Heating issues: New MBP usable for gaming?

I'd love to buy the new MBP (would be my first Mac), but I would use it quite often for gaming under Bootcamp and I have read repeatedly now that they are heating issues especially when doing that.

So to all those who are enjoying the MBP already, what are your experiences with that?

• Can you go on gaming for like 6h with your MBP on your bare laps without either burning yourself nor the book crashing long before that?
• If it is getting hot, have you tried to do anything against that, like installing a fan control? Has that helped? How loud are the fans when at max? Is there anything else a user could do?
• Does anybody know why the heating issues are worse under Windows? Does Apple know / care?

That really could be a deal breaker for me, so all help is appreciated.

 

1. I haven't ever personally gamed for 6 hours, but I've done a couple of hours straight. Your lap is not the best place to game, honestly. I did some tests with the games I play on my new MBP last night and it ran cooler than my Penryn MBP in comparison.

2. I and many others use SMC fan control. Works excellently. I never need to use the fans at their max settings, usually 3500-ish cools the notebook right down and is pretty much silent. You can hear the fans at 6000RPM.

3. I did notice my MBP ran hotter when gaming in Windows, mostly because I could not use SMC fan control.

 

Hmm, thanks that's a mixed verdict. I rarely have so much time for gaming, but I'd like to think that it should be me who quits first, not my notebook.

Is there some kind of fan control for Windows? Also I read, that if you change the fan setting under Mac OS and then reboot and switch to Windows, the setting stays. Is that true?

EDIT:

I just read, that the MBP's native fan control is a Mac OS application and will thus not work when you boot Windows directly after turning the MBP on, nor will the SMC fan control settings be stored if you switch the power off. Is that the reason, why Macs run hot under Windows? Can anybody who had heating issues confirm that they booted Windows directly before having them or that first booting Mac OS (+ maybe switching SMC on) solved them?

 

nobody has heating issue-macbooks are getting hot bc of they slim desing and fan locations.

 

In Windows one could undervolt the CPU with RMClock to cool down the CPU. I got great results with a MBA.

 

So basically all Macbooks have heating issues due to poor design? That would it make even more important to find ways to cool them down and thus being able to use them properly and maybe even improving hardware longevity.

Does this work without risking damage to the CPU? Also, do you still find that necessary after adjusting fan controls (it seems less scary to mess with the cheap fans than with your CPU)?

 

The aluminum Macbook Pros (and I assume the new Macbooks) use the casing as part of the cooling for the system. This not only lets them run very quiet, but also reduces the mass of the unit since there's less fans and heatsink material to worry about. The first time I saw a Macbook Pro and it's lack of any visible vents (besides the speakers) it really intrigued me.

That said, my Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz 17" feels warm. I would not say it runs any hotter or cooler than other laptops I own or use, but the heat is more noticeable and more evenly distributed. My plastic Sager 5793 gets hot only directly above the parts generating the heat, ie. the CPU and GPU, and to an extent the hard drive. While the plastic casing gets warm, it tends to be warm only in those areas, and the constant blowing fans are pumping warm air out the vents in the back and underside of the unit. The Macbook Pro is mildly warm over the entire top and bottom of the unit and a good distance up the open LCD panel.

Now, as for any risk of overheating.. No. First off, the systems are made to specifications. A normal laptop, be it a Macbook, or Dell, or Thinkpad, or whatever, should be designed, and is designed, to run at 100% load, indefinitely, in a room temperature environment. A laptop should **NEVER** crash under these conditions simply because it was trying too hard. If it does, it's a junk laptop and is either broken or plain defective. Of course if people overclock or otherwise go out of spec this nulls that normalcy and all bets are off.

I've had Colloquy run off into 100% CPU land and get the fans really spinning but I've never had third degree burns from it or anything. It gets warm. That's it. This alone can annoy some people.

