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

Hello gentlemen and ladies,

I found out with proper testing with iStat Menus, that the aspect responsible of overheating my Macbook Pro 15" Retina, 16 GB, 768 SSD, 2.7 GHz and turning it off because of GPU Panic which is caused by overheating, is that my fans are not automatically regulated or regulated too little (100 RPM) since purchase. This might be an error in code of Mavericks, since I started getting these problems myself only after purchase. In short this is what happens. I play a game or do a heavy task and the computer starts to heat up under intense usage. Then, I check iStat Menus and it shows that the RPM of both, the right fan and the left do not change whatsoever. And, then the final result is that the computer shuts down instantly as the failsafe for overheating is turned on and thus when rebooted it either normally reboots (normally - 50%-70%) and shows kernel panic stating the GPU panic is the problem (GPU Panic is when the Graphical Processor Unit "panics" and shuts down as a failsafe to protect itself from futher harm) or, it boots up into a black screen (30%-50%) if you are having consistent kernel panics due to frequent, intense over-heating and, this happens because the graphics/video card of NVIDIA GeForce 650M is still too hot to boot up the screen properly and you have to wait, till it cool down and then you reboot to get the normal reboot with the kernel panic stating the GPU/CPU panic depending on what overheated first. Before you ask, you should know that I have reseted SMC, NVRAM and etc. to fix this issue and none have done any progress. I even restored my laptop completely by Apple Geniuses in Russia and that did not help and, I cleaned my laptop from dust by giving it in for a paid (actually not so expensive) service to Apple to be serviced professionally and that did help by 200% in the duration between black outs and sudden shutdowns.

So, in order to keep yourself safe from overheating and the following problems I have. I recommend firstly, checking your Macbook Pro on acquired dust which traps heat more causing a bigger risk in overheating by going to Apple Retail Store nearby. Secondly, I recommend downloading iStat Menus (if you are serious about maintaining your Mac and you have sufficenet money and knowledge) or Fan Control (http://www.crystalidea.com/products?ref=fancontrol_mac) (if you are a freeware person and only wants to regulate the fan and nothing more, more manually). If you download iStat Menus, you will know what I mean.

At the moment, I do this until I get my Mac checked out again with my evidence of GPU/CPU kernel panics and the following research I have made in order to claim my limited warantly or repair the graphics card. The method I use personally is to adjust the fan speed to 2600 RPM on both fans and select "Medium" option when doing intesneive tasks such as gaming or photoshopping, to prevent overheating. So far, so good. I personally, would only use "High" option if you are using nearly all your RAM/CPU/GPU and it is heating up a lot.

In conclusion, I conclude that Mavericks OS has done something to my automatic fan regulation and I am trying to fix it to prevent me from all this hassle. I will be in more testing of Terminal and how to switch on automatic fan control again or adjust it properly. And, I will be using my iStat Menus and other components for futher testing.

If you didn't see the specifications or wanted a more in-depth specs, here they are in a list.

Processor

2,7 GHz Intel Core i7 3rd generation.

RAM

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics

Intel Graphics HD 4000 1024 MB.

Type of Macbook

3rd Generation Macbook Pro Retina Display, late-2012 version.

I hope I have helped,

P3rf3ctvo1d.

Added conclusion and other methods I used to battle this problem. Also, some specs.

In my case its not the GPU its Intels haswell. Their TIM compound is cheap, therefore creating a trap for heat inside the CPU. I just returned the damm thing, I will wait around til WWDC and see whats coming. No recent rummors on a refresh for the rMBPs :(.

-dm

I did mention that it can be CPU too anyway because it is still related to the overheating issue. I do think that the fan regulation is broken or SMC and that causes the overheating mainly. And, that is why I will keep my laptop and try to fix the regulator of the fans instead of returning because it is too late for me to return. I will contact Apple tomorrow myself to fix this problem.

Also, I do not agree with TIM to a certain extent but, you do have a point. However, their ventilation is still good nevertheless the TIM, bad ventilation at the back because of their auto-fans and their efficiency. But, if the fan regulation fails like in my case then it is a pain but, regulating them manually is not too bad.

P3.

I did more testing and research and, I found some other factor responsivbe for GPU panics I have. The statement about the temperature still remains true but it seems to be false in my case. This is because I noticed when I use heavy graphical load it makes an error on the OS part and not on the hardware part as I read the kernel panic log. Therefore, it is a software glitch on the NVRAM of my video card.

Also, I never had these problems until I upgraded to Mavericks and this confirms my guess even more. Again, I reseted by NVRAM and it did not make a difference in the frequence of GPU panics. The frequency is still the same (5-15 mins) under heavy graphical load.

This is Apple's fault for not even addressing cusomers' problems and not releasing any patches to tackle the problem. I will try to downgrade to Mountain Lion as it is the stable option for my Macbook. I find this treatment appaling and I will probably change my MacBook if I won't able to break down the problem and fix it myself.

P3.

I had the usual issues (which btw exist on every Macbook I ever had) when gaming in Windows / Bootcamp.
The issue here wasnt really the GPU but the CPU, specifically "Turbo Boost".

By using an app named "ThrottleStop" I was able to keep the CPU at 1.8ghz (and throttling the TDP to 45W) which is more than enough power for games like Battlefield 4 and essentially leaving more thermal headroom for the GPU.

