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Macbook Pro video card useless due to heat

I

IheartOSX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 22, 2014
5
1
So I bought a used Macbook Pro and decided to go with the one with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo instead of the i5 CPU and am regretting it dearly.

I wanted something with a kick in GPU power for some casual gaming, which it can handle very well... for about 30 minutes :mad:

So while this Mac is running cool, the gaming performance is great. I can run Starcraft 2 on Medium/High settings and it looks great and runs well, but that all changes within 30 minutes just from being powered on. Once the temperature gets to a certain point the performance becomes terrible.

NEVER set your Mac to high performance mode on a Macbook Pro with the Core 2 Duo because even when you're not playing games but just simply browsing the web, the GPU burns through god knows what and within 30 minutes of simply being powered on, this thing will over heat and slow the hell down.

So I opened up the case, praying to god that the issue was just a bunch of dust clogging the fan exhaust but no, just noticed the 2 tiny fans which are a complete joke in terms of how they remove heat from the circuit board.

At this point I'm wondering why Apple even bothered to include a dedicated GPU that'll overheat by simply being powered on for more than 30 minutes. Now I'm considering to remove the DVD drive and maybe try to hack together a massive compact cooling system to blow air out through the CD tray in the hopes of repairing this abomination of engineering.

This only begs the question, I love OS X and hate Windows with a burning passion, but is this how ALL Macbook Pro's are constructed?? Is high performance mode merely a joke to cause excessive heat and slow down your Mac and use more power at the same time?!?! WTF were they thinking?? :eek:

My only solution unless someone has some advice is to hack the hell out of this thing by installing some 3rd party hardware in the hopes that I can get some more proper airflow because seriously, after inspecting the guts of this machine it's atrocious. Is there software that could put the fan speed on super high speeds?

Would I be better off booting into Windows exclusively for Starcraft II and other gaming?
 
It's not an "abomination of engineering" - it's a very compact package with a lot of power packed into it.

If it is throttling due to heat then there is something wrong with it - it was not designed that way. My guess would be that the contact between the heat sink and either the GPU or CPU has broken down - probably poorly applied thermal compound during assembly, or it's been opened before by someone and improperly reassembled.

Get the heat sink off and clean the contacts and reapply thermal paste.

The fans aren't "tiny" they are the right size to fit into the case and are more than adequate for airflow (as long as they aren't blocked).

When the heat sink connection is good and the fans are not blocked, the computer will not throttle at high load. The external case can get hot, but that's because it is made of aluminium and metal heats up when exposed to heat. The heatsink and fan assemblies will do their job.

But no, of course it's your expert engineering opinion that the engineering is simply "abominable". *eyeroll*
 
Your machine must be defective, I used to play my share of games on the 2009 C2D and I never noticed any substantial throttling or excessive heat output. That said, that computer is over 4 years old and very slow by today's standard - a today's MacBook Air will outperform it in gaming.
 
Repaste the cpu and gpu. You can polish also the heatsinks (you can find on Youtube how to do it)
Install bootcamp.
Disable cpu turbo mode (you don't need it, and it makes it hotter)
install msi afterburner to look at gpu speed.

If it doesn't work your laptop is defective.

I'm using retina which is much smaller and should heat much more, but still i can oc my gnu and play without problems under bootcamp.
 
You bought a MBP that is at least 5 years old without researching it in its intended use?

:rolleyes:

Your bad, not the computer.

If you can "engineer" it better, go for it.
 
IheartOSX said:
So I bought a used Macbook Pro and decided to go with the one with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo instead of the i5 CPU and am regretting it dearly.

I wanted something with a kick in GPU power for some casual gaming, which it can handle very well... for about 30 minutes :mad:

So while this Mac is running cool, the gaming performance is great. I can run Starcraft 2 on Medium/High settings and it looks great and runs well, but that all changes within 30 minutes just from being powered on. Once the temperature gets to a certain point the performance becomes terrible.

NEVER set your Mac to high performance mode on a Macbook Pro with the Core 2 Duo because even when you're not playing games but just simply browsing the web, the GPU burns through god knows what and within 30 minutes of simply being powered on, this thing will over heat and slow the hell down.

So I opened up the case, praying to god that the issue was just a bunch of dust clogging the fan exhaust but no, just noticed the 2 tiny fans which are a complete joke in terms of how they remove heat from the circuit board.

At this point I'm wondering why Apple even bothered to include a dedicated GPU that'll overheat by simply being powered on for more than 30 minutes. Now I'm considering to remove the DVD drive and maybe try to hack together a massive compact cooling system to blow air out through the CD tray in the hopes of repairing this abomination of engineering.

This only begs the question, I love OS X and hate Windows with a burning passion, but is this how ALL Macbook Pro's are constructed?? Is high performance mode merely a joke to cause excessive heat and slow down your Mac and use more power at the same time?!?! WTF were they thinking?? :eek:

My only solution unless someone has some advice is to hack the hell out of this thing by installing some 3rd party hardware in the hopes that I can get some more proper airflow because seriously, after inspecting the guts of this machine it's atrocious. Is there software that could put the fan speed on super high speeds?

Would I be better off booting into Windows exclusively for Starcraft II and other gaming?
Click to expand...

Going to go point by point here so that perhaps you can comprehend it all.

A. You bought used. You have no idea what the previous owner did to the internals. If they were like you, I'd guarantee they botched something.

B. You bought an old machine with both an old GPU and an old processor. Core 2 Duos haven't been used in MBPs for several years. Again, a used computer, so several years with plenty of chances for someone to mess up the computer.

C. You should totally hack out as much of the internals as you can to fit some kind of abortion of a cooling system in. You absolutely sound 100% qualified to do something like that. You really sound like someone who makes great decisions, and who isn't an idiot at all. I bet you can even pick up on sarcasm on the internet.

D. The internals are designed to work, high performance included. As someone with common sense might deduce, if said internals are not behaving as they should under even normal performance, perhaps they are not working properly.

E. Of course, instead of actually finding out if that's the case, the logical thing to do is to spend a pile of money on all sorts of third party stuff, stick it all in with plenty of tape, and blame witchcraft when it still doesn't work right. After all, it's not like you bought a used computer that's several years old without a proper hardware inspection. Oh wait...

F. Since you're clearly a self-proclaimed engineer, I'd recommend designing your own version of the MacBook Pro, with what you would deem proper cooling. Perhaps out of LEGOs, or something equally suited for your intellect level.


:rolleyes:
 
What temperatures are you getting when you see this problem?

Have you reapplied thermal paste?

Are your fan vents blocked when this happens?

What are your fan speeds?

What is your CPU load when you are just browsing the web?

What programs are running in the background and how much CPU are they eating up?
 
Hahaha. This is what happens when you trash Apple computers on an Apple fanboy website ^^^. There is definitely something wrong with your computer. MacRumors can be a nice place, just make sure you have a little backing to your argument next time.

Best,
Matt
 
IheartOSX: I see that the other topics are gone (maybe because of duplication/multiplication) but if you have amongst your e-mails a copy of the questions that I asked in the most recent topic: we could probably progress this quite nicely.

I use very similar hardware, and a great deal of my testing has involved a holistic view of how that class of Mac responds when 'pushed' to extremes in a variety of ways. Whilst I can't guarantee a solution, it's very likely that you'll get a logical explanation, if we're given enough information.

Thanks …
 
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