MBP 15" runs way hotter on Windows than OSX

I noticed a little quirk in my new MBP which can be seen in the title. More specifically, my Mac idles in OSX 10.8.1 at about 40 degrees, but in Windows it runs a full 25 degrees higher while idle. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be happening since I don't think this should be happening at all. I have repasted it before, but I doubt that could be the problem. I left the fan settings at default for both OSes and Windows seems to run the fans at 2500 to 4000rpm vs 2000rpm for OSX. What gives?

PS. Please don't fanboy me and say I should not be running Windows; I wouldn't have installed Windows if I didn't need it.

 

The temperature difference is mainly the result of the discreet GPU being active all the time in Windows and not in OS X, though 25 degrees is quite a lot. I know my MBP runs warmer in Windows, but it's not that much. Have you checked the clock speeds of the GPU? The AMD Radeon in the 2011 models does downclock to 100/125 IIRC when idling and doing basic tasks in Windows. Not sure if the NVIDIA in the 2012 does the same.

 

its always slightly warmer in Windows (mainly from the GPU)... but your's sounds way too different. You may have some background process running in Windows causing extra heat beyond normal.

 

If it makes any difference, I updated the drivers to versions that are newer than what Apple provided. I installed the Nvidia 306 beta driver, however I still doubt that is the cause of the heat problem. I also played a bit of COD on it, temps never exceeded 90-91 degs but the fans were running at full blast (6200rpm as reported by HWMonitor). I'll go back to Windows to see what could be causing it, however it is a clean install with just Office and Adobe CS6 installed but not running; some games and some software such as Adobe Flash etc. Really puzzled by this.

 

Mac/SMC Fan Control for Windows (+ Temp) | Free software downloads at SourceForge.net


Drag into command prompt, type

Code:

 4000 4000

Or maxspeed

Code:

 6200 6200

Then press enter, it overrides the minimum fanspeed to an inputted value. Works both on x86 and x64

 

Welcome to the constant pain-in-the- that running Windows on a Mac is. Apple does NOT do a good job with its hardware drivers for Windows.

 

It's not that you shouldn't be running windows, but you should be prepared for quirks when running windows on a mac.

Some of the regulars here regularly recommend other hardware brands to windows users.

 

Isn't it simply mean Apple just sucks at making boot camp drivers for Windows. Sure you can claim that Mac machine isn't meant for Windows, but the minute Apple make a boot camp for people to run Windows on Mac machine, Apple is responsible for all the quirk that not working well in Windows when all other hardware manufacturer can. If Fujitsu and Lenovo can get the touchpad to work good in Windows and Apple can make their touchpad works well in OSX but suck in Windows, then that's just show Apple just sucks in Windows. If Apple weren't making boot camp and drivers for Windows and the community just make their own hacks to run Windows then that's another story. But since Apple always held itself at high standard and making boot camp sucks then there is nobody is to blame but Apple.

 

I just looked through my Windows install. 76 processes on idle, which is way less than what I had before switching to Mac. Still can't find any reason for it running this warm other than perhaps a very slow fan speed (hovering at about 2700rpm) at about 70 degrees. Will try the fan control app, however it sucks to know that I have to set it on every boot... guess I'll use the task scheduler.

 

I wasn't making a distinction between these things. My only point is that as a consumer, you should use your knowledge to select your purchases to fit your preferences. If you know that the Mac doesn't run windows well, you should buy something that DOES run windows well if your goal is to run windows well. The worst thing you can do is beat your head against the wall by paying extra for an Apple laptop that doesn't run windows well when cheaper alternatives exist that do.

Of course it's Apple's fault that boot camp drivers are bad. But that doesn't make a bit of difference when it comes to selecting a product.

Help J select a product:

J wants one of either T, U, or V. J wants T because T seems the nicest, but it turns out that T doesn't work well for J's use case. It's X's fault that T doesn't work well for J's use case.

^ Which piece of information here is least relevant?

 

The common thinking on the MacBook Pro models is that the bootcamp drivers aren't Optimus aware thus only the discrete GPU is used. However, the MacBook Pro also runs warmer when executing Windows natively and it only has the Intel GPU so something else is causing this.

It's probably a combination of factors which includes fan control, poor video driver and power management of that video driver, allowing uneeded programs and processes to run, etc. I've never looked into it deeply because I always gravitate back to running Windows in a virtual machine. If you can run CS6 and your apps in a VM with acceptable performance, I suggest doing the same. It will definitely run cooler.

