MBP 16 - Massive power usage using Swift Playground app

[Super Xander]

Hi forum
I started doing the Swift programming classes "Learn to code course 1-2," on my MBP 16, but after a few minutes or so, the dedicated GPU turns on, and fans spin to around 4000RPM while logical as well using a lot of power and gets hot.

I wonder why such a "small" catalyst-app uses such much power for writing a few lines of codes? The Playground app runs perfectly fine and smooth on my iPad Pro or even my iPad Air 2 without any problems even though their power is much lower than the MacBook.

Do anyone knows why? Does the Mac Playground app do anything extra that uses more power or is it something to do with my MacBook Pro?

 

[lokomoto]

Hi, I just found out this post via forum search because I was frustrated with Swift Playgrounds performance on Mac too and I wanted to see if I am alone in this. I can barely focus on the lessons because of the fan noise of my 15" MacBook Pro. It seems like they made terrible job at optimising it for Mac. Hopefully, some future update will fix it.

 

[silvia_18]

Hi, I also found this post to see if others were having this issue (the reviews for the app seem to reflect this too). I thought it was because I was using a MacBook Air 2020 but if someone with a 16" MacBook Pro has issues then the Air had no chance.

It ran terribly BUT I just tried the update (3.3.1) and I think it's much improved! I'm going to give it a proper run tomorrow and put it through its paces.

 

[Super Xander]

Hi, I also found this post to see if others were having this issue (the reviews for the app seem to reflect this too). I thought it was because I was using a MacBook Air 2020 but if someone with a 16" MacBook Pro has issues then the Air had no chance.

It ran terribly BUT I just tried the update (3.3.1) and I think it's much improved! I'm going to give it a proper run tomorrow and put it through its paces.

Thanks. Having used Swift Playground for a while because of how bad it runs. Might try it out again.

 

[silvia_18]

To be honest, maybe it's not all fixed... it crashed on me but only once so far (before it tended to crash when I pressed backwards to delete a line) and the animation is still not smooth.

Wish Apple would sort how the app runs on MacOS rather than release something that doesn't work without so many problems.

 

[yellow8]

I've always had issues with playgrounds. I find them unreliable. Mainly slow and often unresponsive.