Coming as one of the guys from the 2011 Macbook failures I opted not to have a dGPU on my new rMBP but instead just use the Iris Pro (which is more than sufficient for me personally).

Anyway, at least to those gaming in Windows I recommend giving ThrottleStop a shot.

(As for the Haswell CPUs running hotter than the Sandy ones, I sort of have to disagree. My Haswell MBP isnt any hotter than the 2011 Macbook I had, in fact it may even be cooler at some points).

On Windows 8 there is no need. Windows 8 fixed the issues with throttling for me.

I never spoke about "issues".. you just gain more performance by adjusting the thermal impact between GPU/CPU yourself. Thats all.

(I was conducting these tests with Win 8.1 btw).

That is what I meant to say matthewadams, and I tested Windows 8.1 Pro too. Also, I found out that my GPU panics are probably caused by a mathematical error in the processes which means it is either the OS or the video card. I think that, it is the OS because these panics started occurring after the NVRAM update. Also, I fixed the auto regulation of fans by resetting SMC properly and the panics still come.

I have the same setup as the op, and the temperatures when I tried to play a browser game were around 95 degrees with the upper part of the keyboard to be really untouchable from the heat. I will contact the local apple support to hear what they have to say, but nonetheless such behavior for a 2800€ professional laptop is at least unacceptable!!

I pulled the trigger on a baseline (Haswell 2.0GHz, 8GB, 256 GB) 15 inch rMBP. I am a designer and front end developer so that meant some Photoshop, Illustrator, Webstorm, Sublime Text and xCode. Nothing that demanding that such machine can't handle.

The moment I started downloading, installing and setting up my machine I began noticing that it was getting ridiculously hot! I mean my old 2011 i5 MacBook Pro 13 never managed to get this hot and it was raped on a daily basis.

The fans were not kicking in though, so I thought "Well... that might be by design.". For a good measure though I was glancing at the temperatures every now and than and simple browsing, reading or watching video would bake the machine into the upper 70s.

If this was the case the machine would be ABSOLUTELY USELESS!

So I did some research and I *think* I found a solution that (kind of) works for me.

Here it is:

1. Get Chrome out of your workflow... It's doing unimaginable things to CPU and heats it like a mo#herf%cker. Simply launching Chrome and opening Digg for example rapidly increases the temperatures to 60-70. It's unbearable for me as a front end developer not to use Chrome but... I only launch it for testing things now. I found that Firefox is behaving pretty well.
2. Download http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control. Set it up so the fans kick in earlier. Use data from the CPU Core sensor.

As I am writing this with a few tabs open I'm getting temperatures in the higher 30s (35-38 degrees) with some occasional 40-something spikes. Ambient temperature is around 25 degrees so I can't imagine what it would be if those get higher up :/

So... I really think Apple absolutely failed to understand how a PRO machine is used. They ripped out every possibility of upgradability, slimmed down the machine to a laughingly inefficient (for cooling) form factor and then for the sake of 'silence' purposefully decided to keep the fans operating at dangerously low speeds while people's fingers were getting burnt like hot-dogs. It's unfair, it's sad and it's a total rip-off to charge MacBook Pro money for a glorified Air.

Anyways I'll have to learn to live with it the next few months, I really hope they learned their lesson and Broadwells would get proper attention and tweaks!

I have the same problem since I updated to Maverick. I recently tried the Yosemite beta too see if this got fixed. But it is still broken. The funny thing is, the auto fan speed worked with Mountain Lion AND Windows7 under bootcamp. After my update to Maverick, both do not work anymore!

I know use the iStat tool which other people recommended in this thread. But this kinda *****. I always have to keep an eye on the temperature now.

Update 1:

I took my external backup disk and made a complete recovery from my Mountain Lion. I first formatted my HD and then made the recovery. Just to be 100% sure.

Surprise surprise, the fans start to spin faster and louder when I open up my CIV5 game. I will now download 10.9 and see if I can reproduce the problem.

(Final) Update 2:

I formated everything and made a complete clean installation of Maverick (via USB stick) and now it works. Something in the update from ML to Maverick killed the function.

Well, I have a 2010 hand me down MacBook Pro, and It runs Minecraft at about 30-35 FPS average on these settings.

Prior to 1.8

Render Distance: 7

Smooth lighting: OFF

Fancy Graphics: OFF

Use VBOs: ON

Alternate Blocks: OFF (helps with FPS)

(Brightness doesn't matter)

And so on...

The fan turns on, metal isn't hot after 5-8 hours, so yeah.

EDIT: Minecraft takes up more RAM/CPU than other games. I've played Unturned (Steam game) at the max graphics and it runs at 100 FPS straight up.

I've been having exactly the same issues also. I just got my MacBook Pro, it is exactly the same specs as the original posters. except I'm running 10.10. I started playing Divinity original sin and was amazed to find that the performance was worse than my six year old gaming PC with a GTX 280 Six-year-old graphics card. The next time I tried it actually performed better, not great but a lot better. The only difference between these times was the temp, a 38c day (probably 35 in the house) compared to a nice cool 19c day. When the laptop was super hot and fans running full it chugged along had terrible frame rate and was basically unplayable. I've now installed istat, so I can measure the different temps and take notes on performance. There is 6 months of AppleCare left and have original receipt, if I'm finding that it is continually overheating on hot days and therefor having performance issues, should I take it back?