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Gaming on Macbook Pros... safe?
- Thread starter dk808
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Safe. The fans were designed for this purpose. Try running CPU intensive tasks overnight and watch it yourself in the morning. If the laptop is deformed due to heat you are more than welcome to sue Apple.
No stop right now!! They turn into ninjas at night and kill you for in your sleep if you game on them!!!
The new 15 inch MBP easily reach 95-100C during CPU intensive tasks. I have the 2.7 Ghz version and if you do do some encoding, using handbrake etc the MBP gets well over 90 C.
These high cpu temperatures can be confirmed by Luis Rossman as well who repairs Mac for a living. He did a test of the same MBP and during his tests the CPU reached 100C, hovering around 97-100C. Thats not really great temperatures at all....
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i've read most people have low temperatures on the new macbook pro, even during cpu intensive tasks
I see. Apple seems to be ****ing something up every year. Last year it was the dgpu making the computer hot and now its the cpu lol
In Luis youtube video, check these time points: CPU idle is at 33:18, GPU benchmark is at 52:14 and the CPU benchmark is at 58:10.
Apple's machines have superb quality. They can take the beating. I played games a lot with the MBP 2008 and MBA 2011.
I have a plastic ASUS laptop which I use mainly for gaming purposes. Bought for €600. I just leave the charger plugged in 24/7 and I rarely shut it down. No external heating system. I used to play Dota 2 for 8-10 hours straight in the weekend, no biggie. After 2 years, the machine runs just as new. The only thing damaged is ths bluetooth card, and the battery life has decreased due to constant plugging in.
After 4-5 years you may want to change your batteries or buy a new machine. Changing Mac batteries costs like $200, no?
I have a plastic ASUS laptop which I use mainly for gaming purposes. Bought for €600. I just leave the charger plugged in 24/7 and I rarely shut it down. No external heating system. I used to play Dota 2 for 8-10 hours straight in the weekend, no biggie. After 2 years, the machine runs just as new. The only thing damaged is ths bluetooth card, and the battery life has decreased due to constant plugging in.
After 4-5 years you may want to change your batteries or buy a new machine. Changing Mac batteries costs like $200, no?
Of course it is safe. When doing CPU/GPU intensive stuff, your laptop is producing more heat, it needs those fans to get going, plain and simply. There's nothing remotely dangerous about this.
I don't understand why this questions pops up in one form or another about 20 times a day. Your computer is powerful. Power generates heat as a byproduct, and that heat needs to be extracted, hence you have fans. Your computer has all the safety and self protection mechanisms built right in.
Use your computer as you please, it's a tool, not a work of art, it's meant to be used. You don't worry about overheating a screwdriver when using it for extended periods of time, do you?
ok I was talking about my 13inch. 15inch has a quad core cpu vs dual core on 13 inch, so I'm not surprised that's it's hotter on 15.
and you can see on video, where you mentioned CPU test, as soon as temp reaches 100C, the computer started to adjust power vs. temperature. there you know the computer is protecting itself. and most CPU now has a safe temp at 105c, so running @100c is completely safe for CPU (unless you want to keep this CPU running for like 20 years then you should try to keep it as cool as possible).
btw, I've seen some of his videos before. but I also always has the feeling like he's a 'hater'. I don't like his videos, it feels like everything is a negative in his video. I don't know the exact reason why I feel that, just a personal feeling I guess.
Pretty much safe. The constant heat-cycling DOES damage the hardware (e.g. tiny imperfections in solder), but the components are made to last a couple of years.
On most of them, yes. There have been specific models where the GPU could actually kill itself or the logic board, but I think the last one with that problem was the one with the GeForce 8600, and there was an extended warranty period for that defect. Usually, though, they successfully throttle enough.
... This, though, is why I basically switched to having a second laptop for gaming, because for 1/3 the price or so I can get a significantly faster PC that actually has enough heat sink and fan to run under full load. Not as pretty, doesn't run MacOS, but it can actually do the job.
That should be within the design envelope for the CPU, but it's the sort of thing that would usually be regarded as evidence of a woefully insufficient cooling system. Which is probably because no MBP has ever had decent ventilation.
Rossman's tests are anecdotal at best. Not once did I reach 100 degrees running intensive apps, in fact, most my 2.7 CPU hit was around 70-80 degrees.
The new MBP temperatures are lower than previous models, actually.
I returned one that would hit 100 degrees and my new MBP hits 100 degrees if doing CPU intensive tasks. At this point I'm accepting that they all hit 100 degrees and just hoping that when it inevitably dies, it does so during my AppleCare warranty period.
I`ve had some of my MBP`s transcoding video for literally days at a time, just queued it all up, admittedly they do get pretty hot to the touch
I do take some sensible precautions by elevating them on a stand before subjecting them to such abuse. 92C is pretty good, can get into 3 figures with ease on an older MBP Q-6
n.b. pre 2016 MBP`s
MBPs have been hitting close 100 C during intensive work for years... In fact, the 100 is a magic number because that is the upper limit of what Intel deems as 'safe'. Above 100C, the CPU starts to throttle down.
Of course, that leaves the question whether the cooling system is adequate or not. The CPU should certainly not reach Tjunction temperature under moderate loads.
Edit: Intel says that operating close to Tjunction is safe. https://communities.intel.com/thread/99515
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Are you using all the Core 100%, I can't speak from experience of the 2016, however all other MBP`s I have owned will exceed 100C. Not that this present an issue.
Handbrake or Dev Null will absolutely light up all Core`s to the max
Q-6
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