Honestly, how well does the MBP handle heat? (Especially GPU)

[palpatine]

Nono, my apologies. I should have been more clear in my first post. I will definitely be gaming on it, but that is not my primary purpose. My primary is for the Mac OS, but I will game consistently, let's say 2 hours a day, or more occasional than that... maybe randomly 3 hours a day, skip a day, 2 hours a day, etc.. sporadic is the proper term?

Andrew

well, if you are talking about sporadic gaming over intensive, that is an entirely different issue. you led off with handbuilt, water-cooled gaming rigs for goodness sake!

anyhow, short gaming periods of only 2 or 3 hours make that battery thing i mentioned moot (assuming it really is an issue). the only other concern might be fans. i don't like fans. i've never been bothered by my 13". but i also generally wear noise canceling headphones if i am watching videos or something like that (so much better than blasting my noise at my neighbors and fellow family members), so it is a non-issue. some people get really incensed by fan noise, though. if you are one of those, then the mbp as a gaming device might not be for you.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

I'm a power user, I probably will replace it every two years, and I will use the crap out of it. I am okay with getting it under warranty service for failures, but I don't want it to get so hot that the thing wears out every 2 weeks...

You will be fine gaming at high temps..... here is my .02
just get apple care and don't worry then... you will be covered from any problems for 3 years, and I doubt you will see your mbp needing to go to the shop every 2 weeks!! Don't listen to the people who have no idea what they are talking about and claim the mbp overheats and that apple needs to use something other than aluminum....

 

[andrewenglish]

ah fair enough, admittedly just read the first post. then found people talking about cars during the edit. :/

i do some moderate gaming on an integrated chip. certainly with the dedicated card you'll see good performance and heat is not something to worry about.

as i said it's going to get hot and you may see temperatures that make you skeptical but just look past it and try not to get too caught up in your temperatures. it's not going to overheat, and i mean truly overheat, not a perceived overheat.

in reference to your anticipated gaming pattern, you'll be more than fine doing a few hours here and there. i played WoW like every day for over 8 hours a day or so for a couple of months (lol) and i didn't have any problems. WoW isn't the most intensive game but i'm on an integrated chip after all and 5 hours straight or something is a lot to handle.

On an IC, that's pretty good lol

Thanks for your input, I figured the same for moderate gaming. Who knows what'll happen when I get it though, maybe I'll go gaming nuts or maybe I'll quit, either way I decided I will not be playing Crysis on it. That's just unfair to the chipset

So, I will probably stick to less intense FPS's like I typically do because games that don't completely tout their graphics are typically more exciting from a plot/gameplay stance. I hope I don;t start an insane debate with that...

Thanks for your input everyone

Andrew

 

[andrewenglish]

well, if you are talking about sporadic gaming over intensive, that is an entirely different issue. you led off with handbuilt, water-cooled gaming rigs for goodness sake!

anyhow, short gaming periods of only 2 or 3 hours make that battery thing i mentioned moot (assuming it really is an issue). the only other concern might be fans. i don't like fans. i've never been bothered by my 13". but i also generally wear noise canceling headphones if i am watching videos or something like that (so much better than blasting my noise at my neighbors and fellow family members), so it is a non-issue. some people get really incensed by fan noise, though. if you are one of those, then the mbp as a gaming device might not be for you.

My apologies as well, the watercooled rig was also a benchmark machine

In all honesty, I was a very extreme gamer but I'm starting to slow down... so who knows?

EDIT: sorry again for the double post if that's bad... Oh and Burton, fear not, I believe I saw your post the first time, I'm just looking for more opinions. I appreciate it!

Andrew

 

[Dark Void]

to be honest man I was in the same position.

i used to have a gaming desktop: was big on games like cod, crysis, AoC, WoW, battlefield, other MMOs, some single players, etc.

it has declined for me for sure, and when I made the transition from desktop to laptop i went mac simply because i heard that they were "better for media purposes" (not saying that they are and that is a huge blanket statement) so I started looking into it briefly and was really curious about OS X. gave it a shot as I had the funds at the time and it's a really great laptop. (2010 13'')

my decline does not mean I stopped completely, i still play a few games that aren't too intensive but are still great titles. i got off of WoW a while ago (320M handled it like a champion even in OS X) and soon I will be dual booting to play some of my old favorite windows titles that I miss, such as Guild Wars. old game, still great player base, nice balance, and best of all, it recommends an nvidia 5xxx series card if i recall, so virtually any computer can run it.

just because you're not playing the latest and most intensive games doesn't make you any more of a gamer than the guy who is playing older games on "lesser" hardware.

and if you're going to be using your mac for other purposes primarily and want to do moderate gaming on the side, then it will handle it all and then some, especially with that dedicated card. you should be able to run a LOT of good titles on that card with more than playable settings.

 

[Macjames]

I was thinking of boot-camping Windows to play some old game, Fallout 1, Knights of the Old Republic and Morrowind all sat unused on my old steam account.

Very tempting!

