MB Pro i9, 2019: Question About Heat

[Christopher11]

Hey guys, I am a music pro, currently using a 2015 MB Pro 15 with 16 GB RAM. I need to upgrade due to lack of processing power, an issue I'm increasingly plagued by. I need to continue to run Mojave to use all my plugins on Logic Pro X and don't want to interrupt my work flow to deal with a later M1 model, so I had my eye on a 2019 i9 with 32GB of RAM. Obviously that's much more economical than buying a new one as well.

However, I'm told they have real heat issues due to being too thin... and that the i9 that gives you the power boost causes an issue where the laptop throttles down to avoid thermal issues. Have you found this to be true? Please feel free to share any thoughts about my plan regarding this upgrade. Thank you!

 

[Grubster]

Quick comment, I think those machines shipped with Catalina, which means you probably can’t run Mojave. I’ve never owned this model to tell you about the heat. My recommendation, it won’t be worse than what you have now! I say try it.

 

[james2538]

Hey guys, I am a music pro, currently using a 2015 MB Pro 15 with 16 GB RAM. I need to upgrade due to lack of processing power, an issue I'm increasingly plagued by. I need to continue to run Mojave to use all my plugins on Logic Pro X and don't want to interrupt my work flow to deal with a later M1 model, so I had my eye on a 2019 i9 with 32GB of RAM. Obviously that's much more economical than buying a new one as well.

However, I'm told they have real heat issues due to being too thin... and that the i9 that gives you the power boost causes an issue where the laptop throttles down to avoid thermal issues. Have you found this to be true? Please feel free to share any thoughts about my plan regarding this upgrade. Thank you!

I had an 2019 16” i9 and never experienced any throttling but my most intense workflows were VMs. I will say that sucker would spin up the fans just for opening Safari, it ran HOT.

Could always buy one from the Apple Refurbished store and return it if it throttles with your workflow.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I’ve got a few of them. They ran like hell originally and just blasted fans constantly, to the extent that I sent my first one back & forth to Apple’s Engineering Dept 4 times for board replacements. Eventually an OS update calmed them down. But not before buying another 2019 MBP16 with the even more powerful 5600m graphics and huge drive, which it turned out I didn’t need to do after the update.

Unfortunately, Apple shipped these starting at Catalina, and no one ever issued the hardware drivers in an update to Mojave, so there’s no going backward and getting 32bit apps to work even if you hackintosh it to pieces. I‘m in the same boat, needing a max-power Mojave machine which is a 2019 iMac, plus a powerful win-capable portable Mac that can export 1 previous Gen file to bounce files between iMac and mbp. Plus a surface for on-screen sketching & 3d design collab, and now I’m supposed to get an Mx Mac that doesn’t work with anything but doesn’t super quickly and powerfully. Extremely irritating and costly fragmentation trainwreck here. I think I’m done “riding” this train (feels mire like being dragged under it).

 

[sam_dean]

Do you have a choice?

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hey guys, I am a music pro, currently using a 2015 MB Pro 15 with 16 GB RAM. I need to upgrade due to lack of processing power, an issue I'm increasingly plagued by. I need to continue to run Mojave to use all my plugins on Logic Pro X and don't want to interrupt my work flow to deal with a later M1 model, so I had my eye on a 2019 i9 with 32GB of RAM. Obviously that's much more economical than buying a new one as well.

However, I'm told they have real heat issues due to being too thin... and that the i9 that gives you the power boost causes an issue where the laptop throttles down to avoid thermal issues. Have you found this to be true? Please feel free to share any thoughts about my plan regarding this upgrade. Thank you!

Are your plugins not compatible with newer versions of Logic Pro X?

There are two MacBook Pros released in 2019 that have a Core i9 as an option, one is the MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) and the other is the MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019).

The former CAN run macOS Mojave. The latter absolutely cannot.

The former machine is kind of a piece of crap (too thin, butterfly keyboard, lots of throttling). Unless you're going to run it on one of those external cooling pads while connected to external displays and an external keyboard and mouse with the lid shut, I wouldn't bother (I'd look for a good 2019 model iMac instead).

