MBP 2018 2.6 15" Hot to touch?

[czerney]

So I've got a 2018 MBP i7 2.6GHz and it's consistantly getting super hot.

The palm rests are always warm to the touch, making it quick for them to sweat after working for just 15-20min.

The horizontal area above the touchbar is actually burning hot. ie' 2-3 seconds and touching and need to take your fingers off. Having laptop on the lap is a no go!

A year ago I had a swollen battery, Apple replaced it with a new one, I think the keyboard as well. Battery life is only a few hours even though shows up as healthy.

Functionally the laptop still performs just fine - no issues running any software, mainly chrome with 10-20 tabs, outlook, word, logic pro, virtual machines all running same time.

Anyone else experienced this? What did you do to resolve or did you just put up with or throw it away?

I'd be concerned about selling the laptop as I worry it might be hazardous to the buyer and out of applecare (3.5 years old now)

I'm super tempted to move to a MBP M1 Max but want to be as sure as possible I'm going to get a QUIET and cool machine before I do.

 

[Sanpete]

Everyone who has run the same programs the way you have on the pre-M1 models has probably experienced the same heat. The M1s are a lot cooler.

 

[acorntoy]

It's a 6 core CPU in a machine that was never designed for that (Apple thought Intel would meet their roadmap when it got continually delayed) thus its thermals didn't cut it.

M1 Pro is much quieter and cooler. The 2020 Intel 16' could even be better for you as Apple significantly improved the thermals for the larger intel CPU's. 2017-2019 MBP is quite literally one of Apples notoriously worst machines for heat and noise.
I upgraded from the same machine (2018 2.6) to an M1 Pro 14'(10CPU,14GPU), while encoding video fans will still go 100%, but seem much less loud, and the notebook stays drastically cooler, while the machine just wipes the floor on speed compared to the old one.

You do point out in your post though you use virtual machines, which is currently not possible with Apple Silicon. A 2020 16' Intel might be your only upgrade option (reducing noise and heat while retaining power) for your workflow.

 

[czerney]

Interesting point on the virtual machines.... I'm hoping via emulation windows could be run up using VMware Fusion or Parallels. I know last time I read up on it it wasn't going to be supported but I'll have to do some further digging.

 

[acorntoy]

Interesting point on the virtual machines.... I'm hoping via emulation windows could be run up using VMware Fusion or Parallels. I know last time I read up on it it wasn't going to be supported but I'll have to do some further digging.

It looks like it'll be awhile (if ever). I used to enjoy VM's to play some PC games I used as a kid, something that while sad was an acceptable loss/tradeoff for me. If VM'S are critical to your actual work I wouldn't take the gamble on any M chip at the moment.

 

[Ifti]

That's interesting - I noticed that rendering/exporting a project from FCPX was relatively quiet before, with the fans on my 2019 16" MBP (i9 / 32GB / 1TB / upgraded GPU) only coming on a little towards the end of the export.
However, I now notice the fans come on full speed, and for much longer then they did before.
I'm still using Big Sur, but have updated FCPX so am running the latest version. I suspect its optimized for the new Apple Silicon now, so doesn't run as efficiently on the Intel platform any more......

 

[acorntoy]

That's interesting - I noticed that rendering/exporting a project from FCPX was relatively quiet before, with the fans on my 2019 16" MBP (i9 / 32GB / 1TB / upgraded GPU) only coming on a little towards the end of the export.
However, I now notice the fans come on full speed, and for much longer then they did before.
I'm still using Big Sur, but have updated FCPX so am running the latest version. I suspect its optimized for the new Apple Silicon now, so doesn't run as efficiently on the Intel platform any more......

Open the bottom up and give it a blast of compressed air. Most likely time has caused dust/debris to clog and slow/throttle it. Mac software at the moment detects what its running on and optimizes for that, a properly designed app will run one of the other. The app isn't gaslighting you.


Also: OP, I can't believe I didn't suggest this! Have you cleaned out the innards of your laptop? A lot can happen in the many years since these devices have been produced. The 2018 MBP had thermal problems on release, after years of dust and debris inhalation it'll be much worse if not cleaned.