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Horvo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
4
0
Is the smc fan control the only way to go or is there something better? Is Lubbo's fan control better and does it work on the new 15.4 MBP since they have nVidia GPUs? Thanks
 

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
iFanAutoControl ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/ifanautocontrol/ ) is by far the best one to use in Windows when running in Boot Camp. It completely automates the fan and has good/usable settings (playing 3D games in Windows, my 2008 Macbook Pro never got hot at all and it's the one with the questionable NVidia 8600M GT chip).

SmcFanControl is an OSX program by comparison (i.e. you can only run it in OSX, although its settings normally survive a boot into Windows, but cannot be further adjusted). Furthermore, it only sets a MINIMUM speed, so to be safe running games, you'd need to set your fans to full speed and reboot and leave them running full speed all the time. It's not even that great a program to use in OSX for that reason, IMO. It has no upper temperature setting. In other words, it will gladly let your Mac fry itself if you start pushing the CPU (unless you manually turn up the fan to a higher setting). It has a minimum higher setting which is only good for manual control and having a cooler idle temperature. I don't know why the author has never added an upper temperature point to ramp up the fan to a higher setting (even a 3-tier setup would be better than nothing).
 
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