 

Download SMC fan control for mac OSX, and set higher fan speeds as default, when you restart you MAC into windows you'll hear the fans spinning faster, you can also try undervolting (it will take some time for doing that), you can find one of the best undervolting threads on this forum somewhere, just search for it.

 

Your analogy make no sense at all, because that's not what happened. Sure people that come here to the forum like this are seeking knowledge for what's best for their use. That said, this isn't what people are influence by Apple products and advertising. If you walk into Apple store and say you want to buy a notebook but you will be require to run Windows. The Apple genius will tell you that their macbook run windows well. So you get the benefit of running mac and windows. Of course and if you have other Apple product they would expect Apple notebook to work well with the other Apple product you already own. And you will never hear that Apple notebook are purposely crippled when you are Windows on it. Most people wouldn't know that Windows doesn't well on mac, even if they are geeks in Windows or Linux world. Why would they, why would they expect Apple to purposely cripple boot camp? Also, when they ask from the Apple genius, people who should know well about such issue won't tell them that.

 

They may not know. That's why, when they come to this forum and ask, we tell them. This is just a forum, we can't start a campaign (using this forum) to mail people letters warning them about apple laptops and windows.

I'm not exactly sure what your point is. On a short review of your position, I don't think we disagree, and I'm not sure what you're arguing with me about.

 

not spending the time or money to make Windows run perfectly... and "purposefully crippling" is not the same thing.

 

That's also true. Of course, drivers aren't that hard to make, and for a company like Apple, the difference is marginal. But I don't see it making a difference either way as to any consumer's buying decision.

 

Your method is too complicated and takes more time

Use mine

Spoiler

UV'ing a 650M is possible, but has to be performed with a custom BIOS. Which is impossible using a mac

It's not crippled, the drivers works, but not optimally. Apple wouldn't put so much time and effort on an OS that they don't support (and hate)

 

Not quite seeing what Masterchef said that was an "analogy", but at any rate, as a consumer, (especially with the large plethora of online resources available today) it's your duty and responsibility to yourself to do your homework before buying an expensive product. Heck, I'm actually a very good cook but still when trying something new I don't just trust my own talents and do it without some help. I go on YouTube, forums and the like to educate myself and it's made quite a difference.
Let me give you another example, Microsoft Office. Office was on Mac before it was on Windows so it stands to reason that a Mac customer can trust the the fact that Microsoft will always make a good version of Office, well that's a bad assumption. Microsoft advertised the heck out of Office 2008 for Mac saying that it was designed from the ground up for the Mac OS. Was it? Heck no. It was slow, it lacked Visual Basic so it was unusable for many Excel spreadsheets with Macros. Did Microsoft mention that during their awesome advertisement? No. I watched them live at Macworld and they never even mentioned it.
Seeing as that Microsoft and Apple have been OS rivals over the years you shouldn't just trust that Windows will run "perfect" on the Mac. Does it run well? Yes. Does it run as well as OS X on the Mac? Again, Heck No. Apple allowed Windows installations to bridge gaps so they can get more customers to buy a Mac that were on the fence about going cold turkey with OS X.

Focusing on their own products and software to give their OS X customers a better experience doesn't mean that Apple is purposely crippling the Windows experience, afterall their computers are not made for Windows.

Again, to put it bluntly, you had the knowledge to create an account here to search the forum for help after you got your Mac, you should've used the forum before hand. Sounds more like a Windows PC was a better choice for your needs.

 

its simple, you go to intel and download the drivers, thats what I do on mine, simple fix

With the new july drivers, my mbp runs a lot cooler on windows

 

You are referring to the 64 bit Windows 8 drivers from July? Are you running an Air or Pro?

I might try Windows 8 again after Apple fixes the control application.

 

Wow, calm down everyone; I didn't intend to create a flamewar

Optimus does not work on Windows because Apple's emulated bios prevents Windows from detecting the Intel GPU, so it does not appear in Device Manager, nor will the Intel driver detect it. I don't use Windows *that* often, just that for CS6 and other Windows-only apps I will have to switch around to using it. I don't really want to virtualise it since driver support in Parallels and such is far worse than Boot Camp's drivers and CS6 in a VM just doesn't seem like a good idea to me at all. I'll live with the heat issue, but I'll keep note of the suggestions here about fan control and undervolting. Thanks guys

 

why use CS6 in Windows when there is a native OS X version?

 

Because my version was for Windows maybe?

It's ridiculous that I have to pay for shipping to exchange for the Mac version. Besides the Windows version seems to work far better so...

 

running a pro, and yes those pesky intel drivers.

