Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How is the 15'' rMBP for heavy use?

P

Purant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 26, 2012
305
0
I am interested in buying the 15" rMBP.

I have one issue that worries me. I have read that a lot of the rMBPs throttle comparatively easily. Since I intend to use mine to let it compute stuff over the night (being at 90+% cpu for 12 hours straight or more), I really don't want it to throttle thus making the calculations take longer. I have an old (2006) Macbook Pro and I had it work at max cpu 3 days straight and it never throttled (although it was uncomfortably hot).

So my question, how prone are the rMBP to throttling? Is the situation I described above sure to make it throttle? Maybe I will better off with a cMBP? (since it's slightly bigger so maybe it cools more reliably, and it doesn't need to throttle as much).

Thanks in advance.
 
Sorry, but you don't really seem to know what you're talking about...
What exactly are you doing so that your CPU is at 90%+ for 12 hours ?
Please... enlighten us.
 
Maczor said:
Sorry, but you don't really seem to know what you're talking about...
What exactly are you doing so that your CPU is at 90%+ for 12 hours ?
Please... enlighten us.
Click to expand...

3D rendering of animations and lightmap baking... Why is it important what I do?
 
Maczor said:
Sorry, but you don't really seem to know what you're talking about...
What exactly are you doing so that your CPU is at 90%+ for 12 hours ?
Please... enlighten us.
Click to expand...

Not everyone's usage is the same, why are you being so offensive?

I don't do 3D modelling and rendering stuff, but I can only say that the 2.7 16Gb rMBP flies through stuff like Handbrake video reencoding.

I'm currently running the Handbrake CLI in a for loop against 150+ AVI files, reencoding to mp4 via streaming. These files are reencoding at about 600fps and the overall CPU usage is 25-35%, load avg about 2.8. Handbrake may not be the greatest multithreader ever, I dont know, and this isn't taxing the GPU at all, so the workload doesn't really match yours too well. But, its really fast!
 
Purant said:
3D rendering of animations and lightmap baking... Why is it important what I do?
Click to expand...

It was important because in my eyes, no proper professional would do what you're doing. 3D rendering is an extremely intensive task ( talking about professional level and not simple models with a few polys )... choosing to perform such tasks on a notebook ( even if it's a Mac ), to me, is just an extremely poor decision. But well, it's your time... If I were you, I'd do the modeling on the notebook and the rendering of complex scenes / model on a powerful desktop / server ( it would most likely still be cheaper than the rMBP and you won't have to worry about throttle or anything similar that much - or at all ). But yeah, I'm not you and you're not me...

Anyway... If your current, old notebook stays at 90%+ CPU then the 15" Retina will surely be quite below that... I'd say around 35%-40%... It will handle rendering a lot better, that's a fact.
 
You can probably do this on the rMBP but for sure it's not the ideal machine for this. I would add an external fan (base, support) to keep it cool if I was doing this.
 
Maczor said:
It was important because in my eyes, no proper professional would do what you're doing. 3D rendering is an extremely intensive task ( talking about professional level and not simple models with a few polys )... choosing to perform such tasks on a notebook ( even if it's a Mac ), to me, is just an extremely poor decision. But well, it's your time... If I were you, I'd do the modeling on the notebook and the rendering of complex scenes / model on a powerful desktop / server ( it would most likely still be cheaper than the rMBP and you won't have to worry about throttle or anything similar that much - or at all ). But yeah, I'm not you and you're not me...

Anyway... If your current, old notebook stays at 90%+ CPU then the 15" Retina will surely be quite below that... I'd say around 35%-40%... It will handle rendering a lot better, that's a fact.
Click to expand...

What do "professionals" do when they are on the go and don't have access to a desktop / server...?

I travel a lot, so if needed I want to know that the laptop I'm choosing can help in a pinch.
 
Purant said:
What do "professionals" do when they are on the go and don't have access to a desktop / server...?

I travel a lot, so if needed I want to know that the laptop I'm choosing can help in a pinch.
Click to expand...

They do the same thing I've mentioned... at least, the ones that really do heavy rendering. You can do the modeling on your laptop and render stuff in low quality for testing ( so it's fast and you can see the approximate result ), but once the final render, you could easily connect to your remote desktop / server, upload the models you want to render and start the rendering on that machine.

That way, your notebook ain't struggling and you can still continue to use it without a problem. The remote desktop / server is taking care of all the heavy lifting...

Also, I don't think that it's that common for 3D artists to travel a lot and work on notebooks ( do complex renderings I mean ). The ones I know at least, and their friends and their friends' friends all work on quite powerful desktops and not from the beach or on the train. Sure, your case is seemingly different, but you can still do the rendering remotely and not push your notebook to it's limits when it was clearly not designed to be a power-house for 3D artists. If you do use it, then it will most likely manage more than decently in many cases, but you do have other options you know...

PS: I doubt you sit 24 hours on a train each day and you're never in internet range ( be that 3G )... I also doubt that employers are expecting you to render stuff while sitting in a Metro or driving your car. That's all your decision... Remote rendering is still the way I'd go for complex stuff ( that you know require a lot of power and time to render ) if you're on the go. Simple / medium complexity stuff you can easily do on the 15" rMBP...

Your decision man... you can keep on pushing your notebook if that's what you really want...
 
Last edited:
You are making a ton of assumptions that I won't bother correcting.

My question is clear and we discussed a lot of things around it but not the issue: I intend to push the laptop for a lot of hours straight. The reasons don't matter. I was able to do that with an old Macbook Pro without having any throttling for a lot of years and the laptop is still working. I have done that with windows laptops for years without any problems.

How prone is the new 15" rMBP to CPU throttling? Is the new cMBP better in that regard?
 
Purant said:
You are making a ton of assumptions that I won't bother correcting.

My question is clear and we discussed a lot of things around it but not the issue: I intend to push the laptop for a lot of hours straight. The reasons don't matter. I was able to do that with an old Macbook Pro without having any throttling for a lot of years and the laptop is still working. I have done that with windows laptops for years without any problems.

How prone is the new 15" rMBP to CPU throttling? Is the new cMBP better in that regard?
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review/12

It is less prone to throttling, according to Anandtech's review.
 
I first got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro 15,4 2,6 GHz than a Retina 15,4 2,3 GHz. The Retina is quieter, less heat and I never see it throttle. I also do 3D rendering and Cuda calculation witch bring CPU and GPU at +90% for one to two hours. Performances stay at the same level when I run short work all day long even if the Mac gets more hot. So if it throttle, it's not very often or not noticiable. I really enjoy the Retina for heavy load.


My MacBook Pro 15,4 early 2011 was heating so much that I did not keep it. Throttle + heat + fan noise => back to Apple.

PS : I did not run more than 2 hours rendering or calculation.
 
Well, it seems to be doing fine with 6+ hours of continuous gaming ^^
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back