I was reading the old "GPU heat" discussions and I'm wondering if after all this time there are any fried 5K iMac, everybody was hell worried (except me and few others) about the 100°C temps, my 5K is still kicking and in perfect working order, how about yours ?
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Any fried 5K iMac ?
- Thread starter Astelith
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Mine too, but I have the M290X. I think it was clear from the start the whole overheating issue was overblown.
I don't think the issue was about overheating, but more that the iMac ramps up to hot faster than the fan kicks in and at the 100°C temps, the iMac throttles itself to protect the CPU/GPU. The devices are very good at protecting themselves but why pay for a really fast chip when it can't run at full speed as it doesn't have efficient cooling let it run optimal.
It's like 5-6 month that they changed the spin off of the fan, now it starts earlier, but they still operate at a "cruise temp" in full load of 100°C (more or less), but the thermal protection of the iMacs was set at 106°C and if it stays under that limit the performance isn't affected, I personally tested with forced ventilation and temperature in full load at 90°, same performance of 100°.
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They updated the firmware as well in the 2014 iMac recently with the same fan behaviour of the 2015 version, I think I'm going to run some other tests, keep in mind that in the 2015 iMac due to the new 14nm process the CPU is 10°C cooler than the 22nm (from intel specsheet).
Are you sure they updated the firmware for 2014?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
Only the 21.5"
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
Only the 21.5"
Sure no, but I notice that under El Capitan (last version) the fan start earlier than before, maybe it's only a software feature and not a firmware.
But after 1 hour of CPU stress test the CPU was always at 4 and more GHz, with high temps of course, but I see no throttling there.
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Were they? No, there were a small number of vocal idiots on here and other places who thought they knew better than Apple engineers, and were scared by big numbers. The rest of us just got on with using the computers. Not heard of any fried retina iMacs, except my mate's (but that was in a house fire, so not really Apple's fault)
I think you really hit the nail on the head. Despite what some people have come to assume, Apple has what is probably the most talented/accomplished engineering team in the entire home computing space. While there's certainly an argument to be made that Apple gambled with such high temps, there's no way they would consciously design a machine that would see high failure rates within the first few years of life.
That said, IMO the real test of the design will come next year as the initial batch of Late 2014 RiMacs see their third birthday. It will be interesting to see how these machines age, and whether all that heat takes a toll in the long run.
I agree, and I don't think there will be issues, my father have a Dell Xps desktop with an ATI 3870 that runs at 105° with games and the grandsons was (and still does) pushing it since 2010 or so, probably it's only the way the chip is meant to operate.
Ok, we have 1 dead mainboard in the forum, and even if we assume the fault was the GPU it still looks under statistics failures rate, and honestly, only one in a whole dedicated forum it looks very good to me, so far.
In other forum that I'm registered I still have to find a another faulty one.
Maybe in October there will be a 5K apocalypse... or not
high temperatures ARE a risk to the lifespan of the machine. frequent changes in temperature can cause solder to crack and detach chips from the main logic board. this isnt speculation, this has happened several times through history, the Apple III, the Xbox 360, the g4 ibook and probably a ton of various pc models that arent noteworthy enough to be remembered by history. a more recent case of this happening, the gpu failures of the 2011-2013 Macbook pro. http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/...es-petition-lawsuit-repair-programme-3497935/ note that almost every single comment on the article reports having experienced the issue
Apple had to set up a repair program after a 12,100 posts and 4 million views on a support community thread complaining about the issue https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=30&tstart=0 as well as a 38,000 signature petition
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
as for fried retina imacs. ive seen at least one possible case here on macrumors https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ts-and-crashed-after-using-photoshop.1968019/
chip failures due to overheating take a while to show up because the solder needs to be heated and cooled down several times before it cracks. it can take a few years for the damage to show. people have all the rights in the world to be worried about the 5K iMac suffering a similar fate as the 2011-2013 Macbook pro
Ok, we have 1 dead mainboard in the forum, and even if we assume the fault was the GPU it still looks under statistics failures rate, and honestly, only one in a whole dedicated forum it looks very good to me, so far.
In other forum that I'm registered I still have to find a another faulty one.
Maybe in October there will be a 5K apocalypse... or not
I think that member report > 50 failure 5K iMac went through his repair shop.
Anyway, I am not saying that the new iMac is a bad machine. But just not that robust either. Some good, some failed. May be it depends on the local weather. Sure that design is not ideal for some hot and humid places.
People have the right to be worried, but at today there's no indicator yet to a disaster like that, and after 1.5 years the incident rate is very low (almost null) and a few broken board obiviously are passing below the radars.
There are a lot of product with a "cruise temp" of above 100°C, take the Mac Book Air 2012, under heavy loads the CPU can peak at 105°, but nobody noticed it so nobody cares, and it's 4 years now since the release.
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Regarding that "shop", honestly I really doubt that a small shop have seen 50 dead 5K against only 1 in this forum, I believe in statistics and numbers, if there was a design flaw that bad it has to be spread worldwide, not in one shop. I can be wrong, but I started this thread with the purpose to check from real users and not rumors or ideas/guesses.
I don't know if this is just the 2nd reported case here. Anyway, for me, the 5K iMac looks like an average Mac at this moment. Perform as expected, run warm due to it's slim design, relatively low failure rate, but sure not perfect and zero issue (in both hardware and software).
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-long-is-safe-to-run-handbrake.1970423/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-long-is-safe-to-run-handbrake.1970423/
I can't see how either of these are "fried imacs". Both of these report a case of one-off weird video crashes. Neither of them have come back with the issues being repeated or the hardware being found faulty. By "fried imac" I was assuming we were referring to the imac becoming non-functional, not just requiring a reboot. Otherwise every Windows machine I've ever had has been fried
I can't see how either of these are "fried imacs". Both of these report a case of one-off weird video crashes. Neither of them have come back with the issues being repeated or the hardware being found faulty. By "fried imac" I was assuming we were referring to the imac becoming non-functional, not just requiring a reboot. Otherwise every Windows machine I've ever had has been fried
Not sure about the 1st case, but the 2nd one is not software issue. The OP clearly state that "I tried a reboot but the issue remained". And he suspect that he may fired a Mac because the issue happen after he ran Handbrake for 16hrs.
Even though I feel strange why he stressed the CPU, but the GPU failed. All I did is just gather the information on this forum. Someone looking for "fired 5K iMac" data. And I post the link for 2 relevant posts. It's your choice to believe them or not. But I am not trying to BS and post a simple software crash case as a possible hardware failure case.