Posted on 04/26/2010 10:53:54 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Laptop design is largely governed by heat management. There are a few key components inside a laptop that run quite hot. The CPU and GPU are perhaps the most important of these, as they focus huge energy output into a tiny square of silicon. One way that notebook designers have faced this challenge is through the use of metal laptop bodies.
This works to a degree, but the unfortunate side effect is that when things run really hot the entire laptop body heats up to an uncomfortable level. This can quite easily shift a laptop from being pleasantly warm in one's lap to something that is dangerous to one's health. Such situations are why product marketers made a concerted effort in the early half of this decade to shift the naming of such devices from laptop to notebook.
Strange testing results
During testing of the latest Core i7-620M based 17in Macbook Pro we noticed that there were problems running certain tests in our benchmark suite. The score being spat out for the Photoshop tests - fourth in a suite of six test applications - in particular was quite low, and we wondered whether it was down to heat issues. When the test was then successfully run as a standalone test with the Macbook sitting on its side, unibody base exposed to the air, we suspected that the Core i7 was struggling within the Aluminium shell of the Macbook.
|
|
| We had to resort to running the Macbook Pro on its side in order to complete our benchmark suite for the review. |
|
To test our suspicions further we booted into Windows (hooray for Boot Camp) and watched what happened when the CPU was loaded to full. Using CPUID Hardware Monitor to show temperatures, we fired up a copy of Dwarf Fortress. This is a single threaded game that uses rudimentary graphics and hardcore algorithms to create a world from scratch. We set Dwarf Fortress up to create a large region with 2500 years of history then sent it to work.
Turning up the heat
This loaded the CPU pretty seriously, and the 50 degree Celsius idle temperature of the Core i7 rocketed up to 84 degrees within the space of minutes. As this happened the Macbook's exterior began to heat as well, starting at the underside near the hinge where the CPU sits, and eventually spreading until the left side of the laptop was uncomfortably warm, and the underside was almost too hot to touch.
We then switched to Maxon's Cinebench 11.5. This is a 3D rendering benchmark that is used to test multithreading in CPUs, and loads up all cores with rendering tasks. During this test the Core i7 spiked at 95 degrees Celsius, tantalisingly close to the boiling point of water. Suffice it to say that the Macbook Pro was attaining temperatures that we wouldn't want anywhere near our laps by this point.
 |
|
|
|
Our second round of Windows testing. Both the core temps and the CPU diode are showing it running over 100 Degrees. |
We repeated the Cinebench test in OS X, and, as with the Windows version, the CPU temperature climbed precipitously high - topping out at 90 degrees Celsius. The underside heat sensors were only registering 39 degrees when this happened, even though the underside near the CPU was almost too hot to touch.
Round two of testing
To be sure of our results we left the Macbook Pro overnight to cool off. Upon coming back into the office we repeated our tests, first in Windows and then in OS X. By the time the second run of the Cinebench test finished in Windows, the CPU Diode was reporting a temperature of 101 degrees Celsius.
A similar situation occurred in OS X. We've included the graph showing the heat output from the MacBook Pro's sensors below. In it the CPU peaks at 101 degrees, but worryingly the heat buildup in the CPU doesn't register on the enclosure sensors. This is despite the chassis getting hot to the touch, and the heat buildup being registered on all the hardware-based sensors in the Macbook Pro.
 |
|
| The second round of OS X testing, worryingly the spiralling CPU temperatures dont get detected by the chassis sensors, despite influencing the temperatures of the other hardware sensors onboard. |
To test just how much an influence cramming the Core i7 into the unibody Macbook Pro has we re-ran the tests on a Fujitsu Lifebook SH 760. This uses the same Core i7-620M CPU as the Macbook, but is designed with a copper heatsink that vents out the left side of its plastic shell. The CPU started out with an idle temperature of 40 Degrees. After 3 consecutive Cinebench runs the maximum CPU temperature seen was 81 Degrees, a full 20 below that experienced with the Macbook. It was also cool to the touch.
 |
|
| Fujitsu's Lifebook SH 760 also uses a Core i7 CPU, yet manages to run it 20 Degrees cooler than the Macbook Pro does. |
|
Apple sits the Core i7 at the top end of its Macbook Pro Range. From our testing in both Windows and OS X it seems that while the CPU is powerful, the heat output associated with it running at full load is definitely a cause for concern. In this case the fantastic looks of the unibody Aluminium design are let down by the sheer amount of heat buildup experienced.
Cinebench is of course one of the most CPU-heavy tasks we can throw at a system. CPU temperatures of 100 degrees aren't something to expect at every turn, however even our real world benchmarks were pushing CPU temps over 90 degrees.
