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Gaming on unibody macbook leading to high temps and fan RPMs

G

gottalovemacs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 5, 2009
27
0
So I like to play Wolfenstein et on my late 2008 unibody macbook 2.0 GHz. I have the graphics turned up pretty high and, after playing for a few minutes the temp goes up to around 70C. and the fan to 6200 rpm. I have read threads on macbook and macbook pro temp's, and know that 70C. is somewhat o.k., I am a little worried about the fan running at 6200rpm for sometimes three plus hours. The macbook is sitting on my desk, without anything on or below it. There are some books piled up about four inches away from the back of the macbook. Should I try to prop it up somehow? I tried for a little wile with some pokerchips, but gave up on that idea when I walked away from my macbook with headphones on my head, pulling the macbook off the pokerchips.:eek: even with my macbook propped up about an inch, it only helped cool by about three degrees. I know that if I turn down the graphics the fan stays bellow 6000rpm but, that is not something I want to do.;)

Thanks:D
 
I don't know exactly how the 2008 MB is designed. But, if it's like the newer models, propping it up won't really do you a whole lot of good. On my model (late 2009) the book only has one opening for everything, on the hinge. So, propping it up doesn't help my book at all to prop up on anything. If yours is the same, then it shouldn't really matter either. As long as you don't have it sitting on your bed or something, you should be fine. The fans are designed to take abuse, so you should be fine there as well. As long as you don't play the game for hours on end every single day, you should be fine. Hope that helps :D
 
All perfectly ok. I run overnight handbrake encodes that have the fans spinning at full and the procs around ~90° for 8 hours at a time or more.

Haven't noticed any issues in 2.5 years on my unibody MacBook.
 
Yeah those components are designed to run at 100% for a certain number of hours, most normal use (even heavy use) can't bring them close to their lifespan.
 
Blondie :) said:
I don't know exactly how the 2008 MB is designed. But, if it's like the newer models, propping it up won't really do you a whole lot of good. On my model (late 2009) the book only has one opening for everything, on the hinge. So, propping it up doesn't help my book at all to prop up on anything. If yours is the same, then it shouldn't really matter either. As long as you don't have it sitting on your bed or something, you should be fine. The fans are designed to take abuse, so you should be fine there as well. As long as you don't play the game for hours on end every single day, you should be fine. Hope that helps :D
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Yes my macbook is like the new mbp, the only difference being that it has a removable battery.

Chundles said:
All perfectly ok. I run overnight handbrake encodes that have the fans spinning at full and the procs around ~90° for 8 hours at a time or more.

Haven't noticed any issues in 2.5 years on my unibody MacBook.
Click to expand...

mrsir2009 said:
Mine gets up to 90C when I'm playing XPlane ... ;-)
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If your MacBooks are still alive after running at 90C, 70C is nothing.

Thanks everyone for getting back to me so quickly!:D


P.S. I am thinking of upgrading the RAM from 2 gigs of to 4. Will that speed up my macbook? Has anyone gone from 2 to 4 gigs? Did you see a big difference in speed?

Thanks again:):D
 
gottalovemacs said:
P.S. I am thinking of upgrading the RAM from 2 gigs of to 4. Will that speed up my macbook? Has anyone gone from 2 to 4 gigs? Did you see a big difference in speed?
Click to expand...

There isn't really a huge speed increase but things will run better and load faster...games will run faster though.
 
I was about to start a thread but this one seems like a good place to ask.

What sort of damage to the working life of the components does high heat do? I use my macbook for work (running windows 7 in bootcamp) and lately I play games on steam and browse the net a fair amount of the night on OSX.

This essentially leads to an average 12 hours a day of use, some of it at high heat, when I was running HL2 the other day the strip above the keys on the left was REALLY hot.

Am I really reducing the lifespan? should I be gaming on another device (I have a 360 but lately I am more into Torchlight and other Steam games)?

Thanks.
 
Venkman90 said:
This essentially leads to an average 12 hours a day of use, some of it at high heat, when I was running HL2 the other day the strip above the keys on the left was REALLY hot.
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Download atMonitor and check the temp when you are doing things that are creating the high heat....as long as it stays under 100C most of the time it should be fine. Processors are built to create high heat so the processor won't be affected to bad, but other components might have a reduced life if it's running close to 100C most of the time.

Also, the MacBook has an overheat feature that will shutdown the computer if you go over temp for too long...so if you are not being shutdown by the system you should be fine.

The old iBooks, i.e. G3 and G4 had some overheating issues that would cause the logicboard to warp and go bad...but as far as I know this is no longer a problem for the intel MacBooks.
 
Venkman90 said:
I was about to start a thread but this one seems like a good place to ask.
Click to expand...

Another good program is smcFanControl and that will allow you to ramp up the fan for when you're gaming if you're really worried about heat during your gaming sessions.

Valve actually recommends it.
 
Ah great, thanks.

Does smc have a windows version btw? just in case I am playing MW2 on bootcamp.
 
matthewmyates said:
Another good program is smcFanControl and that will allow you to ramp up the fan for when you're gaming if you're really worried about heat during your gaming sessions.