Incidentally, if this is a matter of your plugin not running well under Rosetta 2 and you just wanting an Intel Mac to at least run the plugin, I might opt for the MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) and see if you can get the plugin to function on Catalina or newer.

Quick comment, I think those machines shipped with Catalina, which means you probably can’t run Mojave. I’ve never owned this model to tell you about the heat. My recommendation, it won’t be worse than what you have now! I say try it.

The 16-inch models did. the 15-inch models that they replaced shipped with Mojave. The OP didn't specify which he/she/they were referring to. Unfortunately, the 15-inch ones are the only Core i9 models that can do Mojave. But, were it me, I'd be looking into seeing how I could get onto a newer macOS release than Mojave, especially considering that security update support for Mojave has been gone for the last year and change.

 

[Chancha]

When someone comes saying he needs Mojave chances are he 100% definitely need that to run 32bit apps or plug-ins, where Rosetta2 cannot do, and as noted about none of the Intel Macs released in and after 2019 except the early 2019 15".

May I ask the OP do you absolutely need a laptop? None of the Mojave capable 15" MBPs are good options now, endless list of issues not just heat. Can you make do with the 2018 Intel mini, or 2017/2019 iMac? These are much better Mojave machines and their CPU power is greater than your 2015, by a margin, without any of the 15" issues.

 

[guitardave62000]

I would have to agree with some of the other posts to search for alternative options. I currently have a 15" 2019 i9 w/ 32gb RAM and its been riddled with issues and frustrations over the years. Looking forward to when I upgrade it

 

[Christopher11]

I had an 2019 16” i9 and never experienced any throttling but my most intense workflows were VMs. I will say that sucker would spin up the fans just for opening Safari, it ran HOT.

Could always buy one from the Apple Refurbished store and return it if it throttles with your workflow.

That's a great idea, thank you. Are those stores on Ebay as well?

 

[Christopher11]

When someone comes saying he needs Mojave chances are he 100% definitely need that to run 32bit apps or plug-ins, where Rosetta2 cannot do, and as noted about none of the Intel Macs released in and after 2019 except the early 2019 15".

May I ask the OP do you absolutely need a laptop? None of the Mojave capable 15" MBPs are good options now, endless list of issues not just heat. Can you make do with the 2018 Intel mini, or 2017/2019 iMac? These are much better Mojave machines and their CPU power is greater than your 2015, by a margin, without any of the 15" issues.

That's a really good point. I could do with an iMac, I love the displays. The thing is, I have gotten used to taking my laptop with me everywhere, and doing mixes at my girlfriend's, at work, etc. I've really gotten to like that portability. Are 2018 MB Pro 15s less riddled with issues?

 

[iMacDragon]

The whole butterfly keyboard generation really should be avoided if in any way can, if there's need for 32 bit software it's a tough pickle for sure.

 

[james2538]

That's a great idea, thank you. Are those stores on Ebay as well?

Can only do Apple Refurbished directly through Apple. Gets you a 14 day no hassle return, one year warranty and a new box/accessories. If you go to the Apple Homepage scroll to the bottom and you'll see the link under Apple Store.

That's a really good point. I could do with an iMac, I love the displays. The thing is, I have gotten used to taking my laptop with me everywhere, and doing mixes at my girlfriend's, at work, etc. I've really gotten to like that portability. Are 2018 MB Pro 15s less riddled with issues?

2018 and earlier have the crappy butterfly keyboard.

You could also just get an iMac/Mini and use Remote Desktop to access it with a lighter/efficient laptop when you need to work outside of the home. As long as you have stable internet it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Chancha]

Well with audio he can't just remote I guess, some things need to be plugged in physically to the machine he sits with, and then the latency will kill any real work if done over the internet.

I guess his best bet is a 2018-2019 15", avoid the ones with VEGA? And stick with i7, find a lower binned GHz to keep the heat down as much as possible. Then I forgot what tricks they did since it has been a few years, the owners have tried to install and modify many system related things to alter the behaviour to make the best out of these machines.