I dont have any problems running win 8 now, I do have to install win 2012 server yet, but Im at the beach and not in the mood for it.

 

In my case, the latest Intel HD 4000 drivers are from the Windows 8 RTM bits. They might be slipping in an update during the install, but they are a later version than the intel.com drivers. At least that is what is happening on my mid 2012 MBA.

 

Honestly, I have not seen any real proof lately that CS6 works better under Windows than it does with Lion or Mountain Lion. Do you have any supporting info you can point me to? The reason I'm asking for proof is because many times when I see Google Employees they have Macs or inside their headquarters the tech rooms are filled with Macs. Seems as though they support OS X very well and OS X runs some very demanding software more efficiently than Windows depending on the software.

 

interesting, I have to install win 2012, now I just need a connection that I can download something, which is quite impossible in this island.

 

Chasing Brazillian bunnies on the beach should be your priority right now.

 

I looked through this forum while deciding and it seemed to me that a lot of members here feel that CS6 runs better on Windows, for example this post.

Also, the reason why most, if not all Google employees use Mac/Linux is because Windows opened too many security holes and forced the whole organisation to switch to non-Windows platforms to prevent proprietary data getting stolen. They used to use Windows a lot until too many attacks forced the switch.

 

I meant undervolting the processor and not the GPU, and I agree that it is not an easy solution but it helped me with my over heating HP laptop.

 

Doesn't undervolting the CPU require the bios to support it, else it has to be a pinmod of some sort?

 

That's suggesting that Windows runs better than OS X. Well forum members will always be biased and people tend to see what they want to see, for example, after a security software update someone will say, "It's runs faster", when it probably doesn't. I would rather see real numbers from measured sources from places online that do real-world extensive software testing. You didn't give me a link to a post, you gave me a link to a whole thread of 5 pages. Not reading it all. You shouldn't just trust forums as the deciding factor. I hardly think many people here have both a Mac and Windows machine of the same specs or have a Macbook with Bootcamped Windows and have CS6 installed on each and they really did rendering tests and found Windows ran faster. That's not an ideal situation unless you're a software engineer or developer as most people don't have the financial resources to spend on 2 versions of CS6. Think about that before you trust a few online forum posts.

 

UV'ing is supposed to be possible in the older days. Core ix nowadays have very limited customization options

You have to use XTU or BIOS, and that's even if the MBP supports it.

 

Well, whether it runs better or not, my copy of CS6 is for Windows, so I'm limited to that whether I like it or not, whether it's fast or not. Anyway, CS6 was not the reason why I got the Mac. I'm not the type who lives and dies by the benchmark numbers; if it accomplishes the task in reasonable time, that's fine by me. Benchmarks are but numbers which hardly play any part in real life. What would I do with all the extra seconds I save by running CS6 in OSX as compared to Windows or the other way around?

 

I use CS6 alot. Photoshop makes next to no difference which OS you use, ok ProRes exporting is not so great in OSX, but the MRE certainly is much faster in windows ( Premier and Illustrator ). Deep Color support is better in windows and almost unmanageable with the nvidia driver's in OSX 10.7 and 10.8( MBP and MP's )

Codec support for video and some image types is also better, the quicktime errors are still driving many of us nuts and causing crashes all over ( confirmed as quicktime bugs )

 

You just recited my exact point that I was trying to make to you earlier when you said you didn't want to switch your copy of CS6 from Windows to Mac because you "read" on forums that it was slower on the Mac. Even if it was it would only be measurable and not noticeable to the naked eye. As long as it gets the job done, especially on an OS that's native to the hardware it's installed on would probably give you a better experience in the long run. It's all good man, if you prefer not to spend the transfer of license fee and just keep your Windows license that will work but as time has now passed we as Mac users are quickly becoming less dependent on Microsoft's OS and Windows software as there are generally very good Mac equivalents for almost everything. Seems counterproductive to buy Apple hardware, use Microsoft's OS to run software that is already natively made for Apple's OS.

 

I know... but I got my copy of CS6 almost as soon as it was released and I was not in the market to get a new laptop then, much less did I expect I would get a Mac. I do have other uses for Windows though, for example gaming (yes I'm crazy for doing that) which is generally Windows-only. Other than that, I have some Windows apps that have rather poor alternatives in Mac and so I pop over to the other side every now and then should I need to use them.

 

thing is, its your pc, use the hell you want. Some days I have used windows 100% of the time.

 

My 2009 Macbook Pro runs at about 80 degrees celsius just running Firefox on Windows, and 90-100 degrees playing games. It is my go-to heater during the winter