Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Untitled topic

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 206 posts

Re: undefined

#191

Post by [deleted] »

h3mb3 wrote: post #129
nickporter wrote: post #41

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…

> Open your macbook and clean out the dust. I do it yearly. It always helps. I thought you couldn't do this without special skills/tools nowadays (models from the past 4 to 5 years).

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#192

Post by amelius »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #175
DonHopkins wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old school hackers, military generals, special forces paratroopers, and space shuttle astronauts who are sensitive to social status use a GRiD Compass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass >Development began in 1979, and the main buyer was the U.S. government. NASA used it on the Space Shuttle during the early 1980s, as it was powerful, lightweight, and compact. The military Special Forces also purchased the ma…

Great, now I want a Grid Compass!

It looks like a normal size laptop but with a screen the size of an iPhone.

Re: undefined

#193

Post by vvanders »

evilduck wrote: post #64
walrus01 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah I just checked and the modern version of my 17 inch laptop monster, which is about 8.1 pounds, is down to 5.95 pounds in a 17 inch version with an intel 11800 something mobile CPU, and geforce 3070 in it. Probably still has a huge external power brick.

I have a 13" M1 MBA and a 16" Legion gaming laptop. They're both good computers for their own purposes but the 230 watt power supply for the Legion is almost as heavy as the MBA (2.2 vs 2.8 pounds). Carrying the computer and the charger together my Lenovo is more than 3x heavier than the MBA. Gaming laptops are just more-portable desktops to me. I would slip the M1 in a backpack without a second thought. It can even…

The better comparison would be the 16" MBP and those look to be within about 1lb of each other. If your not going to be using the GPU heavily then you can just use a standard usb-c charger with should be similar in size to the MBP.

Re: undefined

#194

Post by bagels »

saagarjha wrote: post #93
eyelidlessness wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been a known (albeit apparently not well known) issue/solution since the first USB-C macs were introduced. The cause is the placement of internals and sensors and their proximity to the ports on each side. You can “prove” (demonstrate) it without opening the case by taking a stock MBP, putting it under medium load that’s enough to generate heat without other factors, then compare fan speed and performance wi…

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. People have looked at the sensor placement and conjectured that kernel_task CPU usage is related to it doing some sort of throttling. It's a good hypothesis! But nobody has finished the job by going through a trace and actually checking that the kernel is doing that. That's the missing portion I'm asking for.

Sure, the root cause hasn't been completely proven. I don't think the burden of that falls on mac users, but upon apple.

Besides that, the investigation has produced some practical and useful advice.

Re: undefined

#195

Post by kitsunesoba »

Kwpolska wrote: post #112
kitsunesoba wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”.

I totally agree, but nevertheless this is a behavior I’ve seen in several audio/video call apps.

Re: undefined

#196

Post by [deleted] »

colordrops wrote: post #7

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…

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#197

Post by ngcc_hk »

rdsubhas wrote: post #122
keymone wrote: post #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.

Are you implying that they built in artificial stunt thermal issues in those 4 year old laptops, so that they can use that as marketing to sell more m1 devices 4 years in the future?

No need la. Any one will be happy to get a $1000 device to replace a $3000 devices. No need to have any stunt.

Re: undefined

#198

Post by sprite »

dijit wrote: post #144
sprite wrote: post #3

My 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro (2.3ghz i9/64gb ram) becomes unusable with 2 of the LG 5k monitors plugged in (one on each side). Worst MacBook I have ever owned.

To be perfectly fair with you though; I have a Dell Precision with a Xeon CPU (E3-1505m v6) and an nVidia GPU (k1200m) and it can’t output _one_ 5K display. I think it’s possible your expectations are a bit optimistic here.

Maybe but it worked fine on my previous one (2016 I think but could be wrong). I would do the thermal pad mod if I wasn’t planning on trading it in as soon as the new ones come out.

Re: undefined

#199

Post by nickporter »

mrweasel wrote: post #98
nickporter wrote: post #41

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.

Google Meet was a big problem for me until I cleaned out the dust.

Re: undefined

#200

Post by DarthNebo »

windowsrookie wrote: post #150
DarthNebo wrote: post #71

Just wished I had better control on AMD GPU being used whenever I plug in a display for my MBP16, just ramps up the fan for no reason while my Air is just sipping away on the same display with iGPU..

Unlike Windows based machines, MacBooks always use the AMD GPU when an external monitor is plugged in. I forget the exact reasoning, but it is the way Apple designed these machines. In 2016 when they were redesigned I don't believe the intel IGPU could drive 4k @ 60hz, and Apple also wanted compatibility with the LG 5K display they partnered with. The best solution was to just force all external displays to be routed…

I've seen articles about the low-power mode being rolled out to macOS Monterey, even for intel Macs. Hopefully that can reduce power consumption. I've also decided to do a thermal pad mod for the VRMs+inductors to reduce throttling, avoid higher top-side temperatures & lower fan noise.
Post reply on HN