YouTuber Claims 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Upgraded Core i9 Chip is Severely Throttled Due to Thermal Issues

[nihil0]

He also made the point the expectations for a laptop are out of whack. If you are doing this type of processing, get a machine that is meant for it. People using Premiere that abandoned the Mac ecosystem did not jump to a laptop, they jumped typically to an HP workstation (Xeon - with configurations that go north of the iMac Pro by a considerable amount).
For Final Cut Pro the laptop will work... but really it is still the job of something larger. Size the machine to what you need, and then if you need a laptop from time to time - just get a lesser laptop for all processes that are not workstation grade workflows.

Exactly... I don't really understand that someone buys laptop and expects it to behave like supercomputer from NASA. I would really like to buy Macbook Pro because I think it has gorgeous design but I opted for 27 inch iMac 5K because I know what I do and that MB Pro would not be enough for me (for same price as iMac 5K at least)

Also, I second that with Premiere Pro.. what is the point of buying Mac when you use poorly optimized Win software on it? At least put Bootcamp on it if you want to use it and have that light portable form which Macbook Pro is

 

[iMcLovin]

Ah, but because some random guy on YouTube made the claim it is Mac Rumors front page news! LOL.

well if this is an issue it means a great deal and people buying it is being ripped off at a high cost. That makes for front page for sure.
A non overclocked factory built and extremely expensive machine should not overheat.

 

[stylinexpat]

I find it funny how people here call out Dave Lee, a very well known and respected Youtuber who puts a lot of time into solid research. I've been watching him since quite some time and he's surely not a "Random Youtuber". He always actually liked and recommended Apple laptops.

Funnily enough Notebookcheck just released a preview of the new 13" MBP and it suffers from severe throttling too. This should really surprise nobody who knows how bad of a job Apple is doing even with their thermal paste in their past products. But I guess some people here would rather blame half of the internet than admit that a product may have it's problems... and this is the problem why Apple always gets away with it in the end...

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-2018-Touch-Bar-i5-Laptop.316002.0.html

Thanks for sharing link, will read. It is in German
I hope min does not have any problems. I was just returning an X1 Carbon as the fans on that one are often running also. It also has bad battery life. New one on its way. Fingers crossed..

 

[fairuz]

Should Apple have included a liquid nitrogen cooling option? Your thoughts? I guess you could just leave it in the fridge and use a wireless mouse, keyboard, and airplay the display.

Google Hangouts and Xcode both used to melt my 2012 MBP, so I used to unironically use an ice pack under it, making direct and high-surface-area contact with the metal underside conducting all the heat. Kept it below 50˚C at minimum fan speed!
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You'll probably also need to buy a dongle for that !!!

The one feature they forgot in USB-C was the ability to transfer liquid too, allowing for external liquid coolers!!!

 

[eulslix]

Thanks for sharing link, will read
I hope min does not have any problems. I was just returning an X1 Carbon as the fans on that one are often running also. It also has bad battery life. New one on its way. Fingers crossed..

You're welcome. Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine The i7 shouldn't throttle remotely as much as the i9 and most importantly outperfom it's 2017 counterpart.

 

[Merode]

The only surprising thing here are surprised people. It's not the first time Apple does that and it's not the last.

As to credibility - I trust those youtubers more than any news outlet. Why? Because they criticize each manufacturer equally. You would know that if you watched them.

 

[handquake]

16 pages in and the best comments are the ones that run along the lines of, "People who need i9 Hexacore performance with a dedicated GPU should be buying a workstation. They shouldn't expect this rig to run it. It's their fault". Next best...those blaming Intel.

 

[amaze1499]

bottomline: even if you could/want/need to go for the i9 just don't put it in this machine. period.

 

[mctrials23]

Exactly... I don't really understand that someone buys laptop and expects it to behave like supercomputer from NASA. I would really like to buy Macbook Pro because I think it has gorgeous design but I opted for 27 inch iMac 5K because I know what I do and that MB Pro would not be enough for me (for same price as iMac 5K at least)

Also, I second that with Premiere Pro.. what is the point of buying Mac when you use poorly optimized Win software on it? At least put Bootcamp on it if you want to use it and have that light portable form which Macbook Pro is

I think the problem is that Apple are selling something with the intention of satisfying the needs of super power users and charging them accordingly. You can't really turn around then and say "well if you want to use the power we have give you then buy an iMac Pro". They are damned either way as people would complain if they didn't offer that CPU and some people would have said "let me decide if its too hot for use but give me the choice".

