[HELP] MacBook Pro 2018 gets HOT!

[GooBoyGle]

Hi,

So I recently purchased a 13'' macbook pro and the device gets pretty warm after some use, when I use it on my lap I can feel the intense heat. It's on the verge between uncomfortable and painful, so I don't know if it's normale for this laptop to get pretty warm during usage... The laptop itself doesn't overheat so it works like a charm and is also very quiet...

 

[Adeel_]

What’s your exact usage ?

Can you give us your configuration also?

 

[maflynn]

What temps are you seeing on the processor and what tasks were you executing?

 

[Maxx Power]

This isn't just on the new Macbook Pros. My 15 incher 2013 model gets incredibly hot under sustained load (for example crunching data) and will burn my legs near the exhaust if I'm wearing shorts or thin pants. I use a pillow or a lap desk to isolate it from my legs. My CPU gets up to ~90 degrees Celsius.

 

[kwickone]

I am having the same issue with my 2018 13” MBP, i7. When idle, I see around 40-50 C temps. With moderate use, MS Office, YouTube, Netflix, etc, it will jump to 70+ C. If using on my lap...it being a laptop after all...it is simply too hot to deal with. I am not going to throw a pillow on my lap to deal with it.

About to return it....really wanted to love it. My other, non-Mac, laptop has no such issues. I think Apple just threw more power in this device, but did not change the chassis or fans to accommodate.

 

[DaveMike11]

guys..can you tell me how do you measure the temperature of MacBook. My 2018 MBP 15 is running warm too.

 

[Terost]

You need to use a laptop cooler for the new MBP. The best cooler is the Massive TM cooler by Thermaltake. I have a laptop cooler for my slim HP laptop and it really helps cooling down the motherboard.

 

[IngerMan]

Or get one of these

 

[DaveMike11]

My 2018 MBP 15" (i7 2.6 /16GB/512GB SSD/560x) is running very hot. Today I was playing some youtube music videos and was doing other casual tasks of browsing internet. The MBP gets very hot on the top near keyboard, touchpad, speakers. Not sure if this is normal. I'm a first time Mac users. Is this because of the mid-model ?

 

[kwickone]

guys..can you tell me how do you measure the temperature of MacBook. My 2018 MBP 15 is running warm too.

You can get the free Intel Power Gadget...search for that and download for mac.

There is also a "meter" app in the app store that puts the temp (and other stats) on your menu bar. It is not free though.

I am going to return my MacBook. Maybe in the next revision they will modify the case and fan, etc to reduce the heat and save my lap. LOL.

 

[robvas]

Perfectly normal
Engine of my car gets hot
My lcd tv gets hot
Mac laptops have been hot forever. Not sure why people make a big deal about it

 

[kwickone]

Perfectly normal
Engine of my car gets hot
My lcd tv gets hot
Mac laptops have been hot forever. Not sure why people make a big deal about it

I am assuming you are not putting your car engine or your TV on your lap

For me, I am coming from using Windows laptops, but was looking to check out a MacBook as I have lots of other Apple products...wanted the deeper integration. I have a comparable Windows laptop that has no such heat issues. The MacBook is a BEAUTIFUL product for sure, but it just does not work, for me, as a LAPtop device.

 

[Painter2002]

I am assuming you are not putting your car engine or your TV on your lap

For me, I am coming from using Windows laptops, but was looking to check out a MacBook as I have lots of other Apple products...wanted the deeper integration. I have a comparable Windows laptop that has no such heat issues. The MacBook is a BEAUTIFUL product for sure, but it just does not work, for me, as a LAPtop device.

Part of why Apple’s laptops get so hot on a lap compared to most Windows machines is because of the aluminum body, which is an intentional design to help disperse more heat. Sine the laptops are so thin, it’s one of the easy ways to really help cool the machine down.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

I have a comparable Windows laptop that has no such heat issues.

Macbook chassis is aluminium metal. Metal conducts heat well, especially aluminium. It's not that the machine isn't designed the right way, it's that you can't really have it any other way. It's the laws of nature at work, so it's either have a hot underside or buy a plastic laptop.

 

[SDColorado]

Part of why Apple’s laptops get so hot on a lap compared to most Windows machines is because of the aluminum body, which is an intentional design to help disperse more heat. Sine the laptops are so thin, it’s one of the easy ways to really help cool the machine down.

Perhaps. But as Lenovo's Matt Kohut stated "A lot of vendors are essentially using their cases as giant heat sinks, which then go to your lap. But when that metal gets hot to the touch, that’s unacceptable.” “The job, from Lenovo’s perspective, is to make sure it goes out the tailpipes—not on your lap, not on the keyboard.”

Is the current design of the MBP now approaching unacceptable? I guess that is for each owner to decide.

 

[Howard2k]

I have an older dual core 13” and when it’s working hard it gets warm. It’s never been unbearably or worryingly hot, but there’s certainly a fair amount of heat that gets transferred to my legs.

I can imagine that with a quad core it’s a fairly substantial difference. I’d certainly consider a hardback book between my legs and the MBPro.

In reality through I’m rarely using it on my lap, usually at a desk, so a hardback book on those rare occasions would not really be an issue. I’m hoping that the 2019 or 2020 have better heat reduction capabilities.

 

[Ries]

Perfectly normal
Engine of my car gets hot
My lcd tv gets hot
Mac laptops have been hot forever. Not sure why people make a big deal about it

There is a difference between having an engine glowing hot at 100mph and idle. The current CPUs are still 14nm++ with 50-100% more cores than the previous gen, they are hotcakes because 10nm isn't here yet.

 

[1050792]

Thin laptops with fast CPU's that throttle and badly designed cooling systems, it's expected for them to be constantly hot even when idle. My 15" gets hot too but not enough that's uncomfortable in my lap. Download iStat menus and check the temperatures, it might be indexing spotlight or downloading updates which makes the temps go crazy.

 

[Y So Jelly]

There is an update you can install to reduce the heat issue. Mine never got more than warm before I returned it.

 

[Premal212]

Ran a few tests, these Macs really should be used for two things, either heavy workloads or extremely light ones. Using Chrome my dGPU was always active, adding about 15c to my overall heatsink temp. For what, there was no need for it, soon as I switched over to Safari it was fine, keyboard is cool. It runs great. My MBP shouldn't be running at 60c when just word processing with Spotify in the back and few webpages.

Switching over to Safari brought that down to 40c, which I'm very happy with.

It can be expected during heavy workloads that the CPU rises to high levels. That was expected without a doubt, I think it's the in-between loads when it becomes silly.

Chrome is just awful. Uses too much power for no reason, sure the MBP can handle it, but it's just daft.

 

[pubmsu]

Disable "Hardware Acceleration" setting in Chrome. It will run much cooler.