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

[richinaus]

I'm not surprised at all. The ultra-thin chassis with mediocre cooling does what it can. Of course this chip would work better in some huge bulky gaming laptop chassis, but that's not Mac and never will be.

Part of the reason why my next computer will probably be an iMac

I was going to say this. After over throttling all my laptops I realised for sustained loading I needed a desktop and haven’t looked back with the iMac pro. Those who need to will be much happier.

Macbookpro’s will always be secondary devices for those who push the cpu’sin a sustained way.

 

[cfdlab]

Apple has stopped doing real innovation on the mac lineup, and instead they are chasing after gimmicky things like touchbar and thin keyboards. Atleast on their pro lineup, they should not have gone the route of making it thinner. Then they would have some chance of improving thermal design. And not wasting space on things like touchbar would also have helped.

 

[bkkcanuck8]

To be fair the i9 is simply an option. It is available and they are offering it for those who want it. It is neither mandatory nor is it a mainstream CPU. Most people are never going to buy i9s and Xeons.

Actually, if you look at the Geekbench speeds they are all close together (2.2, 2.6 and i9 2.9 - about a 5% difference between top to bottom on multicore; and maybe 10% on the single core). In typical computer usage - that would likely mean a maximum of a fraction of that once all the components are factored in. I don't know about anyone else, but 5% to 10% difference in peak performance... is probably not worth it... the 32GB of RAM... that is worth it...

 

[wheelhot]

Perhaps it's time for TC to step down and get another person who actually cares for the products. TC can be a politician next

 

[69Mustang]

So it’s not about good reporting but clickbait. These laptops haven’t been out a week yet but but let’s already declare them failures because that’s what pays the bills.

You're just being reactionary. Only idiots are declaring them failures. DL definitely didn't declare it a failure. Whether or not Apple should have been offering that chip...

If thicker laptops are also struggling how is this an issue of Apple being obsessed with thin and light?

Who claimed Apple was obsessed? Also wouldn't a better question be "IF thicker laptops are also struggling, why would Apple even offer this chip in a thin, light laptop?" DL did a video on the XPS and said the same thing so he isn't picking on Apple.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I was going to say this. After over throttling all my laptops I realised for sustained loading I needed a desktop and haven’t looked back with the iMac pro. Those who need to will be much happier.

Macbookpro’s will always be secondary devices for those who push the cpu’sin a sustained way.

To me, the MBP (any laptop, really) is in a bad position of not being as efficient as an iPad (iOS apps are faster on an iPad than Mac apps are on a MBP) and not being as powerful as an iMac.

 

[Count Blah]

To be fair, this isn't so much Apple's fault as it is Intel's. Intel has really dropped the ball in the past couple of years. If they don't right the ship soon, AMD will take over the CPU game for a while. They are late with everything and are having lots of trouble shrinking the dies.

Yes, Intel held a gun to Apple's head, so Apple would produce a super thin laptop with less than needed cooling system.

You really cracked this case, WIDE open.

 

[cmaier]

So it’s not just an issue with Apple. Perhaps the mods should update the original story so people know this isn’t just an issue with Macs.

I, for one, couldn’t care less about what dell does.

The possibility that a six core 2018 MBP could perform worse than last year’s 4 core model is a highly relevant point to most people who are interested in buying a MBP.

Edited to fix typo

 

[lec0rsaire]

Yes, Intel held a gun to Apple's head, so Apple would produce a super thin laptop with less than needed cooling system.

You really cracked this case, WIDE open.

If these machines were as thick as pre-retina MacBooks everyone would be complaining about the bulk. There simply is no way to please everyone. The thinness does please the overwhelming majority of customers.
[doublepost=1531883721][/doublepost]

I, for one, couldn’t care less about what dell does.

The possibility that a six core 2018 MBP could perform worse than last year’s 6 core model is a highly relevant point to most people who are interested in buying a MBP.

There was no last year's 6 core model. Mobile hexa core is new to Coffee Lake. You probably mean quad core.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Not long enough, I guess.

Here's a video of him discussing thermal limitations on the Dell XPS 15, a Windows PC. This is the exact same criticism he had for the Macbook Pro today, so how can he be hating on Apple? The guy is being as unbiased as he can.

i saw that video, but quite odd he doesn't compare the previous model Premiere rendering times vs current one. XPS isn't really only meant to be a gaming machine, i know plenty of companies that use it for business, but he seems to test games on it?

 

[cmaier]

If these machines were as thick as pre-retina MacBooks everyone would be complaining about the bulk. There simply is no way to please everyone. The thinness does please the overwhelming majority of customers.
[doublepost=1531883721][/doublepost]

There was no last year's 6 core model. You probably mean quad core.