 

[Substance90]

Well that was to be expected. There are limits to combining power and thinness.

 

[jaredm1]

Apple’s obsession with anorexic laptops bites again? No surprise!

If Apple had re-tweaked the previous case design which had more internal space they’d have had a lot more scope for manoeuvre - especially for ’Pro’ things. They could have used it for larger battery / better specs / more effective cooling.

Same thing with the cylinder MacPro - form over function won at Cupertino.

 

[Lone Deranger]

Not criticizing the YouTuber or his testing methodology, but I would say people who need maximum performance from their hardware shouldn't be buying systems that have to worry so much about size/weight/power consumption.

Maybe people (especially Apple) can accept there sometimes is no replacement for a good desktop tower.

Agreed. But then Apple shouldn’t be flaunting them as potential Mac Pro replacements. (See my first post in this thread).

 

[dan9700]

So my new £3000 machine will be slower than my old 2017 one this is just great sold my 2017 for a good price but now im worried

 

[littyboy]

My maxed out 15" gets here tomorrow, I will post some results.

No need. Dave is really legit as a reviewer.

 

[recoil80]

I'd be willing to sacrifice 2-3mm of thickness in order to have better internals, and that includes more efficient thermal management.
Their laptops are way too thin nowadays, and I don't see a valid reason for that. Sure they look great, but the aesthetic is not something a pro is really interested to since this is a machine you need to use to get the work done. I'm ok with a think Macbook as an extreme portable machine, but Macbook Pro should be the most powerful and reliable machines, and that is not the case anymore.

 

[netwalker]

Heating is the one thing I dislike about my MacBook Pro 13" w/TB 2016. It gets super hot when I open up google maps alone... it get's to 70 degree Celsius (158 F) just like that, with nothing else running in the background.

yes, it always amazes me how a single website can cook my MBP, how is that possible in 2018 with machines much more powerful than what we had years ago (Google maps launched in 2005). I wish I could limit CPU/GPU per browser tab.

 

[wfaler]

Because this is just one data point, it's not enough information to reach a conclusion about the i9 chip available for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, but additional testing will certainly follow to shed more light on Lee's video.

This, and the watered down headline of "YouTuber claims" are fairly disingenious: the claims are easily verifiable by using the same benchmarking software under similar conditions.

This is pretty damning for Apple: imagine if Ferrari said they released a more performant car than ever before, omitting the fact that you can only drive it in first gear, at just above idle, or risk it overheating?
This would never in a million years be acceptable business practice for a seller of performance cars. Why is it for Apple? It's exactly the equivalent situation.

Not even being able to run at the _base_ clock-speed once throttling sets in is pretty atrocious.

 

[0095059]

This Video Confirms similar findings when using Final Cut pro too... It's slower in Final Cut too. So it has nothing to do with Adobe software. I guess Apple Finally hit a Thermal Wall when it comes to ultra slim and heat dissipation. I would definitely NOT get the i9 version of this laptop, it's waste since the cooler can't handle the CPU. I think Apple felt the pressure to update the MacBooks Pro models to shut everyone up, but didn't really need to from a real world performance standpoint. I'm sure they tested it and Know it throttles so much under long load periods. Not good news

This is great video, thanks for sharing!

My understanding is that the MacBook Pro 15" 2018 model is much faster than the MacBook Pro 15" 2017 model, except when performing a long task (10+ min) that requires 100% CPU. In that case, the OS throttles the CPU in the 2018 version to lower the CPU temperature.

When rendering video for playback, the 2018 version with the 2.9 GHz chip is faster.

Final Cut Pro uses the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) for near real-time playback. The 2018 version is faster for rendering, which would include making edits, adding texts and effects on Final Cut Pro and playing them back on a monitor.

When using the compressor, the 2017 version with the 3.1 GHZ chip is faster.

The compressor utilizes the CPU to write to disk. The difference in compressing speeds seems to be about 10% slower for the 2018 model, based on the provided video. The compressor uses a CODEC to take RAW or previously compressed video files and output them in a different format. An example would be .AVI to .MP4.

On the 2017 model, if you are compressing a 120 minute video shot in 60 FPS, with a compression rate of 100 FPS, it would take 72 minutes.

