Performance reduced after EFI update on Macbook Pro Retina

I have this exact same issue down to the usage/problem reproduction steps. It seems to be a safety throttle but I can't for the love of me get around it haha!

Depending on where you dig on the internet, you'll have people telling you to use nvidiainspector to force a power state, some fan controllers to max the fans, etc, all sorts of jazz the get around the throttle. I'm here saying that none of that stuff works 😀 . When it decides to throttle, it jumps back and forth between 270 and 725 as dictated by the hardware itself; there is no real override.

Hopefully someone who has solved this issue can chime in on it, but my bet is that there isn't anything to solve; its just an arbitrarily low limit for safety. 😟

I have this issue, but I solve it via SMC reset everytime. It does come back after a while though. Try SMC resetting a few times and it should work.

Yes, I have the same issue, none of the mencioned solutions fix the problem. In fact even on Mac OS X, when you use some CPU and GPU intensive software for a long time (reaching core temperatres of 80 ºC) both CPU and GPU are downscaled to low frequency. I think that in Mac OS X the SMC fix just resets the current speeds to the maximum and then even after a while, if the temperature is high the speeds are reduced.

Apple is very aggressive by changing the frequency about 20º C bellow the recomended by the CPU. I just filled a bug report in http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/ . I recommend you guys to do the same. Even if SMC reseting once in a while helps to fix the issue, this is not a permanent solution, so I think we need a official fix for this problem.

Sound advice. I will make a report as well.

Hello... I have exact same issue.

I tried a lot to stop throttling, like bootcamp software "throttlestop", forcing P state in nvidia inspector. Tried to reset my SMC - but nothing help.

Allways when computer handling heavy games/soft - my cpu in underclock to 1197mhz.

I tried even MAC os downgrade to 10.8.1...

Im so tired.

I will pray on apple. Just fix it. Please.

Hey kurinZo,

Please make a bug report at http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/ this is the only channel for Apple to listen to us.

If all people having this issue make a bug report I'm sure that Apple will set high priority to this matter and may fix this sooner.

Already done, sir.

I hope this will help...

Cuz for now i see only two ways:

Sell rMBP, buy a new one with stock 10.7

Sell rMBP and buy a PC.

Here is a conclusion of this bug from Hong Kong:

I have had this issue with my rMBP bought in early launch period, i believe it is the first batch.

Then, i bought another one with customization, which is believed is FRESH and a newer batch. NO SUCH ISSUE!

I have compared this 2 machine with different batchs and here is the result:

Cooler about 5-10 degree

No throttling under load, both CPU & GPU

use less power of CPU Package and CPU IA Cores according to AID64

lower voltages of CPU Core

3dmark 06 constant at around 15000

3dmark 11 around 2500

3dmark vantage around 10800

with driver 306.97

Are we just help Apple to improve their product at our cost?

Even it is at stock clock shown in GPU-Z, the one with bug has a lower GPU load in GPU-Z, don't know why...

If it is true, i hate apple from this moment. Im totally dissapointed now.

What should i do? Just wait for fix (not fact that apple will release it) or just throw it in the trash? 😟

Man, can you tell me version of BootRom and SMC from system profiler? On your Hong Kong device.

Did they resolve your issue?

I have exactly same issue on my mac mini 2010. Instead of 2.4 GHZ my processor is working on 1.6 GHZ

Any ideas how to fix it? I tried SMC and NVRAM reset