2010 MBP with I7 and GT330m... does it get too hot?

I am debating on getting the 15.4 version.... does it get too hot? and is it portable?
please answer the TWO questions... thank you

 

They tend to run hot, but it is pretty portable. There have been complaints and reviews that say they overheat. The CPU will throttle down if it gets too hot to protect it at the cost of performance.

 

Are you speaking as an owner or just posting what you've heard?

 

Yes, yes it does.

Macbook Pro helps Core i7 hit 100 Degrees - News - PC Authority

Of course it depends on what your doing. But it does run warm/hot for heavy tasks. I suggest you settle for the i5 version.

 

No, it doesn't. See my post in the other thread. Further, I have seen no data to suggest the i5 should be any different.

The main problem with heat is that OSX won't turn up the fans. I run chess analysis software that taxes the CPU at 100% for extended periods of time, and it will get up into the mid 90s without even turning up the fan speed from where it is when idling. I don't get it .. but with smcFanControl you can easily turn the fan speed up when necessary and you won't have any issues.

The problem, as far as I can tell, with MBPs getting near 100 is that the fans won't turn up their speed, and I have no reason to believe this would be any different for an i5. It remains for someone with an i5 to run cinebench or something and see if they get the same temperature results, but I'd certainly wager that they will.

Is it portable? Sure.. you can see the dimensions easily enough.. if that's portable enough for you, then it is. It fits in my backpack, anyway.

 

So basically, because of improper fan control, the unit runs hot. So it runs hot then. And under load, an i5 machine will run much cooler, the i7 generates more heat. Temps will be lower. This really isn't debatable. Sure under load they will both get hot, but the i7 more so.

 

I just don't think this is clear until somebody does the comparison. To my knowledge, this has not been done.. most reviews, like the one you have cited, simply focus on the i7 version. This is not evidence that the i5 version runs any cooler. These are both 35W processors with very little to differentiate them. MBPs have always had a tendency to run hot when the fans aren't kicked up, no matter what they have under the hood.

The i7 gets hot under load, and will get critically hot at some point, until the fans turn up. When the fans turn up, there is no issue no matter how much you tax the machine.

It's entirely conceivable that what I wrote above will apply equally to the i5. I suspect it will, and "critically hot" means the exact same temperature in both cases. Perhaps it will take a bit longer to get to critical levels, but neither one has a serious issue with heat.

 

The problem is that the fans don't seem to turn up when they need to as demonstrated in the link above. This can be fixed of course through smcfancontrol or a software update, but still, it shouldn't be that way. The fans should turn on when they need to. I guess I haven't seen a comparison, but I don't think you need one. The i7 consumes more power than the i5 procs on average and disperses more heat, so we can expect higher temps with an i7. This was seen with the Vaio Z. Yes TDP's are the same but it is known that the i7 is a hotter chip. Why exactly, I don't know.

 

L3vi's link is for the 17" which does have that 100 degree c issue if under extreme load for extended period of time.

i'm speaking as a friend of someone who owns the i7 15.4" mbp with HD Matte screen. he loves it, i've used it, tested it etc. it does run hot, the battery does drain fairly quickly, but it's portable (if you can stand carrying something that is slightly larger and heavier) and it's one heck of a powerhouse, and will run with normal temps when used for tasks that a 13" mb/mbp can handle.

he's been playing steam's portal on it lately and its still ok to put on your lap and it runs really well. my 13" mbp can run it well too and gets almost as hot as his.

in conclusion, it wont overheat, it will get hot when under stress (not comfortable for laps), battery life is not good when system is under stress, it's powerful, BUT when used for simple tasks and/or in conjunction fan controls, it will run and feel like any other mbp, and battery life is excellent for a laptop with it's hardware specs.

i highly recommend the matte screen.

 

Mine never reaches 100 degrees Celsius. Never.

And I do play Starcraft II beta on win7. Highest temp I got was in the lower 80's.

 

If you're running windows, throw a Prime95 4 core max heat run on it and let us know how your temps are and how quickly it throttles.

 

gets hot yes ---> can reach 100c when gaming
portable ----> hell yes , long battery life on OSX , u won't even need to go out with a charger on normal days ( 6 7 hours of normal usage )

 

If you're reaching 100c you really need to install smcFanControl in my opinion and stop that as soon as possible. It really is appalling to me how OS-X leaves the fans on their default low speed as the CPU is climbing over 90C. No excuse for that. Let me hear a little noise if I have to but I don't think it should be allowed to touch 100C.