(120 minutes * 60 FPS) / 100 FPS = 72 minutes

On the 2018 model, for the same file, it would take about 80 minutes.

I hope that feedback is helpful.

 

[laz232]

I don't think the CPU on an iPad Pro actually has a thermometer (when the iPad overheats, I believe it is using the temperature reading from the battery).

I'm 110% sure that there is an on-chip CPU temperature sensor. Because every Intel and AMD chip for the past decade have this, as does every FPGA I've used and even microcontrollers sold for cents (e.g. https://forum.43oh.com/topic/1954-using-the-internal-temperature-sensor/). It's really just a few transistors among billions that are necessary....

 

[0095059]

I'm 110% sure that there is an on-chip CPU temperature sensor. Because every Intel and AMD chip for the past decade have this, as does every FPGA I've used and even microcontrollers sold for cents (e.g. https://forum.43oh.com/topic/1954-using-the-internal-temperature-sensor/). It's really just a few transistors among billions that are necessary....

It's possible but it hasn't been listed in any of the breakdowns of the A10X architecture that I've seen. Here's a screenshot of the A10 Fusion used in the iPad 2018 model. (The A10 Fusion is on the left).

Here's an example of throttling:

If you play Fortnite for iOS with the power supply connected through the Lightning port, the screen will dim and the frame rate will drop after some time of both playing and charging.

If you play Fornite for iOS only on battery, rarely does the screen dim or the frame rate drop.

Charging the battery causes heat and overheating causes iOS to throttle the CPU. But the CPU isn't under a heavier load when charging.

So, my conclusion was that the thermometer is only on the battery and not the CPU.

 

[Heineken]

Testing it with Premiere is a joke, this app is not properly optimised.
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LOL....yeah some random well respected YouTuber with 1.4 million subscribers.

Really? and why people respect him? Also since when number of subscribers means anything at all huh?

 

[Sackofnickels]

Exactly... I don't really understand that someone buys laptop and expects it to behave like supercomputer from NASA. I would really like to buy Macbook Pro because I think it has gorgeous design but I opted for 27 inch iMac 5K because I know what I do and that MB Pro would not be enough for me (for same price as iMac 5K at least)

Also, I second that with Premiere Pro.. what is the point of buying Mac when you use poorly optimized Win software on it? At least put Bootcamp on it if you want to use it and have that light portable form which Macbook Pro is

OK let me get this straight. You should not buy a top spec computer and expect it to run at it's full potential, and you should not expect to run a top spec computer at it's full potential if software is not optimized for Mac. You should pay thousands on a top of the line computer because it looks gorgeous? Got it.

 

[genovelle]

LOL....yeah some random well respected YouTuber with 1.4 million subscribers.

Which means he gets paid a lot to market to those subscribers.

 

[nihil0]

OK let me get this straight. You should not buy a top spec computer and expect it to run at it's full potential, and you should not expect to run a top spec computer at it's full potential if software is not optimized for Mac. You should pay thousands on a top of the line computer because it looks gorgeous? Got it.

I guess you have problems with comprehending reading text. Or maybe I did not express myself correctly, as English is not my native language.

What I meant to say is that - it is still laptop. And it is not only thing that happens with Apple laptops - OEM Windows laptops also suffer from overheating and throttling. That means that when I understand that this can happen and I need to rely on that it will not happen, I will opt for desktop which is built to sustain more heat under heavy load.

And secondly - I wrote that I PERSONALLY would like to buy Macbook Pro because I like the look but because I know that it would would not perform as great as iMac, I will not buy it

Now the bottom line is that - I bought Mac which suits me and I am not crying that it will not help me fly to the moon.

Do you understand me now or do you want to interpret my sentences in your own, twisted way?

 

[genovelle]

OK let me get this straight. You should not buy a top spec computer and expect it to run at it's full potential, and you should not expect to run a top spec computer at it's full potential if software is not optimized for Mac. You should pay thousands on a top of the line computer because it looks gorgeous? Got it.

Since software and hardware should be designed to balance the intent of the design with drawbacks. Heat and battery usage are both factors when building a laptop. Running at full capacity for extended periods can create other issues requiring loud fan usage of shortened chip life. Keep in mind Apple computers are generally supported by new OS upgrades for 5 or so. My first Mac from 2001 is still working flawlessly I also have a MacBook Air and Pro from 2010 that I use daily, so they clearly know something about building computers that last.