2018 i9 MacBook Pro throttling discussion [merged]

[NJRonbo]

Alas, I am going to stick with the i9. The difference between 1TB -> 2TB SSD is significantly more than the $300 price difference.

 

[Zellio]

Alas, I am going to stick with the i9. The difference between 1TB -> 2TB SSD is significantly more than the $300 price difference.

Just keep it, that i9 will be faster for all of 5 seconds before it throttles you into the 1800s. You could always just shove it in the freezer like dave2d when at home

 

[blackberrycubed]

Alas, I am going to stick with the i9. The difference between 1TB -> 2TB SSD is significantly more than the $300 price difference.

get i7 and save the $300 ..... use that for something else ??? apple care? new iwatch ? airpods ? put in retirement fund ?

 

[NJRonbo]

How well do the cooling pads (with fans) work for this purpose?

 

[Zellio]

get i7 and save the $300 ..... use that for something else ??? apple care? new iwatch ? airpods ? put in retirement fund ?

Use the $300 for a nice mini fridge to use as your laptop cooler

 

[zshane1125]

"You are all using the computer wrong guys. Beastly machines like the i9 MBP needs to be operated in a freezer environment. What do you expect from such a hot commodity?"

-Apple

 

[Salaryman Ryan]

If I spec out the 13" the way I want it, it's $3000 vs $3500 for a base cpu, 32gb ram 15". On paper the 15" sounds like a dream, but, after seeing these early reports of thermal throttling, I am strongly leaning towards the 13". I want something light weight, powerful, and can just be plugged into an eGPU when at a desk. I will wait to see more reviews and go see these machines in person. My last MBP was a 2015 15". I want to see if these machines are lighter.

Lastly, is it true OS X handles ram usage better than Windows 10?

Unfortunately according to this german review even the base 13" i5 throttles

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-2018-Touch-Bar-i5-Laptop.316002.0.html

 

[blackberrycubed]

someone already suggested this, permanently leave it in the freezer, connect bluetooth keyboard , mouse and airplay screen to external display.... will run at full speed no throttle! promise!

 

[teohyc]

I am getting ready to unwrap my i9 MacBook Pro.

Should I keep it or return it to the Apple Store and get an i7 with larger SSD?

If you get the i9 and can't run at i9 speed for extended periods of time, why get the i9 in the first place?

I was thinking seriously of buying the i9 but now I have absolutely no temptation.

 

[jerryk]

I love the part where Dave2D runs the same benchmark on the in the freezer and the render time drops from 35 minutes to 27 minutes. Great thinking.

PS. That Gigabyte Aero 15X is a beast. Does same job in 7 minutes! Premier loves that GTX 1070.

 

[zshane1125]

I love the part where Dav2D runs the same benchmark on the in the freezer and the render time drops from 35 minutes to 27 minutes. Great thinking.

PS. That Gigabyte Aero 15X is a beast. Does same job in 7 minutes! Premier loves that GTX 1070.

40 min to 27 min, a whopping 13 min difference, 33% performance boost with our new operating platform - the freezer.

 

[jerryk]

40 min to 27 min, a whopping 13 min difference, 33% performance boost with our new operating platform - the freezer.

I wonder how much Apple will charge for the new iFreezer! for the i9 MBP.

 

[blackberrycubed]

I wonder how much Apple will charge for the new iFreezer!

air power by apple was delayed for this very reason, they gonna release it as 'airpower+cooler" which now will a required $300 purchase if you want to get the full potential out of your macbook pro!!!!!

 

[powerslave12r]

I was hoping Apple would handle the cooling for quad cores in 13" frame well. Looks like it didn't go too well across the board.

Surprised they released these machines.

 

[defn]

There is a difference though back in the PPC G4 and G5 days. IBM and Motorola had issues with yields if I remember correctly. They also had issues with progressing the CPU. Intel has the chips ready. They might be late with their original timeline, but Apple had access to them the same amount of time as other manufacturers.

I'm not sure how Apple's AX chips will translate to OSX and professional work. Apple's chips are fine for consumer and prosumer type of work, but how will the chips run when you need to work on a project taxing the maximum potential of the CPU or need to render for days?

You’re right with the rumours on the yield issues with the G5 back then, but there was a also a design issue where performance per watt on the G5 couldn’t compare to what Intel had. The design and architecture of the G5 could not meet a demand for the growing shift from desktop to laptop computing.

