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Retina MacBook Pro Thermal Paste Swap - Video

What is your GPU temperature in Windows 7/8 when running a modern 3D game like Far Cry 3? My temperature is 85-88 degrees Celsius even after changing the thermal paste. The fans spin at 6000 & 5500 rpm. As a result, I have the throttling of CPU. The service center in Finland, said that the overheating wasn't detected. However, many other users of the retina have the GPU temperature in games around 72-75 degrees.
Proof http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvSZCjOZIQ
I have a MacBook Pro 15 Retina display MC976 (i7 2.6ghz, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM) which was released in 2012.
Do you think this is normal? Do you have any suggestions what I should do? As I know, judging by the forums, Apple Store in the USA several times changes logic board, heatsink, magsafe 2 power port, if none of this helps, they give a replacement.
(https://discussions.apple.com/message/21670776#21670776 https://discussions.apple.com/message/21647052#21647052)
 
Cant watch the video!

Hey!

Can you please re-upload? I can't watch the video.. and I really need to!

Thank you :)
 
luffytubby said:
Is it possible to do this without letting Apple know you opened it up?
Click to expand...

If you're *very* careful.

Tbh, if you don't know how to open a computer without leaving telltale signs, you probably shouldn't be replacing thermal paste on your $3k machine.
 
Replacing the thermal paste doesn't just work extremely well on Apple notebooks, if I'm doing any kind of overhaul to a Mac or PC I clean off all the standard paste using the Artic Purifier kit and reapply Artic Silver 5. Typically on a machine over 2 years old you're looking at an 8-12 degree C temperature drop by using fresh decent stuff instead of the factory/stock cheap paste.

Though I do this for a living; I wouldn't advise a novice or someone who doesn't have the correct tools either to even consider attempting it on their own Apple product.
 
I swapped it on mine, opened it several times under warranty, got it serviced by an authorised service centre after that and they didn't notice it. Hell, you just need to take out a cover plate and see how things are on the inside. Just leave as it was before. Not that hard.. but if you're not comfortable with it then just don't do it. Probably you don't need to either.
 
Last edited:
Gav Mack said:
Replacing the thermal paste doesn't just work extremely well on Apple notebooks, if I'm doing any kind of overhaul to a Mac or PC I clean off all the standard paste using the Artic Purifier kit and reapply Artic Silver 5. Typically on a machine over 2 years old you're looking at an 8-12 degree C temperature drop by using fresh decent stuff instead of the factory/stock cheap paste.

Though I do this for a living; I wouldn't advise a novice or someone who doesn't have the correct tools either to even consider attempting it on their own Apple product.
Click to expand...

Tbh, Apples thermal paste is very unpredictable. I've seen machines with hardly any, to machines having so much it had squirted out all over the place. Bear in mind too, if your machine has been repaired, then there's every chance the tech has put the wrong amount of paste back on.

They also seem to use a crappy generic paste, which is fine at first, but dries very quickly. I replaced the paste on my rMBP after a year, and after just 12 months it was pretty much caked on.

Similar story with my iMac. I did a CPU replacement on it (joys of the 2011 iMacs!) and the paste practically flaked off of the cpu. Don't get me wrong, the iMac took a beating (full CPU use pretty much 8 hours a day, every day) but it was worrying just how bad the paste is.

Moral of the story - you probably don't need to replace the paste on your 1 month old machine. Once it hits 12-18 months, if you're confident and know how to do it, I'd probably recommend it.
 
brought the rMPB Iris Pro only a few weeks back and noticed how hot the machine would get just by watching YouTube at 1080p and playing films through VLC, reapplied Arctic Silver 5 and the machine hardly ever gets warm and when it does it cools down VERY fast.

Every screw went back in the exact order that it came out, even the bottom screws.

A technique i have always used in my years of computing is putting the screws on the table in the same order i took them out to ensure they go back the exact way (even if multiple screws are identical)

Very happy with the outcome, the state Apple apply their paste is truly appalling.
 
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