 

There is no arguing that the MBP is very slim for some of the components it is using. If you are going to be gaming for 2 hours or more on a MBP I would recommend that you invest in a laptop cooler at the very least. Basically, the whole underside of the MBP acts like an aluminum heat sink, so a laptop cooler will go a long ways.

There is little risk associated with undervolting a CPU. However, it's always wise to exercise caution when fiddling around with expensive hardware.

Personally, I would highly recommend undervolting the CPU when gaming in Windows. It's an all around win for the laptop; lower heat, same performance, longer component lifetime. Undervolting is the first thing I do with my laptops. You'll easily see a -18C temperature difference on the CPU when under heavy load with a good undervolt. Also, if the CPU and GPU share a heat pipe, the GPU will see a slight benefit too. Although, I think the MBP design has the CPU and GPU on either side of the laptop.

Bottom line: If you're not overclocking, undervolt!

 

Using an older MBP here (2.2GHz Montevina). When college allows, I play up to 4-6 hrs and I have yet to encounter any issue. As I use an external 22' display, I have the laptop on the mStand.

So to answer your question, as long as the laptop rests on a flat surface, you will not have any problems.

When the temperature raises, I hear the fan spinning up, even on Windows, so don't worry too much about, the laptop knows what to do.

Regarding undervolting, doesn't it reduce CPU clock, thus reducing game performance...? I mean, the last thing I want is to loose additional fps...

Just remember, MBPs do *not* have poor heat cooling designs; people get all scared when the case gets quite hot, yet they fail to remember that the case *is* part of the cooling system and *supposed* to get hot.

 

I've played many 4-5 hours sessions of the newly released Warhammer Online on bootcamp with Windows XP. System runs fine, gets a bit warm but nothing unbearable. specs in signature

 

You know, I game on a Dell XPS 1710 I bought when they first came out, and it has an NVidia 7900 GTX video card in it. If I didn't set it on my lap on top of a Zalmon 2000 cooler, it would be quite uncomfortable. Even with, the computer sometimes runs hot enought to shut down if I don't force the fans to high prior to starting my gaming sessions.

I think sometimes people miss the point that a laptop wasn't really meant to do hardcore gaming on and there are some tradeoffs if you choose to do so, heat management being one of them. I am willing to make those tradeoffs, so I figure out ways to keep the heat down.

I, too, will probably be buying my first MAC, being the new MACbook pro. I just like the idea of its minute size and weight as compared to my XPS 1710, and since they now include bootcamp, I can have the best of both worlds.

In the end, I wouldn't let the heat bother you. There is no laptop near the size of the MACbook Pro that doesn't have heat concerns that have to be dealt with. Yes, there are laptop that manage heat better, but they are desktop replacements and their size and weight clearly indicate that. Get yourself a good cooler like the Zalman 2000 and you should be able to use any laptop you want without too much concern.

 

I have a dv5t and I love the new macbook pro and my major problem with the dv5t is not that it gets hot when gaming, the fact that it gets hot while just web surfing it gets too hot. I want to have the power to game but I don't want to have excess heat. I've been avoiding getting a 7200 rpm hdd because I don't want to add anymore heat. I would have never imagined that a T9400 and the 9600GT would produce this much heat. I like my mothers 14.1" hp laptop that is never hot.

 

Thanks all, good to hear that heating seems not to be a really bad problem and that there are solutions to mitigate it. One step closer to my first Mac (now I only have to check out that screen)!

 

heat will always be a factor in laptop gaming, especially as sizes get smaller as power goes up as in the new MBP.

However, external heat does not equal core heat.

If a laptop succeeds in shunting its heat into the case then it may actually be running cooler than one that doesn't. Now, this doesn't make anyone happy if they are scorching their crotches, but IMO gaming should be done on a desk anyways with a spacer to allow airflow across the bottom.

What they SHOULD do is somehow shunt heat into the LID using a heatpipe or something. that immense surface area should be put to good use.

 

Wouldn't that potentially hard the LCD? Especially with a unibody design like the new MBP? Pretty sure that excessive heat can warp the LCD.