He called out Dell for their thermal issues, and he feels they shouldn't get a pass with their 2018 laptops
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
YouTuber Claims 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Upgraded Core i9 Chip is Severely Throttled Due to Thermal Issues
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple has NOT accepted they are defective. They have introduced a semi-repair program (with a time-frame that does not last until they are vintage -- only 4 years) ONLY because there was a PR problem. The statistics likely are only on the cusp -- which is why they were reluctant to have a repair program. I even doubt gen 1 and gen 2 have the same statistics... and gen 3 will also see an improvement. The lawyers, however, would not allow them to say anything about anything close to that -- while there are ongoing lawsuits (which my guess is they will fail since I doubt the statistics raise to the point that Apple is selling defecting computers). If the cost to repair the keyboard was not so astronomical... the level of the anger from the keyboard issues would not be so loud.
No but the pro moniker is really mostly there for marketing. I'm not justifying apple on this, just pointing out, that its more for marketing
I'm talking about the testing conditions. The fact that he sticks in the MBP in a freezer to try and make a point makes me doubt his methods vs. the testing that Apple would have done. Is this truly a cold start for both machines? What's the ambient temperature? Where were they being stored prior to the test?
Why blame intel? They make the chips and provide detailed parameters to the manufacture. The i9 performs fantastically if it has the required cooling. Apple designed the machine without adequate cooling. They have been doing it for years with the iMac and Thunderbolt 3 pros, but the i9 made it more obvious.
Good plan, although maybe try some proper whiskey
Lol. You mean, whiskey that doesn’t have a taste?
We are back up to about fifty bottles, which include a few rye, a couple Tennessee and a scotch.
Perhaps, but there is at least another video out with regard to throttling. There's also two other online reviews about throttling. Time will tell in all honesty and right now it does not look good.
A repair program for the whole 2016/17 series, and not even for some specific batch of units, is an implicit acceptance of fundamental design flaw.
Agree. $200-$300 is nothing these days for a bourbon. I just don’t include those in calculations for “money we could spend on bourbon.” Lol.That might buy me 1 bottle of Balvenie Port Wood...
Throttling should not be a surprise given the form factor of the MBP. My 2012 rMBP is bested by my 2010 Mac Pro in processor intensive tasks despite the rMBP having higher Geekbench scores (which just goes to show how worthless GB scores are).
Pro is just a marketing thing dividing two classes of machines. The arrogance that all 'pro' job functions have the same requirements is utter stupidity. There are some 'pro' functions where an iPad is fine, there are others where the top of the line iMac Pro does not come close to cutting it. It really irritates me when anyone says this that or the other thing is not a 'pro' device - it is moronic. It can be not sufficient for a certain professional function or it may be... for god's sake most professionals ... use only a phone
(oh but video editing 'pros' apparently think they are the only people deserving of being called a professional).
He's mainly saying (and demonstrating) don't bother upgrading (at significant cost) to the i9 because you won't see much benefit in multithreaded apps, so you shouldn't feel bad about your i7 purchase. The 2.6/4.3 i7 should be great.
Talking the fully decked out price is a joke. It is 3,200 for the SSD... Using that price as the basis for making a point is ... only detracting from your position.
Pro is just a marketing thing dividing two classes of machines. The arrogance that all 'pro' job functions have the same requirements is utter stupidity. There are some 'pro' functions where an iPad is fine, there are others where the top of the line iMac Pro does not come close to cutting it. It really irritates me when anyone says this that or the other thing is not a 'pro' device - it is moronic. It can be not sufficient for a certain professional function or it may be... for god's sake most professionals ... use only a phone
Hey, it's Apple's that's using the "Pro" moniker, I was simply pointing this out in relation to your comment, so if anyone you should be calling them arrogant and moronic. I never said or even implied one design suits all. But if they want to use "Pro" for marketing purposes they should be able to accept criticism and flack from actual pros. You seem to be saying Apple isn't making a laptop for those pros who need/want sustained, max-CPU performance.
At the end of the day, the thing that's moronic seems to be paying Apple almost the cost of a CPU to upgrade to an i9 for little to no benefit in this design.
Last edited:
Throttling back to the base clock speed under "extended" heavy loads, sure. I think that's totally unsurprising.
Throttling back to below the base clock speed under "moderate" loads, I don't think so.
Here’s to hoping it’s just a misprogrammed thermal control circuit or miscalibrated thermal sensor.
Agreed. IMO any system which does so has a design defect.
