2018 MBP 560x boiling hot to the touch, is Vega any better?

[DRuser]

My 2018 2.2 560x MBP gets super hot on bottom and between TB/screen. This occurs even with very light usage like surfing the web or writing emails. The temps are never under 60 °C for the CPU and quickly ramp up above 70° C when adding little more load like watching Youtube videos.
This means the device is always uncomfortable hot. When I touch it on the bottom it feels like burning my fingers if I don't pull away after a second.

This is my third device with the exact same specs and all of them showed the same behaviour. Hence I am thinking about returning it - again. I was wondering if the Vega version is any better due to the changed heatpipe design? What interests me the most is how the Vega Laptops feel when you have them on your lap. Is it uncomfortable hot under light usage?

Thanks

 

[Gamer-Dad]

Temps depend on a lot of other factors. However, when I had my 2.6/512/16/560x, my average temps remained well under 60 normal loads (idle around 40) and my loads would never get above 80 unless I was stressing the system which then it would be in the high 90's.

 

[robvas]

That is normal and within spec...

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I have a 2018 2.6 560x MBP and my temps only get above 70c when playing 4K videos at 60fps on Youtube, or editing/rendering video. The temps you are experiencing is NOT normal.

I'm in a room temperature environment.

This is my average temps while just browsing.

 

[LogicalApex]

What is the ambient temperature of your room? If your in a fairly hot room the MBP will be hotter overall as it will have a harder time dumping its heat into the air...

 

[Queen6]

I have a 2018 2.6 560x MBP and my temps only get above 70c when playing 4K videos at 60fps on Youtube, or editing/rendering video. The temps you are experiencing is NOT normal.

I'm in a room temperature environment.

This is my average temps while just browsing.


View attachment 813366

OP may have a tad more going on than just one tab open and the CPU pulling less than 1W. 60C - 70C is normal for the majority of Mac's with some load applied.

2014 2.8 MBP sat on the desk, is just serving up YouTube, some webpages in Safari, right now playback at 1080p, CPU cores are passing 70C and pretty cool here at 24C, just how they are...

Q-6

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

OP may have a tad more going on than just one tab open and the CPU pulling less than 1W. 60C - 70C is normal for the majority of Mac's with some load applied.

2014 2.8 MBP sat on the desk, is just serving up YouTube, some webpages in Safari, right now playback at 1080p, CPU cores are passing 70C and pretty cool here at 24C, just how they are...

Q-6

I actually had more than one tab open. This forum page was just on a separate window of chrome over another chrome window with multiple tabs. If you look closely to the top right edge of the Chrome window, you'll see it's over another window.

But regardless that wouldn't matter, since the OP stated "This occurs even with very light usage like surfing the web or writing emails. The temps are never under 60 °C for the CPU". That is NOT normal.

 

[DRuser]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. My room temperature is around 22° C. When I start using the device temps are at around 45° C. This means the laptop was not in use for several hours to cool it down completely to room temperature. Activity monitor shows no processes that would eat up more energy than expected, i.e. ad's when web surfing.

 

[StellarVixen]

It's winter, anyway. IF you are on the northern hemisphere, rejoice, you have extra heating available.

Now, seriously, I do not see how more powerful card such as Vega can run cooler than that. It is probably the same ,with more throttling when needed.

You have opted for a laptop that uses chassis as it's primary heatsink. So, those temperatures are "normal".

 

[robvas]

Are you using an external monitor? I am even wondering if your GPU is even turned on

 

[jinnyman]

Based on the numerous reviews, Vega 20 performs better at low temp. It's a must buy if you are in for MBP 15".
I decided to get the higher stock version because of the very nice discount deal I found, but otherwise, it's pretty much straight forward.

If your taks is heavily CPU& GPU intensive, then overall package with VEGA 20 yields better result due to low GPU temp.

 

[stevemiller]

I didn’t notice my 2018 getting too hot with normal use, but i may also just be accustomed to MacBooks generating some heat. I still think it’s generally running cooler than my 2013. Obviously I can get it warmed up when doing 3D stuff though!

 

[fpenta]

I've got a MBP 2018 with i9 and Vega 20 and it runs cooler and more silent than my old 2016 with AMD 460.
Temps are around 35-40 Degrees Celsius and around 50 when connected to the LG Ultrafine 5K with light usage.

 

[MacDonaldTrump]

I find my Vega runs cooler than I expected, doesn’t seem to throttle down like I was worried.

 

[Invisible Elf]

Check if any processes are consuming an excessive amount of CPU

 

[Celedral]

There's probably a task that's utilizing the 560x, which is causing you to have this undesirable heat. Apparently it was two background process from compressor that was triggering the 560x for me. I want to note that I had zero programs opened, esp. compressor. I did a few restarts and it always booted up with the 560x, so I decided it's probably indexing something and left it on the desk for 15mins. When I came back, it had reverted back to the intel graphics. No issues since.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Just in to clarify some misconceptions in case somebody looking for a cool and quiet system finds himself in this thread. Vega 20 is 50W GPU, 560X is a 35W GPU. Cooling system is the same, as such Vega is a lot hotter than 560x. A lot. It generates over 40% more heat when loaded.

