Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Automated tool to reveal throttling and overheating - GitHub
- Thread starter qnxor
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apparently I have the worst Late 2013 15" rMBP everHow come everyone else's temps states around 100 whereas mine fell to 80 but it throttled so bad?
Ambient temps were 24C
Check your fans. Get a fan utility and see if the fans ramp up when temperatures go over 90C.
Mine showed the exact same issues although not a retina but the classic. Fans settings were screwed up. As soon as I fixed that, reran the test and everything went smooth.
Reset smc/pram as well.
I downloaded Istat menu, but what should my fans do over 90? They don't really get all that loud in my opinion.
They should increase their RPM to something like 4500, 5000 even 6000. As the temperature raises, the fans should spin faster to keep the mac from overheating. If the fans are not spinning fast enough, the other solution is to slow things down, generating less heat so the machine doesnt explode. Which is why you see the drop in the frequency. Less frequency = less heat. If the fans are alright, the frequency can keep on high, cause that heat will be dissipated by them.
I reset the SMC and reset the PRAM, the fans are definitely louder now but I'm still getting some throttling. Although it is a little better this time. I think I'm going to take the bottom case off and see how much dust is in there. It's a used machine but it's only two months old. Who knows how dusty the last persons house was.
I may even pull the heatsink off and clean it up and put some Arctic Silver 5 on there instead.
I may even pull the heatsink off and clean it up and put some Arctic Silver 5 on there instead.
Attachments
First, as I've said and explained several times (see my older posts in this thread), you may also have a bad chip. Identical spec'ed Intel CPUs do not all perform the same. I can tell you that I've tested 10+ desktop CPUs that were all 3770K but from different batches. All worked within specification, but when pushed or overclocked some where overheating a lot more than others, even by 20C.
I tested two rMBP 15" Late 2013, c hanged the thermal paste to Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra on both, checked the heatsink to sit properly, and even with all those being the same, one rMBP was overheating and throttling a lot whereas the other was not. That was clearly a bad chip.
The above means that Apple is not always to blame. That being said though, it is unfortunate that your CPU throttles when using the Nvidia GPU in 3D. I wouldn't like it either. The CPU gets hot because it sits under the same heatpipe as the GPU ... they influence each other's temperature. It may be because of improperly seated heatsink or too much thermal paste.
You should isolate the CPU by running the x264 test in MacOH. Post the results here afterwards so we can get a better insight.
I hadn't read every post in this thread, I basically skimmed through and looked at everyone else's charts. It's sad to think that I could have a bad chip. I will run the x264 test when I get back home. I'm still going to take it apart and try to clean it out in case it's dusty in there. What are my options if it's a bad chip? Would Apple be able to diagnose this and replace it? It's still under warranty and I bought AppleCare for it.
Not sure how the warranty is affected if you open it up (taking the heatsink apart and changing the thermal paste will probably void it). Regarding options, see older posts from Quackers in this thread. He managed to get Apple to change the motherboard.
I'll start with blowing the dust out of the fans. I'll wait on the heat sink. I hope it's just dirty inside. I looked in the bottom vents and saw quite a bit of dust. I'm a neat freak and there's very little dust in my house, but not sure about the guy I got it from. Seemed like he may have had quite a few pets.
Heyyy bogdan! I've managed to install mavericks on my 2nd drive without losing my beloved mountain lion installation.
Finally, here are my results. Check them out and tell me what you think!
Temps were around 20C, max 2C deviation.
Finally, here are my results. Check them out and tell me what you think!
Temps were around 20C, max 2C deviation.
Attachments
They are pretty much perfect! You have a good Mac.
Ok so I gave up on the x264 test because the video just wouldn't download for me. I did remove my cover and blew out a TON of dust from the previous owner. I'm not sure how that much dust gets in a computer in under two months... but anyway. Here are my new results
Can you elaborate on the download issue, perhaps post the error that you get?
It gets to about 30-40% and says connection reset by peer. Sorry I don't have the actual error code.
Hi Bogdan! What do you think of my results? There are in posts #76 and #77.
What made me think that having a separated GPU is better, at least with this current cooling design is that the cpu won't turbo its frequency when the Intel iris pro is tested.
What made me think that having a separated GPU is better, at least with this current cooling design is that the cpu won't turbo its frequency when the Intel iris pro is tested.
MacbookPro (Retina, Mid 2012)
I got some interesting results. What do you guys think?
(Ambient ~ 20-22ºC)
- Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
- Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
- Software: OS X 10.9.3 (13D65)
I got some interesting results. What do you guys think?
(Ambient ~ 20-22ºC)
Attachments
Last edited:
Was finally able to get it to download last night. I had to use the 4 option to download the file by itself instead of running the x264 test and having it download on its own.
Here's my x264 test. Not too bad but I see a little throttling. Much better than before I cleaned it out.
Here's my x264 test. Not too bad but I see a little throttling. Much better than before I cleaned it out.
Attachments
That is some severe throttling! You're temps are really high too. Make sure your fans are running full speed and I'd also take the bottom cover off and blow all the dust out of the vents and the fan blades.
Yeah, the fans run at full speed. At work I've recently got 2 external monitors, and the heat is so bad that typing is a little uncomfortable. So much so I've got my desk fan pointing at this thing. (Note: the benchmarks ran without the external monitors and desk fan)
I could try removing whatever dust is inside but opening the back voids my coverage though right? It's an education purchase so I've got 3 years of coverage.
What seems so odd is that nowhere in these graphs does the really CPU perform well. It starts off by going turbo to its maximum frequency, inducing a massive heat spike that it never recovers from even when the CPU under-clocks itself to < 50% of its base frequency.
I don't think that just opening the back cover voids your warranty. They really have no way of knowing it was ever off. You do need the special tool to do it though. It's a Pentalobe #5 screwdriver. I was lucky enough to already have one around from another project, but you can order it off of Amazon or maybe find it locally at an electronics store.
You may be able to take it in and see if they will do it for you though. It's just way faster for me to do this kind of stuff on my own since the Apple store is way across town.
Last edited:
graemenail I'd take that straight back to Apple. That's some serious throttling and the temps spike too quickly and are too high.
Show them your test results and ask them to run their extended cooling & performance test.
Show them your test results and ask them to run their extended cooling & performance test.
While it is tempting to have a peek inside for myself, the store is only a 15 minutes walk away.
I'm sure I read earlier in the thread that you took yours to Manchester Arndale... That'd be the store where mine would end up as well. How were they?
Aha! A neighbour
Yes you read that right.
They listened to what I said and I showed them my graphs. They ran their initial hardware tests and it passed. He then spoke to another Genius and he suggested running the extended cooling & performance test.
This test can take some time so I left it with them.
They phoned me the same day to say that it had failed the cooling test and they had already replaced the thermal paste twice and re-tested, which it failed.
As they weren't sure whether the logic board or the heatsink was causing the issue they were prepared to replace both.
There was a delay of a few days because they had to order the heatsink (which does not come with a new logic board - for some reason).
Since its return it has been great.
Good luck.
Yes you read that right.
They listened to what I said and I showed them my graphs. They ran their initial hardware tests and it passed. He then spoke to another Genius and he suggested running the extended cooling & performance test.
This test can take some time so I left it with them.
They phoned me the same day to say that it had failed the cooling test and they had already replaced the thermal paste twice and re-tested, which it failed.
As they weren't sure whether the logic board or the heatsink was causing the issue they were prepared to replace both.
There was a delay of a few days because they had to order the heatsink (which does not come with a new logic board - for some reason).
Since its return it has been great.
Good luck.