Final Cut Pro X export HD in El Capitan with Metal: Overheating MBP Question

[Jess13]

In FCP X, mid-2012 cMBP i5 Yosemite, exporting 4 mins of 720 HD H.264 reaches 80º+ C by halfway through render / export, with fan 5,000+ rpm. I have to cancel at halfway so my MBP doesn't get damaged by going up to near 100º as the heat steadily rises past 80º. Basically, I can't export a few minutes of HD, it's so retarded. My question: Does Metal help alleviate any of these issues with MBP overheating in processor intensive situations?

 

[sevoneone]

I would not necessarily call 80°C on a mobile CPU overheating, they are much more heat tolerant than their desktop brethren. The mid-2012 models have mobile IvyBridge processors and Intel says they can operate safely up to 105°C. There are hardware safeguards in place to shutdown your MBP before things could get hot enough to cause damage, and the CPU will under clock itself to manage temps if it has too. My mid-2010 i5 MBP would regularly hit 90° and hold around there on long exports.

If anything, Metal will help apps take more advantage of the hardware in your system, which will mean shorter exports, but I'd expect temps to to stay the same.

If you are worried about heat, open up your mac and clean out your fans and the heat sinks behind them. The heatsinks especially have a habit of collecting and getting closed up with dust/lint.

 

[leman]

1. Your laptop will throttle/shut down before it reaches harmful operating temperatures. Unless its defective

2. If anything, Metal might increase the heat output of such operations, because it allows the application to schedule more work in the same time. However, in this kind of sustained workloads, I would not expect any difference (performance-wise or energy-wise) between Metal and OpenCL. It depends on how exactly the app is doing it thing though.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

...If you are worried about heat, open up your mac and clean out your fans and the heat sinks behind them. The heatsinks especially have a habit of collecting and getting closed up with dust/lint.

I agree. See also (click to enlarge): <-- My Early-2011 17" before the cleaning.