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Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

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Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#81

Post by scarecrowbob »

tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9. I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion (i almost certainly read about it somewhere), but there were certainly a couple of weeks where it was driving me crazy.

A dumb thing for sure. I still like macos better than windows and I'm heavily invested in a production workflow with logic. Moving to linux would be my next move, but after making that dumb change it's quite a functional machine.

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#82

Post by scarecrowbob »

motoboi wrote: post #79

Hypothesis: it’s not the CPU, it’s the USB controller saturating the thermal mass. So instead of the CPU or GPU going bonkers, the body gets too hot and they lose thermal dissipation capacity for the normal usage and then overheat and then throttle. They go 100% on the graphs because the throttling reduces frequencies and then load becomes too heavy. Experiment other adapters and monitors.

Switching which side I charge my 2019 mbp i9 effectively solved my throttling issues, so your premise might be correct as I understand it.

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#83

Post by dplgk »

the_black_hand wrote: post #30

My 2017 macbook is basically brick. Crazy how just opening chrome sets off fans like a jet engine. How much cpu can checking gmail really use? Foolish me is considering buying a new macbook this year. I have no choice because Apple and Microsoft will do everything in their power to ship the shittiest personal computing products every year.

I recommend taking the bottom panel off and cleaning out dust from the fans and air ports

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#84

Post by giancarlostoro »

varenc wrote: post #55
giancarlostoro wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use TG Pro on my Macbook Pro to auto-cool my Mac. It drives me crazy that Apple lets your Mac burn to a crisp before kicking on the fans.

Is Apple actually letting the Mac burn to the point at which it has damage or other negative consequences? I've definitely observed they delay the fans until they're absolutely needed, but I trust their thermal management to not actually cause harm. (besides a warm lap)

I'm not sure, but I know I'm not the only one who is concerned about how hot it can get long before the OS kicks on the fans.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1kmacsf/macbook_pro_...

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#85

Post by j45 »

tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

There is one pretty epic stackoverflow post that AI searches probably won't find.

It turned out a lot of the thermal throttling (kernel_task usage) on the i9 macbook pros went away if you plugged in the power on the right side, instead of the left.

Why turned out to be a chip (thunderbolt I think) that didn't have enough cooling.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find...

One could also put quiet cabinet fans under the i9 Macbook Pro to make it draw air away and run markedly faster. [1]

That, combined with the keyboard failures, meant I could put a wireless keyboard on top of the laptop keyboard and use it, with fans underneath.

This is how I took it to the Apple store for warranty repair, which made a point of it having a pretty massive design flaw.

I asked them this if it was a feature of all macbooks when you buy the fastest ones to have to cool it the right way and not use the keyboard in case there might be dust in the air. The laptop was way too overspecced.

The i9 laptops were made far too thin to cool themselves appropriately in any situation, full stop.

All to say, if I could detect which USB-C port was pulling power in, on those laptops, I could guess pretty accurately what will happen on that i9.

It's sad to know the M4 Max Macbook Pro has the same issue, even though the laptop is thicker. Doesn't make me want to upgrade anymore.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playsta...

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#86

Post by auscompgeek »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #81
tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9. I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion (i almost certainly read about it somewhere), but there were certainly a couple of weeks where it was driving me crazy. A dumb thing for sure. I still like macos better than windows and I'm heavily invested in a production workflow with…

It was definitely a relatively well known problem with the 2019 MBP on the internet at some point. I found a Reddit thread linking to a news article about this. https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/vi3grj/you_should_char...

It was so much of a problem that at work we added a check that you were charging from the right ports to our internal doctor script (think like `brew doctor`).

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#87

Post by tombert »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #81
tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9. I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion (i almost certainly read about it somewhere), but there were certainly a couple of weeks where it was driving me crazy. A dumb thing for sure. I still like macos better than windows and I'm heavily invested in a production workflow with…

FWIW, I replaced that MacBook with a Thinkpad (AMD Edition) about a year, and i have been extremely with it. Not only was it one of the easiest Linux installs I have ever had, but the hardware feels solid, the keyboard (while not one of the legendary classic Thinkpad keyboards) is nice to type on, the 4K screen looks nice, and everything just feels well built and snappy.

Outside of the terrible speakers, it is a nearly perfect computer. I don’t really mind a crappy speaker on a laptop since it usually lives on mute and when I need decent-enough quality audio I will plug in headphones or Bluetooth to a speaker, but YMMV.

Still, if this computer ever breaks then I will likely buy another thinkpad.

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#88

Post by j45 »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #81
tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9. I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion (i almost certainly read about it somewhere), but there were certainly a couple of weeks where it was driving me crazy. A dumb thing for sure. I still like macos better than windows and I'm heavily invested in a production workflow with…

You were not alone.

The epic takedown post of the issue on stackexchange which proved it is below, I ended up at it from somewhere on social I think.

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#89

Post by j45 »

LoganDark wrote: post #72
tombert wrote: post #58

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply: function isThermalThrottling() { return true; } Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

I had a Mid-2015 MacBook Pro with an i7 and I still ran the fans at full speed at all times (actually above full speed). I had a couple fan failures due to that, but otherwise I think it was worth it.

2014-15 were among the best macbooks ever made. All laptops fail eventually from pushing them extremely hard.

Re: Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling

#90

Post by tamimio »

atymic wrote: post #60

Found https://github.com/macmade/Hot which works for my intel mac :)

Thanks for sharing it, will try it now. I found an iMac 2017 the other day at the thrift store for $20, it’s been very good so far but will see if it throttles or not.
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