late 2013 Macbook Pro 15 inch - CPU Heat question

Where did you find this: "With little apps running, the system sits around 28-35 degrees C, which is normal operating temps listed by Apple."

90+ seems too hot. The rest of it seems OK. Overheating MacBook Pros are an oft posted about topic. To my knowledge there is no official spec for the operating temp. Anything over 90 seems high though and likely to cause CPU throttling.

There are a lot of people getting logic boards replaced for overheating.

That spec doesn't have anything to do with the temperature of the internal components - that is the ambient temperature of the environment the computer is deisgned to operate in. It's almost impossible the internal components would stay that cool under any significant usage.

It's a tough call. The opinion of non-Apple experts familiar with the type of intel CPUs used in these computers is that the CPU should not go above 80C or maybe a little bit more in a laptop. On the other hand there is a lot of anedotal evidence that Apple really pushes the limits in terms of heat tolerances. To further complicate things we can find out from Intel that the absolute max temperature before the CPU will just shut itself down is 105C. Before that it will start "throttling" which means cutting back it's performance in order to avoid just cutting out completely (a crash essentially because the CPU will just shut down to prevdent physical damage).

What Intel will not tell you is at what temperature hte CPU will start thorttling (you don't want it to reach that temp). That is proprietary information for them. To understand why you need to understand the manufacturering process for CPUs. Actually all of a given model are the same, run on the same line, manufactured the same way, etc. Because of various impurities and imperfections in the manfuacturing process different CPUs will be able to tolerate different speeds (GHz). At the end of the manufacturing line they test them for stability and divide them up into categories - a box of 2.3 GHz, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, etc. Then they program them internally and tell them what kind of CPU they are, a 2.3 or 2.6 or whatever. I suppose that what the maximum temps the CPUs can withstand before they become unstable or start to loose performance is properitary information that is all part of that process.

I know that's kind of a non-answer but the bottom line is it's kind of a gray area. 100+ for sure is too damned hot. Is 95 too hot? I think so. Is 90? Now it becomes more questionable.

You could stress test your computer with CPU and GPU benchmarks and see what happens. If you see temperatures exceeding 100 I would demand a replaced. If you see instability or crashing I would demand that it be replaced. If not and only your craziest games reach 95... ???? I don't know. Flip a coin. Do more research to see if you can find any experts that know better.

Apple isn't going to tell you the truth, my experience is that they will do everything possible to avoid repairs and replacing computers. They claim persistent imigaing is "normal" for IPS displays.

I would try to put it through it's paces while you still have some return rights either through the place you bought it or because of your credit card. If you get it replaced test that machine thoroughly too. Once it's beyond a few weeks old Apple will shove you into an endless repair loop whether their repairs are helping or not - at least this has been my experience along with many others I've talked to. It's really disappointing and disgraceful.

By the way, if anyone else reading has a definitive answer about max CPU and/or GPU core temps I would love to know, even if it's just a professional opinion!

I missed this part about warnings - what did they look like? I've never seen that. Can you screen shot them? You probably should return this computer.

If it wont' run your games that isn't right you should get a new one but otherwise I would have said to beat it up for 44 days and see what happens.

That's strange I have never seen this message and mine has been going to 104C on heavy use. It's now on it's 4th logic board with no fix or replacement in site. It's about 11 months old but the problems started in the beginning.

Hi mak1176 i have the same problem but i'm starting to think that actually it's not a real "problem". I have a retina macobok pro (late 2013) with 2.6 ghz IntelCorei5 dual Core processor. In idle i have 30/40 celsius of CPu and 1300 rpm, but when i play for example Civilization V (130% CPU usage) i get 95/98 celius degree of my Cpu cores..yes i was scared but i'm seeing that a lot (too many) people have similar "issue" so i'm starting to think: tjmax of Cpu is way above 100 like 120, or the temp values of free or paid program are not reliable as they claim to (infact Apple does treat them as reliable values). Most people told me those temps were normal, i did also the diagnostic at boot time and nothing was detected..It's very weird that a major problem like overheating it's not being detected..I don't know actually but i have the same temps of you 🙂

Hi guys,

I have the same problems as you described. more than that realized we are not alone !

I have recently bought MacBook Pro (15-inch Retina Mid 2014) - Intel Core i7-4870HQ. Gradually, realized the CPUs temperature seem higher that I expected. Exactly the same as the situation you had / have.

this is more than a year when you started this discussion, I wondering if you could give us an update about your MPB. Do you still have it ?

In the near future, is it going to cause a serious failure for my MBP ?