Can I use extensively my MBP ?

[Penkie]

Hi,

I was wondering, I have a 16" MBP with a graphics card and I want to play games (not that MBP is the best for that). But whenever I play games, obviously the fans are going fast very quickly.

If I use like for 1-2 hours a day every day with the fans going fast and using the GPU/CPU a lot, will I decrease the lifespan of my MBP ? Because I want to use it for at least 3-4 years.

 

[Apple_Robert]

As long as the Mac has good air circulation around the vents with nothing blocked, you should be fine. Apple builds the device to be able to handle heavy use like that.

 

[Tekguy0]

Should be fine, though keep in mind that MacBooks do not have the worlds best air circulation, so keep it on a flat desk or table. If you want to be extra cautious, download Macs Fan Control and set the speed to maximum on both fans. Apple is extremely conservative with their fan curves, as they run the components around 80° Celsius, which is near their maximum, and over the long term can cause damage.

 

[Penkie]

Okey I installed Macs fan control from crystalidea. Can running the fan all the time at the maximum speed cause damage on the long term (to the fans) ? Or to the battery

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Okey I installed Macs fan control from crystalidea. Can running the fan all the time at the maximum speed cause damage on the long term (to the fans) ? Or to the battery

The short answer is yes.

Running fans when they don't need to run is going to shorten the life of the fan. Running the fans constantly will drain the battery faster, which means over time there will be more battery cycles in a shorter period of time, hastening the end-of-life of the battery.

It's a general principle that if you work something hard over a long period of time (whether a race horse, a car, or a computer) it will wear out sooner than if it had not been run so hard. There's a price to be paid for hard use.

I'm not a hard-core gamer, so I'm the wrong person to be giving this advice, but how about "Trust the original design." Trust that the fans will automatically turn on when necessary and then turn off when they cease to be necessary. Trust that the designers have given close attention to the overall lifespan of the computer (rather than burning out a particular component prematurely by running it overly-hard).

When a gamer chooses to use a laptop for gaming, he/she has automatically agreed to a long list of compromises. Laptops are harder to cool than desktops. Laptops use lower-powered CPUs and GPUs in order to extend battery life (both short-term and long-term). The display is smaller than available on desktop. And so on. If portability takes precedence over performance, then learn to live with that decision.

 

[Tekguy0]

I'm not a hard-core gamer, so I'm the wrong person to be giving this advice, but how about "Trust the original design." Trust that the fans will automatically turn on when necessary and then turn off when they cease to be necessary. Trust that the designers have given close attention to the overall lifespan of the computer (rather than burning out a particular component prematurely by running it overly-hard).

When a gamer chooses to use a laptop for gaming, he/she has automatically agreed to a long list of compromises. Laptops are harder to cool than desktops. Laptops use lower-powered CPUs and GPUs in order to extend battery life (both short-term and long-term).

The issue is that we are now at a point where Apple's design can no longer be trusted to adequately cool heat producing components over the long term. So I suggest to @Penkie that they use Macs Fan Control to increase the speed only when gaming. Do you use the battery while gaming? I suggest using Macs Fan Control since Apple has become so conservative with their fan curves since they value silence (with thermal throttling) over noise and and a longer lifespan.