2 Q's on my new MacBook Pro

shez · Nov 29, 2015

Hi. I recently purchased the new 2015 Retina Macbook Pro 15" (2.2Ghz i7 Haswell/16GB Ram/256GB Flash) and have a few questions if anyone can help me.

1. The CPU temperature runs around 45-55 degrees under normal use but when put under a bit of strain (downloading) the CPU temps raise up to 90 degrees. Is this normal and is it safe for the processor to hit these temperatures?

2. When changing the battery the magsafe LED is orange - when the battery is full this turns to green. if I leave the power connected I'm guessing the Macbook then uses the mains power instead of the battery - am I right?

Thanks in advance.

Tentallon · Nov 29, 2015

Congrats on your new purchase! I think that the temps are fine. That doesn't seem to out of line. And I believe that when charging the MacBook that Apple set them up to stop charging when full to keep the battery from constantly charging.

T5BRICK · Nov 29, 2015

shez said:
Is this normal and is it safe for the processor to hit these temperatures?

Yup. If it were getting too hot, it'd shut down.

if I leave the power connected I'm guessing the Macbook then uses the mains power instead of the battery - am I right?

Correct. My rMBP is plugged in most of the time and my battery has very few cycles on it because of this. You just want to let it run down and charge enough that it completes 1 cycle every month.

shez · Nov 30, 2015

Excellent thanks peeps

maflynn · Nov 30, 2015

shez said:
1. The CPU temperature runs around 45-55 degrees under normal use but when put under a bit of strain (downloading) the CPU temps raise up to 90 degrees. Is this normal and is it safe for the processor to hit these temperatures?

Yup, perfectly normal. My 2012 rMBP runs in that same temp range.

2. When changing the battery the magsafe LED is orange - when the battery is full this turns to green. if I leave the power connected I'm guessing the Macbook then uses the mains power instead of the battery - am I right?

Yes, for the most part. I typically run my laptop plugged in quite often and I've not run into issues.

andreyush · Nov 30, 2015

T5BRICK said:
Correct. My rMBP is plugged in most of the time and my battery has very few cycles on it because of this. You just want to let it run down and charge enough that it completes 1 cycle every month.

Why is it need to completes 1 cycle evey month ?

MushroomMan · Nov 30, 2015

Those temps are obviously not Centigrade?
haha

Aneef · Nov 30, 2015

andreyush said:
Why is it need to completes 1 cycle evey month ?

"To keep electrons flowing in and out of the battery"

T5BRICK · Nov 30, 2015

andreyush said:
Why is it need to completes 1 cycle evey month ?

Apple used to have a page suggesting it, but I couldn't find it last time I looked. They compared it to exercise.

MagicBoy · Nov 30, 2015

MushroomMan said:
Those temps are obviously not Centigrade?
haha

What are they then?

LIVEFRMNYC · Nov 30, 2015

andreyush said:
Why is it need to completes 1 cycle evey month ?

I'm no battery expert, but from watching my iStat app ...... My battery health was at 98% health at first, after 11 cycles it shown 100% health. I was told by a friend if I wait too long to use it on battery power again, the health would slow decrease back down in percentage. So I make sure to drain it down to warning level 10% once every two weeks. Probably overkill on my part though.

MagicBoy · Nov 30, 2015

Yeah, it's overkill. The batteries as fitted to the 2011 onwards Macs will take high cycle counts and partial discharges in their stride. My 2011 was still at 96% with nearly 700 cycles on it by the time I got replaced.

On the flipside, the 2006 I had was terrible. A couple of hundred cycles and it would give you 10 minutes tops. I went through three batteries in that machine, all genuine Apple.

Adamantoise · Nov 30, 2015

MushroomMan said:
Those temps are obviously not Centigrade?
haha

Of course they are ... You think CPU's idle at 45-55 Fahrenheit? Lol, that's cooler than room temperature.

LIVEFRMNYC · Nov 30, 2015

MagicBoy said:
Yeah, it's overkill. The batteries as fitted to the 2011 onwards Macs will take high cycle counts and partial discharges in their stride. My 2011 was still at 96% with nearly 700 cycles on it by the time I got replaced.

On the flipside, the 2006 I had was terrible. A couple of hundred cycles and it would give you 10 minutes tops. I went through three batteries in that machine, all genuine Apple.

Good to know. Thanks.

MushroomMan · Nov 30, 2015

Adamantoise said:
Of course they are ... You think CPU's idle at 45-55 Fahrenheit? Lol, that's cooler than room temperature.

You guys serious - CPU temps get to 90 degrees Centigrade - that is crazy hot?
We all know that's only 10 degrees C away from water turning to steam!

I had no idea the internals of my trusty computer could possibly reach that kind of temperature.
(I thought like 60 - 70 degrees C would have been a maximum).

T5BRICK · Nov 30, 2015

MushroomMan said:
You guys serious - CPU temps get to 90 degrees Centigrade - that is crazy hot?
We all know that's only 10 degrees C away from water turning to steam!

I had no idea the internals of my trusty computer could possibly reach that kind of temperature.
(I thought like 60 - 70 degrees C would have been a maximum).

The maximum temperature for the Intel Core i7 4770HQ is 100C. They can get pretty hot.

http://ark.intel.com/products/83505/Intel-Core-i7-4770HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz

MushroomMan · Nov 30, 2015

T5BRICK said:
The maximum temperature for the Intel Core i7 4770HQ is 100C. They can get pretty hot.

http://ark.intel.com/products/83505/Intel-Core-i7-4770HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz

Cheers for the info T5BRICK - I learn something new every day.......... 100C is out of control!

snaky69 · Nov 30, 2015

MushroomMan said:
Cheers for the info T5BRICK - I learn something new every day.......... 100C is out of control!

Not out of control no. That's just normal operating temperature for mobile chips. Desktop chips run much cooler, because there's a lot of air to move around in a desktop.

MagicBoy · Nov 30, 2015

MushroomMan said:
You guys serious - CPU temps get to 90 degrees Centigrade - that is crazy hot?
We all know that's only 10 degrees C away from water turning to steam!

I had no idea the internals of my trusty computer could possibly reach that kind of temperature.
(I thought like 60 - 70 degrees C would have been a maximum).

News just in : CPUs are made of silicon, not water!

BTW that's the on die temperature of the CPU core, not the surface temperature of the cooling system.

snaky69 said:
Not out of control no. That's just normal operating temperature for mobile chips. Desktop chips run much cooler, because there's a lot of air to move around in a desktop.

Desktop chips are also rated to 100 or 105C. Above that they throttle back power consumption to prevent premature failure.

Adamantoise · Dec 2, 2015

MushroomMan said:
You guys serious - CPU temps get to 90 degrees Centigrade - that is crazy hot?
We all know that's only 10 degrees C away from water turning to steam!

I had no idea the internals of my trusty computer could possibly reach that kind of temperature.
(I thought like 60 - 70 degrees C would have been a maximum).

Oh yeah, processors get close to boiling point for water, that's normal for them.

MushroomMan · Dec 3, 2015

Adamantoise said:
Oh yeah, processors get close to boiling point for water, that's normal for them.

Always appreciate being schooled by you guys here

So, how about portable devices like iPad, iPhones etc - do their processors reach similar temperatures?

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