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Re: undefined

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately this is a very common problem with basically all modern high-end laptops that have a macbook-like form factor (e.g. not bulky gaming laptops with lots of cooling & ventilation). It's just not physically possible to make a machine that combines high end power hungry hardware, adequate cooling for that hardware, and a compact form factor. It's very sad that this is such a widespread problem and that there…

>> a machine that combines high end power hungry hardware, adequate cooling for that hardware, and a compact form factor. There is. You don't need to keep that hardware running 24/7. That is a problem in the OS and associated software. Apple could disable all these monitoring daemons and accept the tiny delays in starting various things, accept some fan noise, accept a mic that isn't tuned to a room, accept that the…

What you say may be right, but it's not really related to the parent's complaint.

If you run a stripped-down distro of Linux, running only the bare minimum, no service listening for anything, no service reporting on anything, etc, the issue still stands if the user needs the beefy hardware for beefy actual work. Say they're working on some big project in a compiled language from the middle of nowhere with unreliable internet, so they can't offload compiling to someone else's computer. Or they're into video, etc.

There are many use cases for a laptop with strong specs. Not everyone has such a use. But the fact is that high-powered components stuck in a small enclosure will have a bad time with thermals.

Re: undefined

#112

I also recently discovered that something like 12% of CPU on my 2020 macbook air is used whenever I'm in a room with anything greater than perfect silence, by 'coreaudiod', because it apparently is constantly listening to the microphone built in near the keyboard and spending cpu cycles trying to filter out background noise. Apparently running the signal desktop app in the background is enough to keep coreaudiod cons…

The coreaudiod issue might have to do with apps that use the mic "priming" it by keeping it active even when there's no call. Some chat apps do this to avoid the 1-2s delay associated with turning on the mic, so audio starts streaming as soon as the call starts.

Keeping the mic active when you’re in a call but have the mic muted is acceptable and understandable. At any other time, it would make me think the app is recording everything and shipping the recordings to the friendly neighborhood TLA agent. Joining a call on Zoom/Teams/whatever already takes a few seconds, so there’s no excuse for this “optimization”.

Re: undefined

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine the cumulative kilowatt-hours wasted globally by all the CPU cycles spent by slack just to exist as basically a glorified IRC app. Conversely, imagine the global kWh saved by some micro-optimization to a key system call like malloc. Perhaps the biggest positive impact a single developer can have on our climate is to improve the efficiency of frequently used pieces of code. Even tiny optimizations would add…

They are highly optimized for exactly this reason.

The Mac allocator is terrible. Presumably there's some backwards compatibility reason but it's much much slower than Glibc, tcmalloc or jemalloc. I'm not sure about Windows.

Re: undefined

#114
post #105

I tried this and it doesn't work. Turns out my MacBook was throttling to 30% due to overheating. This happens more frequently if you drive the GPU with an external monitor. Unfortunately the OS does nothing to notify you of overheating and throttling, which is an insanely stupid oversight by apple. I only found out because I noticed that the computer ran fine while running the AC, so I installed an app through Brew c…

My MBP 16" can‘t run my LG Ultrafine 5K (sold by Apple) without fan noise. Recently I also figured out that "automatic switching of graphic mode" (enabled by default) causes noticeable input lag. If I type text, the last typed character sometimes doesn’t show until another character is typed or I have to wait up to 5 seconds(!). Turning off "automatic graphic mode switching" stopped the input lag completely, but the…

Do you use an external keyboard? My MBP struggles to process key presses etc. when my external monitor is plugged in to the HDMI slot immediately next to the USB port.

Using the USB port on the other side works without issues.

Re: undefined

#115

I also recently discovered that something like 12% of CPU on my 2020 macbook air is used whenever I'm in a room with anything greater than perfect silence, by 'coreaudiod', because it apparently is constantly listening to the microphone built in near the keyboard and spending cpu cycles trying to filter out background noise. Apparently running the signal desktop app in the background is enough to keep coreaudiod cons…

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#116

I cannot conceive how Mace became defacto development devices. They're always heating up, their implementation of POSIX is sketchy at best, their peripheral support is horrendous in the name of aesthetics, and the keyboard is atrocious. This is not to say that there are better alternatives. I have a Dell laptop running Manjaro, which is the second worst laptop experience I've had by far (the first was my 2019 Intel M…

> I wish there was a better solution for a Linux laptop which was sturdy, worked well (sleep, hibernate, wake from lock, bluetooth, wifi), and had a good screen and a lot of external ports.

Have you tried Pop!OS? It SHOULD have most of those features, including a custom power management system. I haven't tried it but am seriously considering to find time and do it, base ubuntu + i3wm isn't cutting it for me anymore.

Re: undefined

#117

These things usually fix performance issues for me: - Open your macbook and clean out the dust. I do it yearly. It always helps. - Keep macOS and apps (e.g. browser) up-to-date. coreaudiod high cpu was fixed for me in 11.6. - Review login items, delete what you don't need. - Reboot, with the occasional nvram, pram reset - Review activity monitor, find apps that have background processes and delete the ones you don't…

I didn't know that Docker desktop could be an issue. The "app" I have the most problems with are Google Chat, and that just runs in the browsers. One other issue I've seen is window server eating 150% CPU when using an external monitor. For some reason it works just unplugging the monitor and plugin it back in.

I think it’s because with Docker on macOS you’re actually running a Linux VM where it then runs Docker, so it can be a bit of a drain on some laptops.

Re: undefined

#118

I cannot conceive how Mace became defacto development devices. They're always heating up, their implementation of POSIX is sketchy at best, their peripheral support is horrendous in the name of aesthetics, and the keyboard is atrocious. This is not to say that there are better alternatives. I have a Dell laptop running Manjaro, which is the second worst laptop experience I've had by far (the first was my 2019 Intel M…

> This is not to say that there are better alternatives.

I think you just explained it to yourself.

Re: undefined

#119
TLDR; dust clogging the fans causes overheating of processors.

I went through this pain for months especially when video codecs were in use for conferences. It just kept getting worse.

Turned out that the machine was been throttled due to overheating. The root cause was dust in the fans.

A jet air cleaning of the fans fixed the issue. It was like night and day difference.

Re: undefined

#120
I wonder how much of this and other thermal issues with MacBooks are just a marketing stunt to better sell m1 devices.

Not that m1 needs that kind of marketing, Apple yet again set the standard for best laptop on the market, possibly for another decade, but I can totally see these anti-intel subversions being discussed somewhere deep in the catacombs of the mothership.

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