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Just how hot does the MBP 15 get playing WoW?

P0stalTek

P0stalTek

Suspended
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
256
30
I am looking to buy a new MBP 15" (base), but I have read a lot of horror stories about how hot this machine gets while doing graphics intensive things. WoW isn't the most demanding game, but it does heat my MBA up quite a bit.

I really want a mobile Mac to play WoW on the couch from while my wife watches TV - but I want to ensure my fingers won't be scalding while playing.

I am considering also an aftermarket OCZ SSD and a jump to 8GB of memory.

So just how hot does it get when playing World of Warcraft as that will be my MBP's main task to play games on that level of hardware requirement. I am not wanting to play Crysis or any FPS games.

Thanks for any help, I really do not want to go PC just to play games from my couch :(
 
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Considering my wonderful machine just jumped to this after attempting to load an (obviously incredibly CPU intensive) 27 second 360p video on YouTube with nothing else running, your computer will probably catch fire.

When running FCP, mine didn't drop below 99ºC at all.
 
up to 90 C.

I've heard that one can use a frame rate limiter to keep it a bit cooler.

Your fingers will be fine, the keyboard stays cool even when I play Skyrim for hours. However you will have fan noise that might be annoying for your wife.
 
It'll get a little toasty...

Definitely not something you'll want sitting in your lap while playing. The bottom of the computer will probably wind up somewhere in the range of 115°F or so if it's anything like my mid 2009 model. I had the 17" MBP with 2.8 C2D and it would frequently get up to about 45°C according to my Fluke 87V while playing KotOR. Internal temps will probably be just below boiling. Aluminum conducts heat quite well, so expect the chassis to get pretty warm while doing anything taxing on the video card (gaming, rendering, etc.). It won't hurt the computer though.
 
Any game will get hot period.

Just put a pillow under the back edge or a book or something. It will run on ultra settings tho.
 
Ugh I really do not want to wait for the Ivy Bridge, even though I read that it will be cooler. Currently playing from my MBA seems limiting in situations where many characters have to be drawn, causing a hint of lag in response to abilities and button presses.

I *can* wait for Ivy Bridge revision, but I have the money in my pocket now and really want a middle of the road gaming laptop (even though I know laptops are traditionally abysmal for gaming despite what they claim).

It's only WoW :(
 
I used to play WoW regularly on my mac (all for about 4 weeks) and it got hot, but nothing serious. The fans will go crazy. I can't remember if I played it on Mac or Windows (bootcamp) -

I have a 2011, 15", i7, 2.2 Ghz, 8GB, 750 HD.

Hope this helps :)
 
Heat on the legs isn't much of a concern since I always use a Logitech lap desk. I am mostly worried about fan noise and keyboard heat.
 
P0stalTek said:
Heat on the legs isn't much of a concern since I always use a Logitech lap desk. I am mostly worried about fan noise and keyboard heat.
Click to expand...

Fan noise is reasonable and it takes hours for the keyboard to get hot to where you notice anything. The trackpad gets hotter first.

Its all minimal and respectable for a laptop though. Nothing to worry about.
 
Hopefully Ivy Bridge will solve this. This is ridiculous. My hp desktop runs butter smooth with whatever I throw at it.
 
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Has anyone tried a cooling pad? I figure they would work better than on normal plastic laptops due to much of the heat being dissipated through the unibody.
 
I run a 15" MBP i7 Quad-Core, 4 Gb, Radeon 6750M.

If you are playing casually outside of a major raid (leveling, grinding rep, 5 mans) this computer never kicks on the fan. Even in a 25M raid with the setting set to "good", just standing around it sits with the fan off. As soon as combat starts and numbers/graphics/spells start shooting off everywhere the fan kicks on.

So if you want to doodle around while on the couch, the area of the escape key might get warm and the fan might kick on, but you wont have NEARLY the hot pants of some of the Dell systems (personal past experience).

As a note someone talked about limiters, THESE THINGS ARE GREAT! And also with the base model, limiting various aspects like view distance, water quality, and other Radeon downfalls will certainly help with the temps.

The most I do is chalk the back up on two erasers when I do actual raiding and recording. My Youtube Channel can show you where I fall short on system hiccups (AoE on Ragnaros) but even when Ultraxion had major FPS bugs, it was flawless.
 
I haven't tried WoW yet - mainly because I've been playing SWTOR under Bootcamp. But I can run the game without the system overheating or crashing. The bottom of the machine does get hat, but that's because the aluminum draws the heat away from the core components.
 
mine gets up to 83 C, but drops to about 77-80 when playing for atleast 20min. thats on high settings. it gets waay to hot imo to play on you bare lap, or even with jeans on. i always play with a cover or something under my computer.
 
My MacBook Pro can get up to 102C, and when its frying like that for a while the outer case gets seriously hot. So hot that it hurts to touch some parts of it. The other day I burnt my finger on the aluminium :(
 
I have a dedicated Windows Gaming Rig. That solves the problem of putting undue stress & strain on my MBP. Why not just accept that Macs are not for gaming.

It's been proven time after time, that heat is electronics worst nightmare. I enjoy my Mac far to much than to shorten it's life just to play games.

Large numbers of users will use any excuse to avoid admitting that Windows is a far better solution (even on a Mac) but I'm not buying it. There's too much to lose, and nothing to gain.
 
If you're only playing from home then you could go the route of getting one of those new smexy thunderbolt external graphics enclosure and let that run the graphics instead. Should make the MBP cooler.
 
Late 2011 15" 2.5GHz w/8GB RAM, 512 Apple SSD.

I can play WoW with my laptop on my legs comfortably. This compares favourably with my 2007 MBP, which I had to place on a large book because the heat was unbearable.

In summary, for what the OP set out at the start of the thread, it should be fine.
 
thundersteele said:
up to 90 C.

I've heard that one can use a frame rate limiter to keep it a bit cooler.

Your fingers will be fine, the keyboard stays cool even when I play Skyrim for hours. However you will have fan noise that might be annoying for your wife.
Click to expand...

Don't most modern games have frame limiting functions built in?

that1guyy said:
Hopefully Ivy Bridge will solve this. This is ridiculous. My hp desktop runs butter smooth with whatever I through at it.
Click to expand...

Note the term "desktop". They have better gpu options, and cooling tends to be less of an issue. Consider that Apple optimizes their designs toward thin and sleek. They're really not optimized for people to push them to their limits for hours. While they might be able to take it, they're not completely designed for this. If they were, they'd be bulky to accommodate larger fans, and people would complain about that.
 
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