MacBook Pro Retina 15" GPU Throttling :(

[gam3r]

Hello,

Its been 11 months since I purchased MacBook Pro retina. All games used to run very well with good fps count without any stuttering. Since last few days I came across frequent stuttering and low fps. I also restored Windows 7 to rule out driver problems.

I attached screenshot for your reference. its throttling GPU Memory clock and Core Clock significantly from 900-725 to 270Mhz and 2500Mhz to 419Mhz respectively. I am able to reproduce this problem by running furmark for 1-2 minutes.

I tried all solutions i.e : PRAM reset, SMC reset, using throttle stop ( CPU ) to set low multiplier, I even tried underclocking the GPU to see if it runs properly without such a huge slowdown.

Something interesting to note is that my GPU runs around 65-70* Celsius all the time and CPU is running at 70-88* Celsius.

Can anyone with same laptop confirm that this is not normal. My laptop is still under 1 year warranty. I will take it to AppleCare if needed, this is totally annoying .

Please post your impressions on this.

Thank you

 

[chandrahmuki]

Same problem...

Exactly the same profile..exactly the same mac , and exactly the same problem , thats been one day that i'm trying to solve that problem...

 

[GSPice]

This may sound dumb, but was there any driver and/or windows patch recently installed? It's anybody's guess what some Windows updates actually "fix".

 

[gam3r]

GSPice : I have automatic installation of windows updates set to on. It keeps installing so many updates every now and then I really don't keep track as to what it is actually is installing. But I highly doubt whether it would effect or fix the problem in any way.

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As some other users pointed out in other posts. I believe it is actually CPU throttling which is causing GPU to constantly fickle between high and low clock speeds.

Living in a hot region where you have 20-30 Celsius ambient room temperature can also increase chances of triggering early throttling.

I also took my laptop to Apple Care. they did Diagnostic test by stress testing all temperature sensors and checking hardware components; it turns out that my hardware seems alright. I also did AHT by holding 'D' during boot no problems there as well.

As many people claim it could be that EFI 1.0 update which seems to trigger this problem more frequently.

To temporarily isolate this problem, I purchased http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F5L001 Belkin cooling pad, although it's not that effective it surely is helping due to angled placement and air flow below the laptop. And I am using throttle stop to fix CPU multiplier speed at 19-20x to prevent turbo. And set fan RPM at 6000. This is definitely helping and reducing frequency of throttling. I really hope Apple releases another EFI update to fix this problem

 

[nickandre21]

well since you recently started facing this issue i would suggest you clean out the dust from the heat sink and fans this may be the cause. other then that trying increasing the fan speed with an application i do not know what application is there for windows but for osx its smcfancontrol.