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Nice Cool 15" SR Macbook Pro

miniConvert

miniConvert

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 4, 2006
3,264
3
Kent, UK - the 'Garden of England'.
There's no denying that these machines can get incredibly hot when under heavy load.

However, under light usage the MBP really is incredibly cool. At the moment I'm just browsing around and doing my email. smcFanControl reports my temperature as 39c with the fans at 1998rpm. The underside of the machine is cool, and only the strip above the keyboard is notably warm.

There's a lot of power in this 1" slab of aluminium, it's really quite an achievement. I just wanted to emphasise that when they're only under light load, the new MBP's are lovely and cool and quiet!
 
rhagen said:
39c seems abnormally cool. Idle my macbook hits up low to mid 40's
Click to expand...

I've had mine at that temp too, while just doing stuff like browsing, but i find it has a lot to do with the temp of the room too, when i first got it, the room i was in was nice and cool, and thats when it was only at about 39 or 40, then once the days got a bit hotter and the room temp was higher, the light load temp went to about 46, - 50. Either way though, still cool on the touch. i find the only time mine gets too hot to put on my lap is when i'm playing WOW or something really intensive. Thats when the cpu temp goes way up lol.
 
Mine is at 57 celcius

and Im just using safari. It usually is between 55-60 while surfing and email.
 
My Core 2 Duo MBP is 50'C most of the time, sometimes reaches 56'C when doing internet, msn etc.
 
I never really checked my temps, I was at 35 C. Never seen it that low but when I started doing itunes, surfing, and word; it jumped up to 54.

I love our cool laptops haha.
 
running on battery keeps it cool, with down-throttling of either cpu or gpu.

plug it in, and you'll notice a few degrees increase. My g2 MBP stays at around 50-56. On battery its rarely above 50.
 
Question on throttling:
When it is on battery, the CPU and GPU are on a very low power setting at idle, and then increase their clock speed when they are put under load. I believe the GPU has two load settings, a lower one for 2D stuff, and a "full speed" for 3D stuff. How does this change when you plug it in to the wall?
Cheers.
 
Erasmus said:
Question on throttling:
When it is on battery, the CPU and GPU are on a very low power setting at idle, and then increase their clock speed when they are put under load. I believe the GPU has two load settings, a lower one for 2D stuff, and a "full speed" for 3D stuff. How does this change when you plug it in to the wall?
Cheers.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking there are two separate power profiles, one for when the system is on battery and one for when the system is on the mains. The default profile for the mains is usually oriented in favor of performance whereas the default profile for the battery is biased towards energy savings.

Although you probably know where the adjustments for these settings are Erasmus I'll mention them here for the benefit of those who don't

Go into System Preferences/Energy Saver and select the drop down menu labeled 'Settings for', you can then select either Power Adapter or Battery. After that then you select the drop down menu labeled 'Optimization' and select the power profile that you want, or you can create your own using the sliders below.

Hope this helps

Sopranino
 
Sopranino said:
Generally speaking there are two separate power profiles, one for when the system is on battery and one for when the system is on the mains. The default profile for the mains is usually oriented in favor of performance whereas the default profile for the battery is biased towards energy savings.
Click to expand...

Oh, OK. Yes, I did know where this stuff was, but it is my understanding that the real only settings the user can change is how long it takes for the screen/computer to go to sleep (Don't have a SR MBP handy to check). In some Apple documentation it makes the suggestion that CPU/GPU speed is throttled differently between "better battery life" and "better performance". Nothing substantial is given. So, does anyone know anything about the difference here? Does the MBP actually change its performance to optimise battery life or performance, or does it just go to sleep after 5 mins instead of 30?
 
I'm pretty sure there's something going on, as many people have reported smoothness issues with expose, dashboard, and misc. 3d effects when running on batteries (i have noticed this to an effect with my own MBP), but somehow it becomes smooth again with power from the mains.

to replicate this issue on my MBP, open iTunes, and have something like Firefox and Adium open (what i have now). Expose becomes noticeably slower. It also varies. Just open enough apps/windows to make it slow in expose (on batteries). Plug it in, and viola, no more slowness.

considering how hot the power brick can get with the MBP attached, a C2D running at full bore (speed, not load) would get hot, not to mention suck up a lot of power.
 
Finally updated mine to the SR MBP.

I did notice it does run noticabley warmer than my C2D but I used Fan Control v1.1 to adjust the fan speed, and it is about 45'C at idle, and never goes above 69'C if doing extreme stuff.

I'd recmmend Fan Control for people who are experiencing warm SR MBP's. Sorted mine out.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137
 
e12a said:
to replicate this issue on my MBP, open iTunes, and have something like Firefox and Adium open (what i have now). Expose becomes noticeably slower. It also varies. Just open enough apps/windows to make it slow in expose (on batteries). Plug it in, and viola, no more slowness.

considering how hot the power brick can get with the MBP attached, a C2D running at full bore (speed, not load) would get hot, not to mention suck up a lot of power.
Click to expand...

Never noticed that - reckon it only runs off one core on battery?

I thought the power brick got hot because its stepping down the voltage - the battery is already at 12V's or whatever so shouldn't get roasting like the power brick.
 
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