MacBook Pro 15" Odd Temperatures

[crazyfish245]

Hey guys, I need some help regarding my relatively new MBP Retina that I bought back in June. I've been using it steadily since I purchased it, but have always noticed that it overheats very badly under certain circumstances, either in video streaming (Netflix, Youtube) or gaming (nothing crazy tasking, but Crusader Kings II for example). Every time I attempt to run an application that requires constant computing, the cooling unit spins up like a jet turbine and runs very hot. iStatsMenu is reporting an idle of about 45C and 50C (has gone to 39C when completely idle i.e. apps haven't been used yet) but it goes to 80C and above when using applications. I'm kinda hoping this isn't normal, but I wanted to check in with you guys to see if this needs attention or if I'm going insane.

For reference, the model has a 2.5 Ghz i7, and an AMD Radeon R9 370X, 16 GB total DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz. I'm also not sure if the OS is switching to the GPU appropriately with certain applications. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks guys!

 

[snaky69]

Those themps are perfectly normal and within spec. If you'd done a search of the forums you would have found it littered with thousands upon thousands of threads on the subject with the same answer.

 

[crazyfish245]

Those themps are perfectly normal and within spec. If you'd done a search of the forums you would have found it littered with thousands upon thousands of threads on the subject with the same answer.

I know, but I just don't understand how I can use these applications regularly with the fans spinning at such a high RPM. It's insanely loud and generates quite a lot of heat. So, I guess my question now, since this is the intended outcome, would you suggest an aftermarket cooling unit or laptop stand?

 

[snaky69]

I know, but I just don't understand how I can use these applications regularly with the fans spinning at such a high RPM. It's insanely loud and generates quite a lot of heat. So, I guess my question now, since this is the intended outcome, would you suggest an aftermarket cooling unit or laptop stand?

Both would be next to useless due to the design of the machine. They will barely, if at all, reduce the internal temperatures. Blowing air at the bottom of the macbook pro doesn't do much to cool what's behind it. It's a solid plate with no physical contact with internal components

The fan's speed is normal and intended, if it didn't spin up, your computer would overheat and shutdown in a matter of minutes, or seconds.

People want powerful, thin and light, the tradeoff is that since there isn't too much air inside the case to expel the heat, the fans have to work harder. That's just the nature of things.

 

[crazyfish245]

Both would be next to useless due to the design of the machine. They will barely, if at all, reduce the internal temperatures. Blowing air at the bottom of the macbook pro doesn't do much to cool what's behind it. It's a solid plate with no physical contact with internal components

The fan's speed is normal and intended, if it didn't spin up, your computer would overheat and shutdown in a matter of minutes, or seconds.

People want powerful, thin and light, the tradeoff is that since there isn't too much air inside the case to expel the heat, the fans have to work harder. That's just the nature of things.

Forgive my frustrations, I'm just disillusioned that my laptop can't comfortably run my apps. Oh well, I don't regret my purchase. I guess I would have preferred the size compromise for better cooling haha
Many thanks.

 

[fenjen]

Forgive my frustrations, I'm just disillusioned that my laptop can't comfortably run my apps. Oh well, I don't regret my purchase. I guess I would have preferred the size compromise for better cooling haha
Many thanks.

Uhm, it's not normal for the fans to spin up when only using Hulu or youtube... If you're sure nothing else is running in the background then I'd say those temps are definite;y not normal.

 

[snaky69]

Uhm, it's not normal for the fans to spin up when only using Hulu or youtube... If you're sure nothing else is running in the background then I'd say those temps are definite;y not normal.

You'd be surprised at how badly Flash-based content can bring a computer to its knees.

Using HTML5 for youtube helps a whole lot.

 

[treekram]

I don't think YouTube uses Flash any more - if they do, it would be a minority of the videos they have. In any case, for YouTube, if you right-click on the video, a menu will appear and the last item should be "About the HTML5 player" if it is using HTML5 - it will be something different if it is Flash.

The OP doesn't mention the browser being used. I don't use it but I've heard that Chrome is a resource hog. Between Firefox and Safari, Safari is more efficient for YouTube videos, CPU/GPU-wise, than Firefox. That may help. It looks like Hulu is still Flash and since the browsers would use the same plugin, I don't think there's much of a difference there between browsers.

If you're using a high-resolution for the videos, you might want to try a lower resolution and see how much of a difference that makes. If there is a noticeable difference, then at least you'll know one factor causing high CPU/GPU utilization.

You might want to check Activity Monitor and see if there's high CPU usage on an HTML page without a video. There maybe something else driving your CPU utilization and doing the videos maybe pushing it over the edge, temperature-wise.

You also might want to search on the web to see if your games do stress out the computer. If everybody else doesn't have a problem running the games you're running, then it may be an issue with your computer.

 

[fenjen]

You'd be surprised at how badly Flash-based content can bring a computer to its knees.

Using HTML5 for youtube helps a whole lot.

Yeah flash is a b*tch but I think all youtube content is html 5 now which shouldn't cause such temps.