CPU Heat Concerns (Macboook Pro 15 Retina)

[Collider]

Please dont rip for posting in CPU forum, because this is a CPU related question in the end.

Just switched from Macbook Air 13 to Pro Retina 15, 2.5 i7, Iris GPU

First thing I'm noticing is the temperature, the case is constantly warm. My Air was cold to the touch during heavy everyday usage, and would only get hot when I was installing or gaming.

On the new Macbook Pro (new mid 2014 model) temps with general usage are at 60, which is ok I guess. However even at 20-50% load I've seen it hit 100. I never would allow my desktop CPU to hit anywhere even close to that, not sure how Apple is OK with this.

Running DropBox sync alone kicks up to low 90s..

Supposedly the chip should be throttled according to thermal limits. The fan does kick in at 80-90c.


First of, is are these temps normal?

And any tips for keeping the temps down (..maybe anything similar to CPU throttling in Windows Power Options)?

 

[Burpo]

I actually think that's about right, considering the CPU Turbo's up to 3.7 and includes Iris Pro graphics.

You can use Macs Fan Control and set your fans to come on earlier, similar to this..

 

[Collider]

I actually think that's about right, considering the CPU Turbo's up to 3.7 and includes Iris Pro graphics.

You can use Macs Fan Control and set your fans to come on earlier, similar to this..

Wow thank you for this. This App is better than smcFanControl since it adjusts speed automatically based on temperature. The fan is pretty aggressive when it comes to responding to sensor changes.

The fans rev'ing up so fast made me think this is likely due to Turbo kicking in and one of cores gets super hot super fast due to dynamic OC. To resolve found an app TurboBoostSwitcher that allows you to turn on/off Turbo.

I now have turbo off, and using you're values, and this keeps my temps slightly below 50 now.

Sad as I'm not using full horsepower I paid for, but I'd rather have a cooler running macbook, at 2.5Ghz I'm by no means CPU starved still plenty of horse power.

 

[SammichPG]

OEMs tend to do an awful job with thermal paste, when your warranty runs out replace the "goop" that came from the factory with some thin layer of nh1.
You'll get easily around 5*C drops just from the thinner layer giving better thermal conductivity and maybe more since the stock paste will have dried up.

My old ibook g4 ran consistently in the high 80s happily staying at 92*C for entire days (I transcoded a lot of 264 back then), never replaced the paste and still boots just fine to this day but it was a different architecture and productive process.

Unless it becomes uncomfortable and/or you get the tweaking itch don't stress over it.