then? You could just, you know, design the computer properly. You hive-minded Apple fans are so unaccustomed to critical thinking that you don't see Tim Cooks writing on the walls.