Why does Netflix Cause Overheating on My 2010 MBP 13 i7?

Netflix is also a CPU/GPU hog in Windows. It is the silverlight plug-in. You can download smcFanControl for Mac to adjust the RPM of the fan, so if it gets hot you can run it at higher speeds to help cool it down.

JohnBarrett wrote:

I really don't understand why Netflix causes temperatures to rise to 180-200F on my 2011 13" i7. Playing the SAME movie as digital copy on my hard drive, or playing it directly from the MBP's DVD player both generate a consistent 122 to 126/F. Isn't the cpu processing the same information, doing the same conversion from compressed files?

It seems that Netflix could develop decompression algorithms that are less cpu intensive.

Netflix steaming requires the Microsoft Silverlight installed, it copy protects the stream, likely with some sort of encryption that requires CPU cycles to decode on the fly (or else it would be easy to copy it)

Next if your running a encrypted network like WPA2 with AES, this is also encrypted/decrypted on the fly and more CPU cycles there.

Netflix streaming requires a browser, more CPU cycles.

And finally your 2011 13" MBP has the oh so wonderful Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics exclusively, no discrete video card, which guess what does the graphics?

Yep the CPU. 😀

So you have a quad core monster, but it's CPU and Graphics heat are located on one spot on the motherboard. It's going to be hot, especially after long use in a hot room. Much faster if your blocking the vents somehow.

You can do a couple of things, install the free smcFanControl and set your environmental temperature down below 77º F.

Hope this helps/ 🙂

Ha. I have a 5-year old Toshiba laptop that I put a coldpack under, didn't think I'd have to do that with a $1.5k new Macbook. 🙂You can turn the HD setting on Netflix off BTW, then the CPU load won't get as bad.

Also I don't know about Macs, but on my laptop TJ Max is set at 100C, when watching Netlix the temperature often gets to 95-96C, at 98C it cuts the CPU performance so that it does not overheat. I'd think on Macs it works the same way, so until your video starts to glitch, no worries about CPU temperature.

Basically the best thing you can do is install SMC Fan Control and turn the fans up to help keep them cool, Netflix is such a CPU/GPU intensive process it tends to create a lot of heat.

It is because of the Microsoft's Silverlight plugin. This plugin is used to play netflix movies. It is made by microsoft and as most of microsoft softwares made for osx, it is made to run worse on osx. I have a 2011 mbp 15. I run netflix both in windows (bootcamp) and osx (mavericks). It runs way hotter on OSX. The only solution for that is netflix adopt another plugin to play the movies, because I think noone should ever expect a good software for OSX from microsoft. If I could expect any good software from that company at all. Microsoft is a virus. It is not a company focused on making better solutions. It is a company based on dirty tricks and market manipulation. If we are lucky, Valve will crush windows and on a shiny day, Microsoft will be history.

I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini i7 16 GB RAM with two SSD's and I think the problem is Microsoft Silverlight Plug-In which is kind of emulating a Windows environment and thus not performing as good as on Windows. You could try installing Windows in Boot Camp and see if there is any difference in fan speed.

I really hope Netflix, HBO and what else could team up with Apple and develop a REAL OSX-adapted/Cocoa plug-in!

I have never tried Apple TV but since it has support for both Netflix, HBO and HULU - I guess they made a Cocoa or iOS plugin (Perhaps similar to the very good iOS app). The problem is OSX users doesn't have access to it...

Apple wants you to buy their Apple TV. Although I already have Netflix working very quiet and cool on my Bravia TV, I still enjoy watching movies/dramas on my Mac Mini since I get a much better sound from my decent studio monitors (Fostex PM0.4)

126ºF is not very hot. Any video playback requires heavy use of the GPU as well as the CPU. But the temp you report isn't abnormal at all. Now if it were around 90ºC (194ºF) then that would be hot.

I think it may also have to do with streaming the movies to your computer and or playing through the browser, silverlight (like flash) can be very cpu intensive.

I put a coldpack under my MBP when watching Netflix, works effectively even though it feels pre-millenia.

As stated before, this isn't "overheating". Overheating would cause the system to shutdown.

If you put the Macbook Pro on your lap and restrict the airflow at the back of the system (and on the side for the MPPr), you will eliminate the ability for the fans to adequately cool the processor and graphics chip. When I watch a movie or TV show with Netflix, the fan speed will cycle low-high-low over time, but not stay high for very long. I have learned to put a hard surface under the Macbook Pro when sitting with it on my lap.

BTW, Netflix uses the discrete graphics, not the embedded one. This also causes more heat.

Like you say, it's not necessary in order to protect the computer but in this way the fan does not even need to start so there is no distractig sound. Btw, Silverlight seems to be the crook, (if I ain't mistaken) not the HD-mode.

JohnBarrett wrote:

This overheating problem is very troubling to us at a time when we need to make an investment in a batch of 2011 MBP 15"s. We understand that the 2001 15 and 17s both get unusually hot with cpu intensive apps.

Every since the processor thermal wall was hit some time back it's uphill climb to try to increase performance and cut down on the heat.

Intel made the decision to incorporate graphics processing on the CPU, now all their processors come with this function. If it's someone you want to complain too it's them.

If you want to keep the heat down on a 15" MacBook Pro, I suggest you get the 2.2 Ghz or better machines, these have the dedicated 1GB Radeon 6750M graphics card.

Under the System Preferences > Energy is a settling to turn off graphics switching, basically setting the dedicated graphics card as the only graphics processor.

When you do this your seperating the two sources of heat and the machne stays cooler.

Actually only Netflix who can fix that, so report it to them, not to Apple.