 

[novagamer]

Don't do it unless you can invest in optical thunderbolt cables and a hub to put the thing in another room, then you can run a fan controller software and blast the fans for maximum sustained performance.

The 16" Intel MBP is great for general usage and absolutely hot garbage for Audio work due to the heat/noise. I've tried ridiculous solutions including thermal pad modding it and then putting a watercooling block on the backside but it just can't remove the heat quick enough to keep the fan speed down and I don't want to totally remove the option of it being portable.

I use some complicated Virtual Instruments but I'm talking ONE instance of them will make the fans spin to 3,500 rpm when recording it live. It's extremely annoying and I wish I went with a base 2019 Mac Pro instead of the laptop.

The early non butterfly keyboard Retina Macbook Pros could at least keep themselves cool with low to moderate fan noise. I had a 2017 briefly that was insane hot and loud and got rid of it as fast as I could, but was happy with a 2012 then 2014 model. I expected the 2019 to also be like those since it was a 'return to form' everyone said, but my personal experience is very different. And I have used an eGPU to keep that weird Vega wattage bug down and it doesn't matter - the cpu just overloads the cooling system.

Quick edit to say the 2019 iMac i9 is also hot and loud, I bought one and returned it. Tried again with the 2020 i9, same thing. It sucks because the 2020 i9 with iMac Pro cooling would have been perfect for a long time but they decided not to improve the cooling performance at all, and the iMac Pro is too old to consider for anything IMO unless you absolutely need to have some specific software run on it on that old OS and for some reason can never upgrade. Then I'd get an iMac Pro used on eBay or refurbed from Apple but be prepared to shell out for old technology. It will be quiet though.

One more edit: specifically what audio software / plugins are you using that haven't been upgraded to 64-bit? There may be alternatives now or upgrades you aren't aware of.

 

[Christopher11]

Don't do it unless you can invest in optical thunderbolt cables and a hub to put the thing in another room, then you can run a fan controller software and blast the fans for maximum sustained performance.

The 16" Intel MBP is great for general usage and absolutely hot garbage for Audio work due to the heat/noise. I've tried ridiculous solutions including thermal pad modding it and then putting a watercooling block on the backside but it just can't remove the heat quick enough to keep the fan speed down and I don't want to totally remove the option of it being portable.

I use some complicated Virtual Instruments but I'm talking ONE instance of them will make the fans spin to 3,500 rpm when recording it live. It's extremely annoying and I wish I went with a base 2019 Mac Pro instead of the laptop.

The early non butterfly keyboard Retina Macbook Pros could at least keep themselves cool with low to moderate fan noise. I had a 2017 briefly that was insane hot and loud and got rid of it as fast as I could, but was happy with a 2012 then 2014 model. I expected the 2019 to also be like those since it was a 'return to form' everyone said, but my personal experience is very different. And I have used an eGPU to keep that weird Vega wattage bug down and it doesn't matter - the cpu just overloads the cooling system.

Quick edit to say the 2019 iMac i9 is also hot and loud, I bought one and returned it. Tried again with the 2020 i9, same thing. It sucks because the 2020 i9 with iMac Pro cooling would have been perfect for a long time but they decided not to improve the cooling performance at all, and the iMac Pro is too old to consider for anything IMO unless you absolutely need to have some specific software run on it on that old OS and for some reason can never upgrade. Then I'd get an iMac Pro used on eBay or refurbed from Apple but be prepared to shell out for old technology. It will be quiet though.

One more edit: specifically what audio software / plugins are you using that haven't been upgraded to 64-bit? There may be alternatives now or upgrades you aren't aware of.

Thank you man! Very helpful info. Which year iMac Pro would you get from Ebay?

 

[Christopher11]

Thank you guys for kindly responding to this thread. What do you think of this machine? It sure is inexpensive.

 

[Christopher11]

Can only do Apple Refurbished directly through Apple. Gets you a 14 day no hassle return, one year warranty and a new box/accessories. If you go to the Apple Homepage scroll to the bottom and you'll see the link under Apple Store.



2018 and earlier have the crappy butterfly keyboard.

