MBP Mid 2015 15" Full Spec, high temperatures

[grohsfabian]

Hey,

I recently purchased a 2015 Mid 15" MacbookPro with full spec on it with the 2GB GFX, 512GB SSD, 16gb ram and the 2.5Ghz processor

It is a second-hand laptop with around 300+ cycles with its battery

The problem that I face is that the temperature gets high and it gets super hot quickly and with ISTAT, the temparatures on idle stay at around:

What should I do ? I was thinking about opening it up and cleaning it of dust or something.

I've had previously a 1 year old MBP 2015 with the lowest 13" model and I've never had these heat problems with it.

Let me know please!

 

[simonmet]

Wait, are those in Celcius? If so (and I assume they are if you say it feels hot) that’s really bad! You’ll be suffering a lot of thermal throttling with those temps.

You should give it a clean as your highest priority and perhaps even minimise or cease use until then. You’ll be surprised how much crap will have accumulated if it’s about 3 years old. You’ll need to buy a Pentalobe screwdriver to get the bottom case off.

But with those temps I’m wondering if something else needs fixing like thermal paste or a broken fan. it might be worth getting it looked at.

 

[grohsfabian]

Hey,

The thing is that it does not seem to slow down, but I was used to the power of the little 13" from before so yeah haha

Can you recommend me a kit for doing this? ( ifixit maybe ? ) and a thermal paste?

Regards,

Fabian.

 

[simonmet]

Hey,

The thing is that it does not seem to slow down, but I was used to the power of the little 13" from before so yeah haha

Can you recommend me a kit for doing this? ( ifixit maybe ? ) and a thermal paste?

Regards,

Fabian.

I’ve used an iFixit pentalobe screwdriver and it was awesome. That’s all you need to get the bottom case off. You might find some plastic tweezers or similar will help to get lodged dustballs free.

When buying compressed air, buy at least 3 cans because they get cold from use and this causes (albeit short-lived) condensation, so rotate between them to minimise the effect.

Also, put each screw back in the same hole. You can buy little trays to help with this.

 

[grohsfabian]

Hey,

Is this tool kit alright? https://eustore.ifixit.com/en/Tools...=Referral&utm_medium=modal&utm_content=145307

 

[jerryk]

I am assuming those temps are in Fahrenheit unless you sit in an oven. 91 degrees C at the touchpad and your fingers would be medium to well done.

So assuming Fahrenheit these temps are a little high. I have the same model and idle (have not done anything in 5-10 minutes) temps for the CPU are in the 40-43C (105-115F) range.

If you are doing anything with heavy load, Machine Learning, gaming, etc. You can expect to see CPU temps close to 200 F. The CPU will start throttling a little higher and the fans will really be going in an attempt to keep the system from going over 212F (100C).

Remember your 15" has 4 cores and can dissipate 45 W of power, versus 28W for your 13" dual core. The 15" units do run a bit hotter, and when you load them up they run a lot hotter, and faster.

I would see if blowing out the fans and the heatsinks helps.

 

[duervo]

Used, with a 300+ cycle battery? My suspicion is the biggest source of heat might be that battery, because pretty much every heat sensor in there seems a bit high.

Doubt it's going to be fixed with re-paste, due to every sensor showing higher temps. Re-paste won't hurt, but it's probably not going to totally fix things.

You could also try cleaning out the fans, but I'd also probably look at getting a new battery if it were me.

 

[grohsfabian]

Hey there guys,

They were Fahrenheit, indeed! Celsius the temp stays around 50degrees with chrome opened and other 2 programs but it gets hot as f**k when I plug in the 4K monitor ( don't have stats yet, did not test ).

I was thinking also to get the battery from ifixit and that toolkit to give it a good refresh and cleanup

Thank you so much for all the answers, you guys are amazing ^_^

 

[leman]

What is your ambient temperature? If it’s warm summer where you operate the laptop, these temps are not abnormal.

 

[OSX15]

I experience even higher temps with my Mid 2015 15". I have the version with dGPU and CPU upgrade. What do you guys recommend for thermal paste replacements? I've already cleaned everything really well. There's no dust whatsoever and the fans look brand-new. I've read a lot about Liquid Metal but also heard there is a lot of downsides to it. From people who used it on MacBooks, some are reporting the LM has eaten/corroded their heatsink / copper material. If this is a valid argument, what is the best paste for better thermals that's non-conductive? I'm leaning towards Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut but this is only because people mention it everywhere.

 

[jerryk]

4K monitor means you pushing a lot of pixels through the GPU. So a lot of heat is being generated. Also, Chrome seems to generates a lot of heat if you watch videos. Try Safari and see if it helps.

 

[duervo]

I experience even higher temps with my Mid 2015 15". I have the version with dGPU and CPU upgrade. What do you guys recommend for thermal paste replacements? I've already cleaned everything really well. There's no dust whatsoever and the fans look brand-new. I've read a lot about Liquid Metal but also heard there is a lot of downsides to it. From people who used it on MacBooks, some are reporting the LM has eaten/corroded their heatsink / copper material. If this is a valid argument, what is the best paste for better thermals that's non-conductive? I'm leaning towards Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut but this is only because people mention it everywhere.

I’d stay away from the LM stuff. Difficult to apply, conductive, and (long term) will corrode any other metals with which it comes in contact around area of application, especially aluminum, and for what? To save about 2C on temps? That’s not worth it, IMO. Those temp differences are not going to increase the life of your system by any noticeable amount.

There are a plethora of pastes on the market. This article has a summary of a lot: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-9.html

They all generally perform within a 5-6C difference from best to worst. LM only being about 1-2C better than the best of those. Obviously, I’d probably lean away from the worst performers on the list, and would probably stick to the top half if it were me. Arctic Silver 5 is popular. So is their MX-4. They have cure times though. AS5’s is something like 270 hours or so of mixed system usage, and turning it off when not in use. Not sure what MX-4’s is, but I’ve seen statements that suggest that it’s even longer.

My personal favourite, out of the ones that I can get locally, is Noctua NT-H1. It’s not too thick, so is much easier to apply. I discovered it when it came packaged with each of the heat sinks I purchased for a dual-socket system I put together in the past. (You can buy it separately though.)