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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

Nov 7, 2013 2:46 AM in response to lktfl

Hi,


I've recently bought a macbook with the same configuration as yours.

I'm an iOS developer so mostly I've been using XCode, and after working a few hours, I can not type as my keyboard gets so hot, expecially the left side. My hands are small and thin and my fingers get touched the metalic area of the keyboard and it burns my fingers, If I don't move my hand on the keyboard for a while, I feel some pain in my fingers, this pain feels like pinprick...


I am not sure only my mahcine has the problem or this is a general problem but We will see soon.

Nov 7, 2013 8:12 AM in response to lktfl

Hi i have the same problem.

I ran some tests and did some research. It turns out that this problem is both software and hardware related.

On youtube there are developers who are already manufacturing a bottom case lid for the macbook pro,providing a better air flow and reduces the temperature slightly also many customers are complaining that the new OS Mavericks heats up the computers a few degrees than normal (noticable but not vast).


As a gamer a 2GB graphics card should work on most games with the settings set to medium at 1080p. The mac book display is much higher and the graphics card finds it difficult to render some games on the 2800p, so when you start a game set the settings to a appropriate degree for a more smooth performance.


The first test i did was play a browser game. The first time was very hot, i did some research and reseted the SMC or somthin, then i tried it again and it was ok, not that much heat.

Then i played Skyrim on the mac book but i could not change the settings so it was at 2800p, the laptop was soo hot it reached 150 degrees, from a typical temperature the fans made a noisier sound than the speakers. i think that the problem is somewhere in the process of knowing when to switch the built in Iris graphics with the dedicated graphics when running a game.

I had a previous laptop which overheated and burned my fingers at very high temperatures when running games.


If this problem persists then take it back to the apple store as soon as possible also contact the team about this problem.


Lastly i think that for a price of £2.2k there should not be any problems with this laptop watsoever.

Nov 13, 2013 4:51 PM in response to lktfl

I have the same issue,

whatever i just playing music, or playing games, or serving intering,

my Macbook pro just keeping hot and hot,

when i playing LOL,

the CPU even up to 91℃

and finally i need to install iStat menu to keep checking the temperature, and control the fan speed manually,


i really hope this can be improve or fix soon !

Nov 14, 2013 6:23 AM in response to Charthye

Same condition as mine.

Even if the CPU usage is not so high, my machine gets hot and the fan is not activated to cool the machine


Also, I've made a test with 2K videos, I played 3 videos at the same time, CPU went up to 90% - 95%, then the fan was activated and it prevented to get machine be so hot .. So, I think the problem is about the fan, fan's speed doesn't adapts according to the temparature, it's oberserving only the CPU usage ..

Nov 14, 2013 4:26 PM in response to msudan

Sounds like an issue to me. I have the same model (late 2013 haswell - 2599$) and even when I run virtual machines all day with cpu intensive tasks, the machine doesn't get too hot. it might get a little warm but not in an unpleasent way. I played 4k videos (on youtube) without issues at all.


why wont you bring it to the store so someone can take a look at it ?

Nov 14, 2013 11:47 PM in response to Ilan David

Yesterday, I talked to Apple support, and he said your machine seemed that it had a problem, and I should take it to the Apple retail store to examine what is happening with the machine.


As I am in Turkey now, Apple has not a retail store here now, but in jan 2014 a new store will be openining and will be waiting for it...

Nov 23, 2013 7:02 AM in response to lktfl

Hi lktfl


So i also bought a brand new macbook pro 15inch 2013 late model

I love to do some video editing and when i use final cut pro my machine is getting so hot that i almost can bake a egg on it.... it really gets so extreme hot that i saw lines in my brand new macbook and there was a very nasty plastic smell like 110 celcius

so i think I have the same problems like you but i think i have found a solutions sinds i already changed my macbook pro for 5 times and apple dont have solution for this problem...


First i started with some very nice tool and i think someone already mention it in this post " iStat Menu" but it cost money and bla bla bla andi want freeware and dont want to pay for this problem and it didnt do the things i wanted to happen.. so i keep searching the internet and i think i found the solution for all macbook pro late 2013

check this website.. i'm not sure if i'm allowed to put a link on this site but lets give it a try

http://www.crystalidea.com/products?ref=fancontrol_mac

so after testing and seems the machine is running perfect and the temp is now stabel at 50 degrees celcius.


Guys sorry for my bad English but i hope this will help you guys

Nov 24, 2013 6:25 PM in response to lktfl

I am having the same problem with my 15" MBP Retina Display. At arbitrary times, the CPU seems to top 200 deg F (all four cores) and the fans get up to >4000 rpm. I notice this because I use the iStat Menu app on my laptop.


I have noticed this happens when I have a lot of apps open (regardless of being on battery or wall adapter). I also notice that when I restart the computer, I have no problems...at least for a while.


The fans sap my battery pretty effectively and it's awkward to be in a room with a laptop that sounds like it's about to lift off and hover. I've gone to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store who was not able to help but kept my Applecare file open. I'm in the middle of a crunch for work but will address this over the Thanksgiving holiday by bringing it back to the Genius Bar. I am thinking a firmware update is hopefully in our near future.

Nov 25, 2013 9:03 AM in response to lktfl

So after testing and testing with Final Cut Pro my laptop is working like a champ it's not getting hotter than 55 degrees ... only one thing i need to do now is buy more memory because 8GB is not enough and it starts to eat up the speed " it's like when i use it i only have 100mb memory left " 😝


so this is what i heard that i can upgrade it to max 32GB but i'n not sure...


and than again peeps if you machine keeps overheating download this great app for FREE


http://www.crystalidea.com/products?ref=fancontrol_mac


Message was edited by: Tristan@honkong

Dec 8, 2013 5:54 AM in response to lktfl

I've just bought my macbook pro yesterday and have the same problem. if I play any game which this machine (which should handle), it reaches an average temp of 70 degrees, but after read this tread, I tried that Macs fan control program and it works a treat. All i did was increase the fan speed from the original ideal speed of 2200 to 2800 and now the CPU and GPU temp is a nice 58 Degrees on full load 🙂


macbook spec is the following;

Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013


Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7


Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3


Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB


Software OS X 10.9

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

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