The generally cool styling of the Macbook Pro just doesn't seem too capable when put up against the sheer output of Intel's Core i7 processor. This is reinforced by the Fujitsu Lifebook running 20 degrees cooler in the same tests with the same CPU.
Perhaps the article is biased or bull$hit, but a lot of the arguments posed in return are not very good either.
If there's a problem, you'll see it in the usage of the product. Most of this kind of stuff that comes out is to sell magazines and/or to get hits on websites. For the average user (or the geeks, even ... :-) ...) it rarely ever matters what a lot of these writers put out there. From what I've read from a lot of articles about various products from Apple, they never get it right, anyway... LOL ...
At least the consumer understands ... from their buying habits.
If it ever comes to failures and machines being returned -- then that's the time I'll be paying attention. :-)
Also, a little side note here..., Windows doesn’t have as good power management capabilities as Mac OS X, so..., you’re going to get worse conditions with Windows running the show with heat and battery life. The Mac OS X will give you better performance and results on the MacBook Pro.
Well, there you are...if a Mac magazine says its a lie, that is good enough for me (as he types his response on his Android phone, which is also apparently worthy of concern by the Jobs cabal)
Well, there you are...if a Mac magazine says its a lie, that is good enough for me (as he types his response on his Android phone, which is also apparently worthy of concern by the Jobs cabal)
Well, there's a long history of idiocy in these types of articles, as Mac users have come to see, over the years. So, it's nothing new to them. It's something that is expected, since a lot of these writers can't seem to "get it right"... no matter what they do. So, "history" has a lot to do with it.
BUT -- as for me -- typing on an Android? ... sorry, I'm not going to "porn city" on the Android to do my typing ... LOL ... I've still got my original iPhone since it works so well (coming up on three years now... what a deal!).
I knew you were going to say that (why, you may ask? Because your guru said that very thing not just a couple of days ago LOL)
Don’t get me wrong, I think Macs are pretty slick machines, but I would never own one. I’d be afraid that I’d turn into a scientist or something, based on the behavior I see on this site.
More later... From my eeebuntu machine at home.
I knew you were going to say that ...
I knew you were expecting that ... so I obliged ... LOL ...
More later... From my eeebuntu machine at home.
Ah yes... many geeks run that on their Macs... doncha know ...
It doesn't seem to be a problem with the Mac OS X and it's power management systems.
CPU will force shutdown when it hits about 110'C.
Average temperatures are anything from 48'C - 90'C. The fans in the new Unibody MacBook Pro's have more blades so create greater air flow - at 6000RPM with full CPU load, you probably won't peak over 80'C.
I did a Handbrake encode last night on the new MBP work gave me. It worked at 100% CPU for almost three hours. Temperature peaked at about 80˚C, fans were no more than 3000rpm. Under normal use, it's at about 40-45˚C
There's nothing special about these comments... just a couple of users talking, that's all...
I think one of the nice things about the MacBook Pro is that it can suck the heat out of the CPU so well, so as to not cause problems for it. At least it seems that way for me. If it's getting hot outside, it's working ... :-)
"Whine" and "Moo"? Gotta love it...
I guess I'll get the 13".
A 100 C processor in a notebook is laughable, especially for a dual core.
I think there's a bit of confusion here with "100" -- I see "100" mentioned and I believe they're referring to Fahrenheit, and then I see numbers less than 100, being like 80 or 90 and I think those are Celsius.
Now, the processor itself, from what I've seen will run up to 80 degree Celsius, and that will happen "normally" under high CPU conditions, but not 100 degrees Celsuis. The question is, are you talking about 100 degree Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius?
I love apples. I really do. But IBM systems can handle 120 degrees... Power 7...
Really? Didn't know that Apple made a netbook (and certainly didn't know that they used the same board design, sound, and video chips as Asus). That's news to me!
Or were you thinking Ubuntu vice Eeebuntu?
No, that was Ubuntu I was thinking of... :-)
The article talks Celsius.
Well, I’m not absolutely convinced of that, and I’ll have to look closer. There does seem to be some difference in different paragraphs. I’ll see if I can get absolute confirmation of this.
“During our review of the new 17in Macbook Pro we noticed that the chassis became very hot. Further testing shows that the Core i7 CPU is hitting temperatures over 100 Degrees Celsius”
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/172791,macbook-pro-helps-core-i7-hit-100-degrees.aspx
Well, if they’re running over 100 degrees Celsius with what they were doing on Windows and Mac users can run the CPU at 100% for three hours and never have a problem and have it at 80 degrees Celsius (which is what they say it will be at) — then I would say that MacBook users should not run Windows on their machines (directly) because Windows has problems there.
I would advise those using Windows to run it within in Mac OS X, virtually instead, and let Mac OS X manage the temperature, as that software seems to have no problems managing the temperature a lot better than Windows does ...
Obviously there is some problem with Windows..., I would say...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.