MBP 2018 i9 throttling back

[jadraker]

Hi guys,
Starting from Monterey 12.1 (maybe coincidentally because the problem started after updating to 12.1) my MBP is working so slow that it appears to have a crappy Lentium inside instead of i9.

When syncing OneDrive, running O365 apps, Chrome with many tabs and running VMware the performance is ugly, a piece of crap.

I opened Intel Power Gadget and I was surprised to see this:

The CPU was running between 1,1 and 1,8. Strangely temp was at 58c but I don't know if it's correct because FANs are almost at full speed the whole day. Sitting the computer idle the speed return to normal values (2,9 to 4,5).

Do you think it's a good time to open the case and to clean FANs and reapply thermal paste?

Thanks.

 

[FNH15]

Hi guys,
Starting from Monterey 12.1 (maybe coincidentally because the problem started after updating to 12.1) my MBP is working so slow that it appears to have a crappy Lentium inside instead of i9.

When syncing OneDrive, running O365 apps, Chrome with many tabs and running VMware the performance is ugly, a piece of crap.

I opened Intel Power Gadget and I was surprised to see this:

View attachment 1943550

The CPU was running between 1,1 and 1,8. Strangely temp was at 58c but I don't know if it's correct because FANs are almost at full speed the whole day. Sitting the computer idle the speed return to normal values (2,9 to 4,5).

Do you think it's a good time to open the case and to clean FANs and reapply thermal paste?

Thanks.

Back when I had my SpaceHeater Pro (a 2018 15” i7) I noticed similar performance degradation when running Zoom + heavy Excel + a bunch of Safari tabs. It was thermally throttling itself to avoid shutting down. The app Fanny should let you view the various temp sensors in your MBP and see if they’re reporting high temps - could either be a faulty sensor, or maybe it’s hotter than you think where you are. Given you have an i9 which is even hotter, I’d imagine this is the root cause.

How is your battery health?
What does kernel_task report in Activity Monitor under CPU use?

The temporary solution I found in my case was to not work outside, or to stick it in the fridge before going on long meetings. The permanent fix was to dump it the second preorders went live for the 16” M1 MPBs…

 

[jadraker]

I finally opened the case and fans were full of dust. I used compressed air, cleaned the thing and now performance is at the level you expect from an i9.

 

[jadraker]

Back when I had my SpaceHeater Pro (a 2018 15” i7) I noticed similar performance degradation when running Zoom + heavy Excel + a bunch of Safari tabs. It was thermally throttling itself to avoid shutting down. The app Fanny should let you view the various temp sensors in your MBP and see if they’re reporting high temps - could either be a faulty sensor, or maybe it’s hotter than you think where you are. Given you have an i9 which is even hotter, I’d imagine this is the root cause.

How is your battery health?
What does kernel_task report in Activity Monitor under CPU use?

The temporary solution I found in my case was to not work outside, or to stick it in the fridge before going on long meetings. The permanent fix was to dump it the second preorders went live for the 16” M1 MPBs…

I'm tempted to change my MBP for M1 Max but I've a main concern. My daily work is under macOS (browser, Office 365) and under Windows 11 using VMware. There I've some VPN and tools that I need and than only works under Windows.

If I migrate to ARM I'll be not able to use my VM anymore. I read that you can use UTM https://nomadic-dmitry.medium.com/a...6-and-arm-virtual-machines-on-it-cdd9d9054483 but I don't know how it performs.