You could also just get an iMac/Mini and use Remote Desktop to access it with a lighter/efficient laptop when you need to work outside of the home. As long as you have stable internet it shouldn't be an issue.

I thought of maybe getting an iMac, and just keeping this laptop for editing / mixing and occasional tracking when I'm elsewhere. I would need to transfer project files each time, but it's not that big of an issue.

 

[Chancha]

One more suggestion I can add:

The timing now is pretty perfect to score a cheap 2nd hand 2018 mini, due to the M2 Pro release that directly replaces it. Getting one even with decked out RAM and SSD should be a low risk investment and you can quite easily test it anywhere, unlike an iMac. Then even if the worst happens that you deem it not suitable for being the main Mac, for a music related setup I am sure you can repurpose it somewhere useful. (I used to work in a recording studio, I lost count of how many 2012 era minis we deployed. It was in the dozens.)

 

[james2538]

I thought of maybe getting an iMac, and just keeping this laptop for editing / mixing and occasional tracking when I'm elsewhere. I would need to transfer project files each time, but it's not that big of an issue.

Could keep them on a portable SSD and not even bother with transferring (just be sure to have them backed up elsewhere in case it’s lost/stolen)

 

[Christopher11]

Could keep them on a portable SSD and not even bother with transferring (just be sure to have them backed up elsewhere in case it’s lost/stolen)

Interesting. That would run as fast as a hardwired internal drive?

 

[Christopher11]

One more suggestion I can add:

The timing now is pretty perfect to score a cheap 2nd hand 2018 mini, due to the M2 Pro release that directly replaces it. Getting one even with decked out RAM and SSD should be a low risk investment and you can quite easily test it anywhere, unlike an iMac. Then even if the worst happens that you deem it not suitable for being the main Mac, for a music related setup I am sure you can repurpose it somewhere useful. (I used to work in a recording studio, I lost count of how many 2012 era minis we deployed. It was in the dozens.)

That's excellent, thank you. Interesting about the 2012 mac Minis. I've seen other people mention them at Logic forum. Did they run together in some kind of series? Or you just needed them all to handle various projects.

 

[james2538]

Interesting. That would run as fast as a hardwired internal drive?

Some of the nicer ones ya. Just have to look at specs.

Depending on which 2015 model you have the internal SSD might transfer at 2GB/s or 3GB/s

You’ll be limited by your external ports but both USB and Thunderbolt are backwards compatible. Your laptop has Thunderbolt 2 which allowed up to 1.25GB/s.

Something like this with a Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter should work great and be fast. Also will be even faster with whatever newer computer you buy.

SanDisk Professional 2TB PRO-G40 SSD - Up to 2700MB/s, Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps), USB-C (10Gbps), IP68 dust/Water Resistance, External Solid State Drive - SDPS31H-002T-GBCND https://a.co/d/5TUXqx7

 

[Chancha]

That's excellent, thank you. Interesting about the 2012 mac Minis. I've seen other people mention them at Logic forum. Did they run together in some kind of series? Or you just needed them all to handle various projects.

Clustering minis together is possible but only at server farms. For laymen usage, at best you can do is with symphony composing where the app itself supports shared processing across computers.

So the reason that era of minis were popular is for other reasons. 1st if equipped with an i7 it becomes quad-core over the base dual-core, which has very respectable scores (I think its performance akin to your 2015 MBP 15" CPU). Then user serviceable and upgradable RAM and drives, you can even fit two drives in with a bracket kit.

Then its built-in audio I/O is fantastic. There were two 3.5mm jacks, one in one out. Both were combo TOSLINK S/PDIF + line level analog. You wouldn't use it as a pre-amp as serious recording, but for dumb monitoring and quick breakout it is damn useful. Also it had a variety of ports covering eras of tech, USB3 + TB2 + FW800 even an HDMI.

To me it is one of the best Apple products ever built.

 

[Christopher11]

Guys, tell me please, what do you think about a 2018 MB Pro 15 like this one to run Mojave and LPX with lots of plugins? They said they would add a 2 TB SSD for another $220 dollars.