Apple’s relationship with Intel also seemed to be much more of a partnership back then, compared to the vendor-buyer relationship they seem to have at the moment.

With regards to Apple’s AX chips on OS X, I don’t think the solution is just a straightforward transplant. I think if you look at how the AX chips have evolved over the years, one can argue that their architecture has changed drastically (single core to dual core to tri core to big.LITTLE, to whatever they have now) to meet the end results of accelerating performance across a core set of applications.

I’m sure Srouji’s team have something in the pipeline that is suited for the “Trucks” that the Macs were always meant to be. I presume people like Anand Shimpi are still working there and actively looking at the situation. Sad part is that we’ll have to wait.

 

[rozwell]

Video rendering involves both CPU and GPU which share heat pipes. Curious if hitting the CPU only (and more sporadically) would sustain turbo long enough to complete short tasks with less throttling. For example compiling software benefits from more cores but usually lasts no more than a minute and tends to yo-yo during the process.

 

[brerlappin]

Will the 6-Core i7 run cooler than the i9 or about the same?

 

[Painter2002]

cancel and get the i7, save yourself some $$$

Have you bought an i9? Have you seen personally in your testing throttling issues?

Not saying there’s not going to be throttling issues, but a) the MacOS hasn’t yet been optimized for 6 core setups, and b) there is not any proof yet that there is an issue, just speculation and preconceptions. ALL new macs are subject to possible high heat and throttle issues if you’re really pushing it.

 

[joebclash]

Is apple going to come out with a line of beautiful designed mini-fridge?

 

[BananaX]

New product idea, Apple Freezer cooling Kit for $399. Bring the best performances out of your MacBook Pro.

 

[Painter2002]

Seems weird that software would be hard coded to cores and threads. I hope that's the case although it seems really odd. Why not just have it scale to X amounts of cores and threads like most software?

I was on the fence about upgrading but swaying towards buying one. I think I'll wait a bit and hope these curious benchmarks aren't related to some sort of Apple implemented CPU throttling due to the limitations of the chassis.

Actually it is not surprising, it is entirely possible to see programs and software limited to a set number of cores. For example in Excel on a windows machine, you can set it to run on all core, or limit it to less than full core capacity. On my business computer I can set it to run on 4 or less cores on the quad core i5 that the machines offers.

People say that it isn’t true the software makes an impact, but it really is entirely possible that the MacOS truly isn’t optimized for 6 core processors.

 

[blackberrycubed]

Have you bought an i9? Have you seen personally in your testing throttling issues?

Not saying there’s not going to be throttling issues, but a) the MacOS hasn’t yet been optimized for 6 core setups, and b) there is not any proof yet that there is an issue, just speculation and preconceptions. ALL new macs are subject to possible high heat and throttle issues if you’re really pushing it.

Did you not see that after he put it in a freezer and redid the test it was 30% faster and no aggressive throttling??????

TLDR: its not the software

 

[joebclash]

Did you not see that after he put it in a freezer and redid the test it was 30% faster and no aggressive throttling??????

TLDR: its not the software

I can't believe there is people acting like there is no problem. For apple fans this is not good news.

 

[Painter2002]

Did you not see that after he put it in a freezer and redid the test it was 30% faster and no aggressive throttling??????

TLDR: its not the software

It entirely can be related to the software, but... you know what, I’m don’t even going to bother explaining because you seem set on there being a hardware issue already.

Just FYI, this YouTuber is another one of those that has been constantly complaining about Apple products of late so why even bother. He is making money off you watching his video, whether it’s biased or not. I mean come on, do you really think he put it in his freezer? And if he did, I wouldn’t take his advice with a grain of salt, because nobody in their right mind would put a laptop in a freezer where it could short or have battery damage.

 

[Aea]

I bought this machine (i9 / 32 GB / 1 TB) and while it benchmarks fine I am setting extremely thermal throttling if I let it run for longer than ~2 minutes. With Prime 95 I'm throttling down to 800 Mhz (you read that right) at around the 2 minute mark. With Cinebench I'm down to 2.4-2.5Ghz (from a base clock of 2.9 GHz).

Here's the Prime95 data: https://imgur.com/a/vVJLCka

And here's my reddit post with more benchmarks: https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comm...15_inch_macbook_pro_throttles_itself/e2ktw6z/

TLDR: Feels bad man.