Doing so, I've never had it run consistently over 80C no matter what I'm doing. As far as gaming, I've played some Dragon Age on it in Windows in bootcamp, even with the graphics turned all the way up, and it doesn't get anywhere near 100c. The fans turn up, sure. But temps near 100c are, so far in my experience, always avoidable one way or another and should be avoided..

I also note you're running an i5 which lends support to the idea that the heat issues are not significantly different depending on the processor.

 

I've stressed tested my 17" (by running a command in terminal to launch all 2 cores and 4 threads) at 100% for a few hours straight on. The temperatures did reach pretty high at 92-94 celsius MAX (I suppose pretty close to the 100 degrees) but thats with nvidia 330m enabled. I've never reached 100 degrees even with all CPU maxing out at 100% (for 3+ hours straight).

Anyways, I dont do anything intensive while I'm on battery and the last time I used my 17" i7 on battery (with the intel gpu), with 6 spaces, even running VMWARE fusion (off and on throughout the day, vmware fusion enables 330m), I got 11 hours and 25 minutes continuous battery life. And the temperatures were at 45 degrees celsius.

 

*faints*

impressive.

 

Mine gets too hot, so I can imagine the newer more powerful ietration has the same problem.

 

Can you do a 3dmark06 run and post your results here?

Sorry to thread HJ but I don't trusts the scoresI've seen so far.

 

Yea it is very nice. I NEVER bring a charger to campus anymore because the battery will outlive the time that I'm on campus and I'm on campus for 7+ hours lol.

 

Pretty much sums it up.

 

This is why their called "notebooks" not "laptops" anymore due to the heat.

Either way, when I'm laying in bed using my 17" mbp, I just use one of these:



Doesnt matter how hot it gets.

 

product link, please.

 

It is not the case for me: i have a MBP i7 / 8Gb RAM / 512 SSD / HR screen and on battery during some importation of AVCHD files from a SD to an eternal HDD, HW monitor from bresink told me that cores 1 and 4 were at 104°C w/o going above: indeed fans kicked in when overtaking 90-95° which is late IMO.
May you try the same please? i.e. make a heavy file (AVCHD if you can) transfer and note the max temps? Which monitoring program do you use? I start mistrusting HW monitor though.
Cheers

 

I believe it's the iLap by Rain Design. Here is its link: iLap Laptop Stand

It does look nice.

Hope it helps!

 

thank you, good sir.

 

I got something near 6100 on my i7 in W7 pro, right after I got it.

 

sorry to quote myself: I did a SMC reset and tried (on battery) to import other AVCHD files from a full HD sony videocamera: 93°C maximum after 6min import with CPU at high load (between 60 and 90%). Has anyone ever experienced a 104° peak as I did?

FYI I tried the same import (as yesterday) on an i5 MBP in an apple shop and max core temps were between 94-98°C...

 

Sorry I dont know how to make a avchd (is it under windows?).

I use istat pro to monitor my fan and cpu temperatures.

 

califfo, are you using the fan application to control that heat a little better?

 

No, it is all as per default and fans kick when CPU core T reaches 100°C or average temp reaches 95°C: another guy in france noted the same behaviour with HW monitor (but after stressing intentionally CPU as it has been done by pcauthority with fans remaining by default at 2000RPM). Do you notice the same late fans activation please?
thanks

 

With my 17 inch's experience, it's fan starts to increase pretty early. And I mean when the temperatures reaches 65 the fans will gradually rev up to 2997 rpm and when the CPU temperature gets to 75-85 Celsius, the fan will rev up to 4000 rpm and when i stressed the CPU to a 100% And when the temperatures reached 89-94 the fans kick in at 5500-6000 rpm.

 

I thought (think?...) indeed that I had a problem with my MBP but look at here: I am not alone to have a late kick-in of fans....It is really late according to me and I am going to contact Apple about that..

THE Temps Thread: "let's compare" - Mac Forums

 

even my older 2008 unibody MBP has late fan kick in and can hit 100º and still be at 2000 rpm... its nothing new.

my new 13" however is really quick on changing the fans and never lets itself get very hot... even gaming I can keep it down around 70º C