Best macOS for rMBP 13" Late 2013 (High temps -> battery and thermal paste changed)

[Gintoki-kun]

Hello everyone

So today, I had my battery and thermal paste changed, after 7 years (since I last bought it)

I have a rMBP 13" Late 2013, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2,4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Intel Iris 1536 MB

It was heating up a lot, battery lasted for like 2h, so I was quite sure I had to change the battery and thermal paste.
The fans didn't kick up that much though

It is summer now, but I still think I have wasted. 225eur?
I think it's still too hot though.

I have 3 TABS open on safari, Messages and downloading Big Sur right now and these are the temps (assuming Fanny is a viable widget for temps and fan speed):

I am a bit concerned, since I can't buy one right now and this money kind of cost me to get.

Should I be worried?

Also, what OS would you recommend for this Mac?
I never ended up upgrading to Big Sur, so I am downloading it now.

Or would you recommend something older, like HS?

Thanks a lot in advance

 

[casperes1996]

72.25°C on the CPU... That's not at all a problem. Intel's Thermal Junction is 100°C - The chips are designed to turbo and kick their gears as hard as they can if they have work to do, until they hit 100°C (or other limiting factors). - Which is also why the fan is nowhere near it's maximum RPM.

 

[Gintoki-kun]

72.25°C on the CPU... That's not at all a problem. Intel's Thermal Junction is 100°C - The chips are designed to turbo and kick their gears as hard as they can if they have work to do, until they hit 100°C (or other limiting factors). - Which is also why the fan is nowhere near it's maximum RPM.

So until 100C I am safe, is that it?

And feeling the Mac hot (the case), on the bottom, is okay at all then?

Sometimes it does kick to 3k to 5k if I am doing something a bit heavier, but that's ok then?

Sorry for the silly questions, I am just worried ahah

Also, keeping up to date with the OS is the right thing to do, right?

 

[casperes1996]

So until 100C I am safe, is that it?

And feeling the Mac hot (the case), on the bottom, is okay at all then?

Sometimes it does kick to 3k to 5k if I am doing something a bit heavier, but that's ok then?

Sorry for the silly questions, I am just worried ahah

Also, keeping up to date with the OS is the right thing to do, right?

Hitting 100°C on the CPU is also OK, as long as it doesn't really exceed 100°C. 100°C is when it will start thermally managing and reducing/eliminating the turbo budget - in other words, it will stick more to the base frequency. If it remains at 100°C when the fans are at max and it's at base frequency it might try to go below base frequency. Only then are you technically "thermal throttling" below expected behaviour.

Depending on how you define "hot", yeah it's normal for the bottom and the bit right above the keyboard on the top to get quite hot/warm. - The aluminium shell of the laptop is to some degree part of the cooling system and the heat of the system is transferred through the metal so it's bound to get a bit hot

As long as you don't rely on incompatible software I'd keep up to with OS updates myself at least

 

[Gintoki-kun]

Hitting 100°C on the CPU is also OK, as long as it doesn't really exceed 100°C. 100°C is when it will start thermally managing and reducing/eliminating the turbo budget - in other words, it will stick more to the base frequency. If it remains at 100°C when the fans are at max and it's at base frequency it might try to go below base frequency. Only then are you technically "thermal throttling" below expected behaviour.

Depending on how you define "hot", yeah it's normal for the bottom and the bit right above the keyboard on the top to get quite hot/warm. - The aluminium shell of the laptop is to some degree part of the cooling system and the heat of the system is transferred through the metal so it's bound to get a bit hot

As long as you don't rely on incompatible software I'd keep up to with OS updates myself at least

Yeah, when the fans kick (well, its only 1 fan on this model) kick in, the temperatures are then reduced quite severely.

I did try a small game, MTGA and it shoot up to 80/85C and the fan kicking at 4.5-5.5k

So I was a bit scared... So if you're saying at those temperatures I can still be ok and feel safe, then I am way more relieved...

Thank you very much, honestly!

 

[casperes1996]

Yeah, when the fans kick (well, its only 1 fan on this model) kick in, the temperatures are then reduced quite severely.

I did try a small game, MTGA and it shoot up to 80/85C and the fan kicking at 4.5-5.5k

So I was a bit scared... So if you're saying at those temperatures I can still be ok and feel safe, then I am way more relieved...

Thank you very much, honestly!

Perfectly fine temperatures; In fact, most Macs will hover around 100°C during a lot of games

 

[Gintoki-kun]

Perfectly fine temperatures; In fact, most Macs will hover around 100°C during a lot of games

I rarely play. Like once a week maybe.

It was just to give you some of the higher numbers I got after installing a new battery and replacing the thermal paste.

This was very very informative thanks

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hello everyone

So today, I had my battery and thermal paste changed, after 7 years (since I last bought it)

I have a rMBP 13" Late 2013, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2,4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Intel Iris 1536 MB

It was heating up a lot, battery lasted for like 2h, so I was quite sure I had to change the battery and thermal paste.
The fans didn't kick up that much though

It is summer now, but I still think I have wasted. 225eur?
I think it's still too hot though.

I have 3 TABS open on safari, Messages and downloading Big Sur right now and these are the temps (assuming Fanny is a viable widget for temps and fan speed):

View attachment 1793236View attachment 1793237

I am a bit concerned, since I can't buy one right now and this money kind of cost me to get.

Should I be worried?

Also, what OS would you recommend for this Mac?
I never ended up upgrading to Big Sur, so I am downloading it now.

Or would you recommend something older, like HS?

Thanks a lot in advance

macOS Big Sur is that Mac's final Apple-made OS. It'll get two more years of security updates once Monterey comes out in the fall. If you need to run 32-bit applications, macOS Mojave is the end of the road for that ability. Though, that only gets security updates until Monterey comes out and becomes three OSes ago. Obviously, if you want a supported OS, Big Sur is probably your longest term bet for that Mac. Incidentally, its predecessor, macOS Catalina, is probably the worst version of macOS to come out in years. So, Big Sur is probably not a bad version to land on (again, so long as running 32-bit Mac apps isn't a priority for you).