 

[Gabbelito]

I've played Crysis 2 for hours on the setting below max (Advanced?) and I've got no problems whatsoever.

To manage the heat better I've made a gaming profile.
The profile is set so that the processor never uses Turbo Boost, which lowers the temperature a bit.

If you want to do it yourself, create a new power management profile from the Control Panel and set the processor to reach 99% of its capacity at most.

 

[cburton]

It handles heat by very effectively spreading it to your legs.

 

[andrewenglish]

Great suggestions guys!

Nice to hear from some fellow gamers and what they have to say. Sounds to me like I'll be getting an MBP pretty soon here. Very glad to hear that it runs things well and heat isn't too bad if it's occasional! Good stuff.

Of course I am aware it will get HOT with some of the games I play, I am aware after reading Apple's warranty that gaming obviously won't void your warranty... they have to replace your hardware if there is a heat issue and something fails. Good.

THanks everyone!

Andrew

 

[Blondie :)]

13" mbp 8gb ram. not a 17", but another data point. it gets warm during intense processing (not a gamer), but not too bad. however, i think a couple of hours of gaming would have it cooking. i wouldn't recommend long gaming periods on my computer. it is fabulous for getting things done, but not for intensive games.

one thing to look out for (i didn't see it in this thread) is that the mbp will chew into its battery if it is pushed to 100% capacity on processing, which means that even if you are plugged in, your battery life will go down, and at some point you will be completely out of energy. although the feature is obviously meant to compensate for short peak periods, it could have the unintended effect of ruining your gaming experience. i am speaking about something i know nothing about, though. perhaps a gamer with the 15 or 17 inch models could fill us in.

Whenever I have gamed on my MBP, I have never experienced any battery draining. I have heard of this issue as well, but like I said, I've never experienced it myself. Might be because I'm on a 13", or that I spend less than two hours doing anything super heavy (+75% cpu)

 

[BiggAW]

They get toasty. Mine seems to do better than my Blackbook. They are designed to be quiet and thin before having excellent cooling, however.

 

[daneoni]

You guys must not have owned PowerBooks (or the Core Duo MBPs). Now THOSE were hot...yet there are many powerbooks still alive today and kicking. The current MBPs are well within their thermal envelopes IMHO.

 

[Driver8]

I had an Al powerbook g4, and the processor never got above 68c, but man, that think would get PAINFULLY hot just watching youtube at 480p. I would not ever consider putting it on my lap. The logic board did fail after 8 months of heavy use, and also the HD, but since those repairs, it has been good for the past 6 years. I think the current MBP are way cooler than the old powerbooks. Also, the 17 in will be better at cooling than the 15 in due to the added space.

 

[madonionrings]

If you really like the MBP then just go for it and don't worry. It gets hot but honestly if you are in a air conditioned room its not an issue. Never too uncomfortable to touch, especially if you use a external mouse and keyboard.

As far as longevity goes, who knows. I say just get apple care and forget about the rest. Three years is a long time to be fully covered and by that time you would likely want to upgrade anyways. I had a buddy who had an old water cooled G5 (they came that way stock) and it blew up close to the three year mark. Apple ended up replacing his rig with a new Mac Pro.

 

[Aamir]

Eep. Not well at ALL.
Even for prolonged movie marathons, this baby BURNS.
Even WoW creates intense heat.

 

[SlickShoes]

I will jump in here then:

I would consider myself a gamer, I play about 3-4 hours a day on weekdays and longer at the weekend. I split my gametime between my macbook pro and my PS3.

I use my macbook pro for gaming because i love having Mac OSX, the laptop has great build quality and buying it through my work i get 3 years of applecare for FREE! and the touchpad is the best laptop touchpad there is.

Currently i do not have a desk but I am in the process of kitting out an office so i can game there. All my games then are played with the laptop on my lap as i sit on the sofa.

Yes, when gaming the laptop gets hot, however the only time this heat is unbearable is if i sit it on my naked legs, as long as i am clothed it is fine. You are gaming so ofcourse the laptop is going to get hot, the hottest part is the top left corner around where the GPU is. The aluminium conducts the heat as other people have said so yes this makes it hotter than a regular laptop.

These are professional grade laptops, they are designed for intensive use, this is why they cost £1500+. I understand people worry about heat but if you look at the components that apple have placed in these laptops they are not meant to be bought by Mr A Regular who just edits his digi cam photos and browses facebook a couple of hours a day.

On my macbook pro over since february I have played Rift, WoW, Starcraft 2, Crysis, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, Mafia 2, EVE Online.

Never had an issue with any of those games, the only time i lost a few % of battery power was when in a 25 man raid in WoW with everything on max settings.

The macbook pro is an excellent laptop that will last you at least 3 years. It will be able to play all current gen games on medium-high settings for about 2 years at least then you will really have to start making sacrifices, but most 2 year old laptops won't play games on high settings anyway.

If like me you love OSX, you love the look and feel of the macbook and you love gaming then it is the only choice.