There is one scenario where Vega is cooler, and this is if you attach external display without enabling any 3D or compute application, Vega doesn't enter high power state when that happens while RX series does, and this makes it significantly cooler than RX. So if you attach external displays directly to your MBP that alone would make the Vega worth it. Of course the price difference would be enough to cover a decent eGPU if you depend on desktop like workflow.

To answer OP question - the dGPU doesn't matter in tasks utilizing CPU only like in your description. Unless you're doing this on external screen, then Vega will be a lot better.

 

[fpenta]

Just in to clarify some misconceptions in case somebody looking for a cool and quiet system finds himself in this thread. Vega 20 is 50W GPU, 560X is a 35W GPU. Cooling system is the same, as such Vega is a lot hotter than 560x. A lot. It generates over 40% more heat when loaded.

There is one scenario where Vega is cooler, and this is if you attach external display without enabling any 3D or compute application, Vega doesn't enter high power state when that happens while RX series does, and this makes it significantly cooler than RX. So if you attach external displays directly to your MBP that alone would make the Vega worth it. Of course the price difference would be enough to cover a decent eGPU if you depend on desktop like workflow.

To answer OP question - the dGPU doesn't matter in tasks utilizing CPU only like in your description. Unless you're doing this on external screen, then Vega will be a lot better.

Thi explains why my 2018 with Vega is way cooler and silent when attached to the Ultrafine 5K compared to the 2016 I had.

 

[MacDonaldTrump]

Yes explains why mine is cool most of the time except when working on a few tasks in Lightroom, just sitting in clamshell mode. Sorry to post on Op's thread, can I ask any good routines for clamshell mode? Should you run the battery down every so often? or open it up to help vent heat when working it hard? Thanks

 

[unglued]

Sorry to post on Op's thread, can I ask any good routines for clamshell mode? Should you run the battery down every so often? or open it up to help vent heat when working it hard? Thanks

I think opening the display to vent heat helps. At times you will notice the space between the touch bar and display gets very hot left to right side.

 

[sevoneone]

I've had my 2.2 555X for about a week now and am not seeing those types of temps with idle/light loads. However, it could be your choice of browsers. Google Chrome seems to grab hold of the dedicated GPU quite a bit (especially on any page with an ad or video) and will hold onto it even after the page/tab that was using the GPU is closed. When that happens the temps jump up to 65-70° pretty quick. I don't know why Chrome does this, but it seems to be a long-running thing as I remember this being a problem a few years back when I had 2010 15" MBP. I was disappointed to see it is still an issue. Using Safari/Firefox the dGPU never engages, the temps hover around 45° and I can even use it on the couch as an actual laptop.

 

[DRuser]

Thanks everyone. No I don't use an external monitor. To better understand when the GPU kicks in I used a little programm which brings up a message when there is a change from iGPU to Radeon and back. Interestingly it changes all the time when using a web browser. Thanks sevoneone for pointing out what Chrome does in terms of GPU usage. I use Chrome a lot, but also other browsers.

Maybe one of the Vega owners can answer the question about the heat dissipation on the bottom. This is what bothers me the most when using the 560x on my lap.

 

[unglued]

Maybe one of the Vega owners can answer the question about the heat dissipation on the bottom. This is what bothers me the most when using the 560x on my lap.

In general I find my 15" Vega 20 to run cool and never have issues using it on my lap but those times are usually only for short periods. Longer times I prefer using a lap desk for more stability and having it sit on a hard flat surface for proper cooling from the vents underneath, I use one of these LapGear lap desk deluxe XL and the palm rest helps keep the MBP from sliding off.

 

[Jaro65]

I switched from 2018 MBP with 560X to one with Vega. The latter machine is running cooler, but can't provide exact numbers since I sold the 560X MBP.

 

[lnikj]

I have a new i9 2.9 Vega 20 here; cannot compare to 560X.

Booted up, after finishing any spotlight indexing and iCloud updating, it idles at about 37 degrees, and pretty much stays under 40 if the onboard graphics are being used (email, YouTube etc).

I didn't buy it to do that though; I am a photographer, musician & make YT videos.

I haven't the slightest difficulty in pushing the processor into the 90s, the Vega into the 70s.

However, it seems perfectly happy. It will run my modular music software at a sustained ~4GHz for long periods of time, fans ablazing, and does not throttle. I can max out the cores, and have the Vega at 60FPS, and it will run at 97 degrees at 3.3GHz, Vega at 75 degrees, apparently indefinitely.

It's just a bl**dy hot machine, that's all. I think you just have to get used to that.