Valve actually recommends it.
Click to expand...

How would smcfancontrol help when gaming if the fans are already at or close to the max speed at 6000rpm?

Also, I started playing assassins creed, and the temps get up to 80C+. I know that it isn't so bad, but I still find myself worrying. I don't know. I just have to convince myself that it is fine.:eek:
 
gottalovemacs said:
How would smcfancontrol help when gaming if the fans are already at or close to the max speed at 6000rpm?

Also, I started playing assassins creed, and the temps get up to 80C+. I know that it isn't so bad, but I still find myself worrying. I don't know. I just have to convince myself that it is fine.:eek:
Click to expand...

smcFanControl keeps the fan at a fairly constant RPM...with the apple control system it will vary in RPM depending on what temp it is at....so if you start at 70C with the fan going at 6200RPM it will stay cooler than if the fan is controlled by the apple program and it's only going 5200RPM. It may sound like it's pegged but it's not, and the temperature will eventually rise higher quicker because it's not being pegged by smcFanControl. So basically the apple fan control scheme is made to keep the fan going at lower RPMs to reduce noise, whereas with smcFanControl it will go as fast as you tell it too to keep the processor cooler at the expense of noise.
 
matthewmyates said:
smcFanControl keeps the fan at a fairly constant RPM...with the apple control system it will vary in RPM depending on what temp it is at....so if you start at 70C with the fan going at 6200RPM it will stay cooler than if the fan is controlled by the apple program and it's only going 5200RPM. It may sound like it's pegged but it's not, and the temperature will eventually rise higher quicker because it's not being pegged by smcFanControl. So basically the apple fan control scheme is made to keep the fan going at lower RPMs to reduce noise, whereas with smcFanControl it will go as fast as you tell it too to keep the processor cooler at the expense of noise.
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Well, when I play something like assassins creed, the fans rev up to 6200rpm within 30 seconds of starting the game.
 
gottalovemacs said:
Well, when I play something like assassins creed, the fans rev up to 6200rpm within 30 seconds of starting the game.
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Then something is wrong...plus there is no Mac Native version of Assasin's Creed so I can only assume you are either using a pirated version made from a cider or wineskin wrapper or you are running in bootcamp....which is totally different because you are using windows...so which is it?
 
matthewmyates said:
Then something is wrong...plus there is no Mac Native version of Assasin's Creed so I can only assume you are either using a pirated version made from a cider or wineskin wrapper or you are running in bootcamp....which is totally different because you are using windows...so which is it?
Click to expand...

Ok, I guess the fans don't get up to 6200rpm for more like one to two minutes. I still don't think that that is enough to get smcfancontrol... And yes, I am using a pirated version of Assassin's Creed. Gotta love the internet! :D
 
gottalovemacs said:
Ok, I guess the fans don't get up to 6200rpm for more like one to two minutes. I still don't think that that is enough to get smcfancontrol... And yes, I am using a pirated version of Assassin's Creed. Gotta love the internet! :D
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Well in all fairness smcFanControl is free so it's not going to be like it isn't worth it...give it a try and see if it works...if it doesn't then uninstall it...it works for me...I run Half-Life 2 at native resolution with medium-high settings and I hover around 75C with smcFanControl on and jump to 83C with it off.
 
matthewmyates said:
Well in all fairness smcFanControl is free so it's not going to be like it isn't worth it...give it a try and see if it works...if it doesn't then uninstall it...it works for me...I run Half-Life 2 at native resolution with medium-high settings and I hover around 75C with smcFanControl on and jump to 83C with it off.
Click to expand...

OK, I will give it a try. I would love to see the temp go down 8C... I had a bad experience with some other fan control app, it messed with some deep settings and to completely get rid of it, I had to do the thing were you take the battery out and hold down the power button. :(


Thank's to everyone that helped! :D

I love this forum! :D:D
 
I spent 2 days straight encoding stuff using handbrake so CPU was at 100% and temps were at 80-85 with fans on the whole time. My uMB still runs fine. I was hoping it would have broken down though cause I needed an excuse for my work to purchase me an update model...
 
If you have the Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody MacBook base model. (no backlit keyboard, but have a removable battery etc) The CPU has a thermal limit of 90C. From my understanding when it hits 90C, it throttles down performance. Mot other Intel C2D have a limit of 100C or 105C, but this one has a limit of 90C according to Intel's web site. Running at max temp (90C) can't be good for the CPU in the long run, I've seen my brother's MB (same one as you) pass 90C, and it just crashed, and we waited a moment or so.
 
ouimetnick said:
If you have the Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody MacBook base model. (no backlit keyboard, but have a removable battery etc) The CPU has a thermal limit of 90C. From my understanding when it hits 90C, it throttles down performance. Mot other Intel C2D have a limit of 100C or 105C, but this one has a limit of 90C according to Intel's web site. Running at max temp (90C) can't be good for the CPU in the long run, I've seen my brother's MB (same one as you) pass 90C, and it just crashed, and we waited a moment or so.
Click to expand...

Would you mind posting a link to the website you found that information on?

Thanks
 
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