World of Warcraft from Core 2 Duo to i7: heat and fans

Question

Level 1

0 points

World of Warcraft from Core 2 Duo to i7: heat and fans

Hi,

I've been playing World of Warcraft on my 2008 Core 2 Duo 2.93MHz for some time now, with moderate rendering settings, at 1024x640 in window mode so I could check mail and other things. I was very satisfied with the whole thing.

I recently upgraded to the top 2.66MHz i7 with 8MB RAM. With exactly the same settings WoW now uses apparently more CPU cycles and brings CPU heat between 70° and 90°. Therefore fans quickly jump towards 6000rpm. I tried to lower the settings, to no avail.

And I thought with that new machine I could use WoW with full resolution and settings...

Is there something I should be aware of?

Various, Mac OS X (10.4.10), Networked

Posted on Jul 10, 2010 3:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

88_King

Level 1

91 points

Jul 10, 2010 4:58 AM in response to gemp

Hi

My i7 macbook pro also runs very hot, i.e. 90 degrees when playing Championship Manager or Dragon Age Origin with all settings at max.

Mind you, the i7 in the macbook have turbo boost speed around the same as you old macbook, also it have hyper threading which increase the core temperatures.
So overall, the i7 have more transistors than the core 2, so it will produce more heat and require more air flow to cool it therefore faster fan speed.

for me, I've stooped play games on the macbook for the reason as I don't want the CPU to operate so close to its maximum temperature for long period of time.

I'm don't think its harmful to the macbook to play games continuously. But I don't think the macbook is not designed as a game laptop, and no other applications I use stress both the CPU and GPU close to 100% at the same time for any long period.

But I do have a PC if I want to play games.

Message was edited by: 88_King

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 10, 2010 1:48 PM in response to 88_King

good answer, there's console for gaming.
But i still don't undrestande the heat issue when using SMCfancontrol with fans max at 6K RPM. I never got heat problem. Even under Win 7 with overclocking and playing games like: far cry 2, fear 2, CODMW2 (all demanding games on GPU) for GPU I hit 78 oC and for CPU neay 60 oC. Yes it's noisy but when you play that doesn't matter.
But aigin, yes, macbook pro's arent disigned for playing because they're too compacte. If you still wana play on a laptob, maybe you choosed the wrong company 🙂

Reply

Answer 3

gemp Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 11, 2010 6:58 AM in response to thedarkpersian

Thanks for your answers.

My surprise came from the fact that my old Core 2 Duo had a really sparse use of its fans, even with heavy 3D rendering (and without SMC at all). I just thought that a more advanced model like the i7 would handle this either similarly or better. I'll try to go with the answer that it has more circuits, therefore produce more heat... Maybe WoW is simply poorly developed for Mac.

As for gaming consoles, I don't think you can play WoW with one -- unless you infer that a PC under Windows is one 😉

Reply