When did anyone ever complain about the “bulk” of pre retina MBPs?
[doublepost=1531883780][/doublepost]

If these machines were as thick as pre-retina MacBooks everyone would be complaining about the bulk. There simply is no way to please everyone. The thinness does please the overwhelming majority of customers.
[doublepost=1531883721][/doublepost]

There was no last year's 6 core model. Mobile hexa core is new to Coffee Lake. You probably mean quad core.

Correct. Typo.

 

[lec0rsaire]

When did anyone ever complain about the “bulk” of pre retina MBPs?

Not then when it was already thinner than the competition but people would complain today.

 

[cmaier]

Not then when it was already thinner than the competition but people would complain today.

The only reason the competition is thin today is because Apple made that design fashionable

 

[bkkcanuck8]

I don't see how you can blame Intel for this. Intel did not make Apple put their Core i9 processor in a stupidly thin notebook with inadequate cooling.

It is easy to blame both if it does not live up to it. Specs wise there should be no difference, the CPU should be a drop in replacement at the high end and the thermals should be about the same (thermally rated at 45 watts). Another issue (relates to Apple as well as Intel) the thermal interface in the CPU... you just have to do a simple search. The de-lidding crazy is a thing because of Intel's failures... this would come into play in this CPU as well (assuming it has the same issues).

 

[tyusrex]

Throttling in an ultra light 2 lbs portable is inevitable and totally acceptable. Especially since it's fanless.

In a 15" "pro" model? Ridiculous. But perhaps not surprising as the MBP is in fact a slightly larger MacBook.

 

[Feenician]

When did anyone ever complain about the “bulk” of pre retina MBPs?

When did anyone not complain about every decision this company makes? If they’d made it thinner. Mockery. Thicker. Mockery. Exactly the same. Mockery.

 

[Zellio]

Considering how much Dave Lee praises last years models, all this topic does is show how quickly some people will hate you the moment you say anything negative

Some of you try looking up this guys 2017 laptop reviews

 

[AgentAnonymous]

I feel bad for anyone who spent money on this... it can't even maintain the BASE clock speed. That's pathetic, people deserve refunds.

 

[cmaier]

When did anyone not complain about every decision this company makes? If they’d made it thinner. Mockery. Thicker. Mockery. Exactly the same. Mockery.

Yep. But all the whining was about making it thinner. In years when they kept the same thickness nobody complained about THAT at least.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

Welcome to the new Intel. This has been happening for a while. Carefully chosen benchmarks highlighting potential speed gains during brief bursts of use. Specs nowadays pretty much amount to fraud.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Intel.

 

[bkkcanuck8]

I feel bad for anyone who spent money on this... it can't even maintain the BASE clock speed. That's pathetic, people deserve refunds.

Why? You have 2 weeks to get a refund if it does not work for you ( no questions asked ). You do not have to keep it if it does not work for you.

 

[cmaier]

I feel bad for anyone who spent money on this... it can't even maintain the BASE clock speed. That's pathetic, people deserve refunds.

Maybe. Could be a manufacturing defect. Bad thermal paste application. Defective socket. Who knows. We will find out soon enough. Sure looks bad, though.

 

[avtella]

It is easy to blame both if it does not live up to it. Specs wise there should be no difference, the CPU should be a drop in replacement at the high end and the thermals should be about the same (thermally rated at 45 watts). Another issue (relates to Apple as well as Intel) the thermal interface in the CPU... you just have to do a simple search. The de-lidding crazy is a thing because of Intel's failures... this would come into play in this CPU as well (assuming it has the same issues).

Mobile CPUs don't have the integrated heat-sink, the die is exposed so no need de-lidding.

 

[Feenician]

Yep. But all the whining was about making it thinner. In years when they kept the same thickness nobody complained about THAT at least.

Yet that’s what they did this year and here we are at page 9 of, “it’s too thin”, based on one datapoint.

 

[Quu]

It is easy to blame both if it does not live up to it. Specs wise there should be no difference, the CPU should be a drop in replacement at the high end and the thermals should be about the same (thermally rated at 45 watts). Another issue (relates to Apple as well as Intel) the thermal interface in the CPU... you just have to do a simple search. The de-lidding crazy is a thing because of Intel's failures... this would come into play in this CPU as well (assuming it has the same issues).

I actually have a 7900X which I delidded due to Intels poor thermal interface material. However this issue does not affect these notebooks because they do not have IHS's (Integrated Heat Spreaders) the raw die is connected directly to the heatsink using Apples chosen thermal paste, Intel doesn't choose it in this case.

Of course Apples thermal paste has been likened to cement and they would do good to use better material but in this case there's no hampering caused by Intel as no IHS is present.