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Macbook pro 15 inch (late 2013) gaming and overheating issues

So I recently bought the new MacBook pro retina 15 inch for college. But, being a $2700 machine, I'm definitely going to game on it too (And I expect it to run games fairly smooth). However, both performance and heat wise, its not performing anywhere near as well as it should.


The first game I tried was portal 2 which got around 40-50 fps on 1440 x 900 (not on max settings) and only about 4 fps less on the full 2880 x 1800 resolution. Expecting better performance from the 750m I moved on to trying minecraft because its such a simple game graphically (Don't judge! lol). Now on this I should be able to put it on max and expect a smooth 55-60 fps. It was showing 20-35... Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure an i7, 750m, 16gb ram, and a 512gb pci-e based flash drive system should be able to render out a bunch of blocks with pixilated textures on them faster than 28 fps.


Then I noticed how hot the keyboard was getting. So I put my ear against my MacBook and I couldn't hear any fans running; though I could feel heat slowly rising out of the vents so I knew the were running, just very slowly. I feared for my extremely expensive system so I quickly downloaded a temperature gauge app and closed java. I don't know if it was launching the temperature gauge app or closing minecraft but right after I did the fans finally kicked in at full speed. The temperature app read 82 degrees Celsius on the processor.


My friend has the mid 2012 version and he can certainly run a game such as minecraft at 60fps easy. I just really hope that its some bugs with Mavericks and not my system (I do feel like Mavericks utilizes java pretty poorly or vice versa). And the fan part, that scares me. I'd rather not have that much money (and beautiful engineering) melt away.


Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for any help as to my situation too


-Kevin


Specs:

2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7

512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage

GT 750m 2048mb

16gb ddr3 1600Mhz

MACBOOK PRO (RETINA, 15-INCH, LATE 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 3, 2013 11:01 AM

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Posted on Nov 3, 2013 11:04 AM

Take it back to the vendor while it's in warranty.

76 replies

Dec 19, 2013 6:05 AM in response to lktfl

As a test, I played XCOM: Enemy Unknown through steam and closed all my other open applications. My fans were set to max speed (6000 rpm for left and 5900 for right or something like that) and I was getting temperatures around 68 degrees C. Do you guys think that the temperature is normal with both fans set at max speed?

Dec 31, 2013 7:57 AM in response to lktfl

Hi :)


So, I just cancelled my order for a late 2013 15 inch 2.3/16gig ram/dedicated GPU retina MBP

( same model), for fear I would get the same issues, and the other problems of touchpad/keyboard freezing up.


Has the recent (15 inch with dedicated GPU specific) update sorted this issue or not ?


I read that the iris pro was doing all the work because a software issue was stopping the dedicated GPU kicking in when it should have. Would this account for the overheating issues ?


Can someone shed any further light on this ?


Many thanks


Paul

Dec 31, 2013 6:21 PM in response to 1028paul

Hi Paul, I'm using the new mbp 16 gb 500ssd and i running like a charm... Nothing is freezing like mouse or mousepad or keyboard. The only problem is the overheating but i shorted that out with the fan control app i found on the internet.

I'm sending this from my iphone but later on the day when I'm home I will send you full report about performance


Happy new year and have a nice day

Jan 1, 2014 3:57 AM in response to lktfl

Happy New Year to eveyone 🙂


Thanks Tristan, I am wishing I had not cancelled my order now 😟


I had an earlier macbook pro (2011) the screen was poor and I returned it as on white backgrounds there was a pink tint on the left side and a blue tint on the right... the two shop display models were the same. So now that they have a retina display, and SSD I figured the time was right to get one.


I know macbook pros tend to run hot, but bearing in mind all of the issues that are being reported I felt it would be wise to hold off untill theses problems were addressed by Apple.


I read about an update specifically for this model (15 inch / 2.3 i7 / NVIDIA GeForce 750m) to correct an issue where the dedicated GPU was not switching on as it should, and wondered if that was specifically to fix this issue?.. I appreciate that using a third party app to increase fan speeds would cool the CPU & GPU, but if the GPU is not coming on as it should surely extra cooling is a compromise as opposed to a fix... ??


It would be really good to hear from anyone who had the overheating issue then used this update, to see if that corrected the issue.


Thanks


Paul

Jan 1, 2014 9:44 AM in response to Tristan@honkong

Tristan


I edited the fan rules using iStat Menus which is probably similar to the app you used.


But I'm a little wary of setting the fans up to 3000 rpm as a default as I think you mentioned in an earlier post.


My overheating occurs sporadically and I am trying to log it as AppleCare/Geniuses cannot figure it out.


I'm worried that if I set my fans too high, they will wear out faster, although 3000 rpm may not be much of a stress, but the nominal value is ~2000 rpm.


What was your reasoning for setting them at 3000rpm?


Thanks in advance.


Also - I did take my 2013 Retina MBP to the Genius bar and they are going to replace the motherboard. Their diagnostics found something with the DC In Sensor. I am thinking it's a totally different issue but we'll see if this heating problem goes away when the repair is completed.

Jan 1, 2014 10:54 AM in response to lktfl

Hi guys,


The update for the GPU not turning on is on the downloads page of the apple support site.


"MacBook Pro Retina EFI Update v1.2


This update is recommended for MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, late 2013) models with NVIDIA graphics.


This update addresses an issue which, in rare cases, may limit the performance of the discrete graphics processor after a system wake or boot."


Has anyone resolved CPU/integrated iris pro overheating issues with this update ??


Thanks


Paul

Jan 1, 2014 9:46 PM in response to Tobin Anthony

Tobin,


I changed my macbook already 4 times... if they telling you that they going to change the motherboard that means they are going to give you a brand new macbook.. I had the same problems.. even blew up my graphic card so the only thing I had left where stripes on my screen. The last time I went back and made a big fuss at the Apple store they offered me a 17% discount just to calm me down 😝 " Thank you Apple "


And about the Fan controller... if I let my computer run without istats or what kind of fan controller my computer will get to warm.. even when I use Photoshop it's overheating or when I watch a movie I have that problem.. it's not a sensor problem it's a software problem


Even if my fans break down I think it's more easy for Apple to replace a fan rather than a new mainboard, but I also expect you have apple care plan for in case your retina breaks down or something else?





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Jan 2, 2014 6:48 AM in response to Tristan@honkong

I agree with you on the software. Sometimes, my fans just spin up and I feel that my laptop is going to lift off my desk like hovercraft.


My CPU temp gets in excess of 200 deg F (93 deg C) and the fans are close to 6000 rpm.


However, the last Genius I talked said I should watch the Activity Monitor. Like other discussions in this forum, and elsewhere online, I see this new Mavericks task, com.apple.IconServicesAgent, taking up a huge portion (200%??!!) of my CPU processing. I have not been able to find out what this task does but there is a lot of traffic on it. Anyhow, I deleted this task and the CPU loading decreased dramatically. My fans started spinning up a few days later and I saw this task had started up again and was taking up ~90% CPU loading.


I do not know what this task does, and I do not advocate using Activity Monitor to delete tasks indiscriminantly, but I am wholeheartedly in agreement with you that this CPU heating, and fan issue, is relating to software.

Macbook pro 15 inch (late 2013) gaming and overheating issues

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