Dear macrumors members and guests!
I'm starting this thread mainly to obtain some nice statistics on 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display, which may help others to decide on a purchase or determine if their machine's cooling system is working within specs. Many of us uses their machines for computation-heavy tasks and knowing that cooling system is capable is very important for system stability and reliability. If the CPU runs at 105C, it'll start to throttle down to stay at that temperature, since it is TJMax for almost all Intel CPU nowadays. It will not only hit the performance, but running at such high temperatures will also reduce your computer lifetime and increase the chance of failure.
The idea is to run 8 threads from terminal that will put 100% load to all 8 virtual cores (4x real cores + hyper threading) with fans at their highest RPM. Then you need to measure CPU core temperature and enclosure/battery temperature after 8-10 min and post the results.
Here's the protocol:
1. Install iStat Menus (http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/)
It's free for 15 days and is actually the best monitoring program I know.
2 (optional). Set all fans to the highest RPM. Go to Sensors -> Edit Rules and create a new one. After that you can select it from menubar icon!
It's not required as both fans will fish all the way to 5500rpm once you 100% load the CPU.
3. Open terminal and execute this command:
yes > /dev/null
create a new terminal window and repeat 8 times. Now you have 8 processes that load your CPU up to 800%.
Here's what iStat menubar looks like on the 2.6Ghz model:
I had my hands on three different RMBP machines, and here're the results:
1st:
2.6Ghz, 16Gb RAM (July 2012):
CPU: 105C
Battery / Enclosure: 30C / 29C
2nd:
2.3Ghz, 8Gb RAM (September 2012):
CPU: 83C
Battery/Enclosure: 30C / 30C
3rd:
2.6Ghz, 16Gb RAM (November 2012):
CPU: 103C
Battery/Enclosure: 30C / 30C
All measurements are takes after at least 10min with fans at full rpm.
P.S. The 1st and the 3rd are done with both stock and replaced thermal compound. 2nd (2.3Ghz model) was completely stock.
I'm starting this thread mainly to obtain some nice statistics on 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display, which may help others to decide on a purchase or determine if their machine's cooling system is working within specs. Many of us uses their machines for computation-heavy tasks and knowing that cooling system is capable is very important for system stability and reliability. If the CPU runs at 105C, it'll start to throttle down to stay at that temperature, since it is TJMax for almost all Intel CPU nowadays. It will not only hit the performance, but running at such high temperatures will also reduce your computer lifetime and increase the chance of failure.
The idea is to run 8 threads from terminal that will put 100% load to all 8 virtual cores (4x real cores + hyper threading) with fans at their highest RPM. Then you need to measure CPU core temperature and enclosure/battery temperature after 8-10 min and post the results.
Here's the protocol:
1. Install iStat Menus (http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/)
It's free for 15 days and is actually the best monitoring program I know.
2 (optional). Set all fans to the highest RPM. Go to Sensors -> Edit Rules and create a new one. After that you can select it from menubar icon!
It's not required as both fans will fish all the way to 5500rpm once you 100% load the CPU.
3. Open terminal and execute this command:
yes > /dev/null
create a new terminal window and repeat 8 times. Now you have 8 processes that load your CPU up to 800%.
Here's what iStat menubar looks like on the 2.6Ghz model:
I had my hands on three different RMBP machines, and here're the results:
1st:
2.6Ghz, 16Gb RAM (July 2012):
CPU: 105C
Battery / Enclosure: 30C / 29C
2nd:
2.3Ghz, 8Gb RAM (September 2012):
CPU: 83C
Battery/Enclosure: 30C / 30C
3rd:
2.6Ghz, 16Gb RAM (November 2012):
CPU: 103C
Battery/Enclosure: 30C / 30C
All measurements are takes after at least 10min with fans at full rpm.
P.S. The 1st and the 3rd are done with both stock and replaced thermal compound. 2nd (2.3Ghz model) was completely stock.