Irrelevant. A software should not make a cpu run up to 100°C no matter what. It’s hardware issue.
I think we need more than a single data point (just like with the SSD testing we saw earlier) before we can reach a conclusion.
if you watched dave lee's video, youwould see that he did compare the i9's performance to the core i7 and found that the i7 performed better under continuous load
No, it is an implicit acceptance of a PR problem... no different than reducing (for a time) the price of a dongle -- or the bundling of a dongle.
So after reading 21 pages of this I have some thoughts.
I know a lot of people who have MacBook Pros. Not one of them is a "Pro". They might on a crazy day have 3 tabs open in Safari and open a excel spreadsheet. I would be willing to bet that THEY represent the majority of the MacBook Pro customers. These people could not throttle a laptop if they knew what that was and were to try. Apple of course knows this and are happy to take their money.
I was also thinking as I was reading this thread that we all are asking I think, for the impossible. We want faster and faster. We want to be able to do more of whatever it is we do. If we want to edit video we want to increase our videos resolution-the number of pixels we are pushing- to HD, then to 4K and now 8K. It's that way in every task area. We want to add GPU's to push more pixels. But what do we want to give up for this to happen. NOTHING. We expect more and more and do not understand that the laws of physics are just that-laws. There really is no free lunch.
Lastly, I think if we consider the above, as users we need to consider our roll in this, Sure having a powerful system in a 4 pound case that you can carry around is super convenient. Being able to carry it to where you are working is an advantage. But computer makers produce big large workstations for a reason. I have worked on Dell and HP workstations, where one of the heat sinks weighted more than 4 pounds. The top of the line HP workstation is liquid cooled and still has several fans. The cooling solution in that system weighs more than 4 pounds. Maybe the problem is not the system. Maybe it is that we have decided that for the advantages we want, we will use a system that was not really designed to do a task that we want it to do. I don't think the word "Pro" in Apple speak means what many think it means. In Apple's world in 2018, "Pro" means the top of the line. Not for Professionals. If I had to fault them, it would not be on these laptops. It would be that for their "Pro" customers that they don't truly offer ANY product anymore. Reasons for that exist too. But it is up to us to understand what we need to do with our systems and to pick the correct system for that job. That is not Apple's job-it is ours.
I know a lot of people who have MacBook Pros. Not one of them is a "Pro". They might on a crazy day have 3 tabs open in Safari and open a excel spreadsheet. I would be willing to bet that THEY represent the majority of the MacBook Pro customers. These people could not throttle a laptop if they knew what that was and were to try. Apple of course knows this and are happy to take their money.
I was also thinking as I was reading this thread that we all are asking I think, for the impossible. We want faster and faster. We want to be able to do more of whatever it is we do. If we want to edit video we want to increase our videos resolution-the number of pixels we are pushing- to HD, then to 4K and now 8K. It's that way in every task area. We want to add GPU's to push more pixels. But what do we want to give up for this to happen. NOTHING. We expect more and more and do not understand that the laws of physics are just that-laws. There really is no free lunch.
Lastly, I think if we consider the above, as users we need to consider our roll in this, Sure having a powerful system in a 4 pound case that you can carry around is super convenient. Being able to carry it to where you are working is an advantage. But computer makers produce big large workstations for a reason. I have worked on Dell and HP workstations, where one of the heat sinks weighted more than 4 pounds. The top of the line HP workstation is liquid cooled and still has several fans. The cooling solution in that system weighs more than 4 pounds. Maybe the problem is not the system. Maybe it is that we have decided that for the advantages we want, we will use a system that was not really designed to do a task that we want it to do. I don't think the word "Pro" in Apple speak means what many think it means. In Apple's world in 2018, "Pro" means the top of the line. Not for Professionals. If I had to fault them, it would not be on these laptops. It would be that for their "Pro" customers that they don't truly offer ANY product anymore. Reasons for that exist too. But it is up to us to understand what we need to do with our systems and to pick the correct system for that job. That is not Apple's job-it is ours.
I want the 17 inch back. it will solve the heat issue and will be more productive for design and will be portable as well with today technoplogy.
Are you listening Apple ?
Are you listening Apple ?
I've read many posts where people were happy with the previous form factor. Not only did its larger size permit better cooling but it also allowed for (at least for many) a better keyboard. I think many people would be fine if Apple returned to the previous form factor. This constant quest for ever thinner and thinner devices by Apple is causing them to lose sight of why people buy them: To get work done.