Retina MacBook Pro Heat
Hi Guys,
I'm currently on my 3rd replacement Retina MacBook Pro after having image retention (IR) issues with the screen and has been much-discussed in another thread.
This one is actually going into the Apple Store on Friday for a screen replacement but the subject of this thread is to do with the sheer amount of heat that this thing is putting out.
Of all the rMBPs that I've had so far, this one seems to run the hottest of them all, so much so that for the first time I've noticed just how hot it gets on the underside to the point of being uncomfortable.
I run Parallels in my day to day tasks and aside from this I just run iTunes music and Safari. This is enough to get the core CPU temp up to around mid-60s (Celcius) where it generally stays and hitting 70 / 71 degrees as soon as I do something such as go to compose an e-mail in Outlook for instance.
Without Parallels running i.e. just having regular Mac apps open, the core CPU temp drops to around mid-50s but again this can reach early-60s if doing anything remotely taxing on the CPU.
I don't particularly play games and to be honest isn't the reason I bought this MacBook but I do like to play Portal 2 and Half-Life 2 every now and again, which isn't (or shouldn't be?!) that demanding for a modern computer. Within a minute or two of playing either of these games, the CPU temp rockets to nearly 90 degrees before the fans kick in and bring that down to around early to mid 80s. GPU temp isn't far behind with these temps either.
As a final test, I opened up 8 x terminal windows and ran the following command:
yes > /dev/null
This apparently taxes all 8 CPU cores (4 x physical and 4 x virtual) to the max so that temperatures can be measured at full capacity. It didn't take long for all 8 cores to reach anywhere between 100 and 105 degrees during this test and I could've cooked dinner on the computer it was that hot. Obviously I didn't run this test for long due to the extreme temperatures, however, within a few moments the temperatures had come down to a more respectable level once I quit terminal.
The main reason for this thread is that this heat 'problem' is the last straw in my continuing struggle with Apple and the rMBP. Firstly it was the screen, then I noticed that the keyboard was not quite evenly backlit (the '2' key for instance is noticeably brighter than any of the other keys) and now I'm noticing how hot this thing is.
As this particular machine is my 3rd replacement, my only option really is to take it in for repair on Friday as scheduled for the screen and keyboard or demand a refund as I'm still within my 14 days I believe.
Trouble is, there isn't an equivalent machine to the rMBP if I got a refund as no other computer can run OSX but a Mac. Even the classic MBP isn't really an option as with the specs of this one (2.6 / 16 / 512) it would actually be more expensive!
I do wish I could just go out and buy some other computer but I'm hopelessly entwined with OSX and no other computer from any other manufacturer can run it, not officially anyway. This leaves me between a rock and a very hard place. I also need this machine for work so if I'm to get a refund, I need to have a replacement lined up .
Any thoughts at all? Is this machine a toaster in disguise?
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)