Is it possible or coincidence?

[dastinger]

Hey,

I opened up my rMBP, cleaned it all up and swapped the thermal paste. I noticed a great improvement regarding temperatures so I consider doing it a must. Anyway.. since I've done it, the integrated GPU is used a lot more than before where the dedicated GPU would almost always being used. The other day I was watching a 1080p video in YT and the HD4000 was being used for that where before, the 650M would always be the chosen one to do that.

Is it possible that cleaning the insides of the rMBP and swapping the paste could have done this? Why? I don't think it was just coincidence..

 

[maflynn]

The huge temperature difference is probably due to using the integrated GPU over the discrete GPU.

I've seen reports (and first hand experience) of about 5c savings and even then, that's after a period of time. You need to wait until the thermal compound sets up, i.e., the best temps are later.

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Is it possible that cleaning the insides of the rMBP and swapping the paste could have done this? Why? I don't think it was just coincidence..

Are you running on the battery or AC? battery defaults to the integrated

 

[dastinger]

Yes, the temperature difference was expected. I've done it exactly to get that kind of results. What is making me think is why the integrated GPU is being used a lot more since I've done that..

I'm running on AC power.. and I've never seen the integrated being immediately changed by using battery power. I wish it was that way but it isn't..

I didn't know about waiting for better temps.. if I'm enjoying my already cooler rMBP atm, I'm sure I'll, probably, be even happier later

Thanks.

 

[Stetrain]

Cleaning and reapplying thermal paste should make no difference on whether the dedicated GPU is activated in a given scenario. That decision is based on which programs you are running and which API calls those programs make.

It's possible that previously you had some program running in the background that was activating the dGPU, and now that is no longer the case.

 

[maflynn]

I didn't know about waiting for better temps.. if I'm enjoying my already cooler rMBP atm, I'm sure I'll, probably, be even happier later

My point is if you took your before temperature benchmarks while on the discrete GPU and and now you're running on the integrated, your temps will show much lower, just because of that, and not the thermal compound.

As Stetrain stated, opening up the laptop and applying the thermal compound has zero difference with the integrated gpu, vs. the discrete gpu.

If a program was running in the background it may also account for your higher temps as well, i.e., eating cpu cycles = higher heat

 

[dastinger]

That's exactly what I was first asking. I couldn't understand how the integrated GPU could be used more often than before just for cleaning up the rMBP and reapplying thermal compound. I guess it was coincidence after all.

Thanks a lot, guys