Apple’s new MacBook Pro came with some beefy spec upgrades. The company has not only included new six-core Intel 8th gen Core processors on the new MacBook Pro, but it’s also now offering models with 32GB of RAM. Unfortunately for Apple, though, the company faced some criticism when YouTuber Dave Lee discovered a major flaw in the new MacBook Pros.
When under pressure, the Core i9 model of the machine gets incredibly hot, likely because of the thin design that makes heat dissipation a lot harder. As a result, intense workloads result in the processor and the device becoming increasingly hot, resulting in automatic CPU throttling to help cool down the hardware. The throttling was so extreme, however, that the clock speed went below the base clock speed expected.
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Apple says that’s all cause of a software bug. The company is releasing an emergency patch for macOS that will help fix this problem that resulted in unexpected thermal throttling, according to the firm. Apparently, a missing “digital key” in the firmware of the new devices caused an issue with the thermal management system, resulting in users experiencing “less than optimal performance” on the new MacBook Pros.
“Following extensive performance testing under numerous workloads, we’ve identified that there is a missing digital key in the firmware that impacts the thermal management system and could drive clock speeds down under heavy thermal loads on the new MacBook Pro. A bug fix is included in today’s macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update and is recommended. We apologize to any customer who has experienced less than optimal performance on their new systems,” Apple told The Verge.
Apple continues to stand by its promised performance numbers for the 2018 MacBook Pro, stating that the new 15-inch MacBook Pro is up to 70% faster, while the smaller 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 2X faster.
Users with the Core i9 variant of the MacBook Pro will likely still experience some levels of thermal throttling when dealing with heavier workloads, however. The internals of the system is cramped inside an incredibly small and thin body that makes it difficult to keep the system cool, and so it’s almost impossible for the device to run at the optimal performance level all the time without stopping the thermal management system for kicking in. Aesthetics have started becoming a priority over functionality for Apple, and this is not the first time.
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#295300">In reply to ivan19998:</a></em></blockquote><p>"And gaming itself – just stupid occupation for children and marginals."</p><p><br></p><p>Really????? What do you like to do for liesure? Did you know the gaming industry makes more money than the movie and music industry combined? Apparently a few people like gaming.</p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#295230">In reply to zybch:</a></em></blockquote><p>"form over function"</p><p><br></p><p>This, more than any other example in the past, is so true. Customers who buy this laptop will NEVER get the advertised speed….but it is thin and purty.</p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#295205">In reply to curtisspendlove:</a></em></blockquote><p>I would agree with you for the most part. Fist most using these Mac's are doing it for show….look at my pretty Mac, now let me surf the web and look at Facebook.</p><p><br></p><p>Games on the Mac suck. There are way fewer of them and even when they get a AAA game it is either a 2-3 year old game wrapped in some kind of wine wrapper, so emulation, and on all but the best Mac's the performance sucks. Or its some game like Fortnite, Overwatch or some other cartoony pay to win/cash grab game that can run on the lowest of computers.</p><p><br></p><p>On a PC running some AAA games…like Assassins Creed Origins, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Witcher 3 etc you will drive both the CPU and GPU into the upper 60-80% for the CPU and if properly coded the GPU will be at 90+%. That would kill the performance of this Macbook in Windows 10 bootcamp mode.</p><p><br></p><p>With all the krap that Apple has taken since releasing this model back in 2016…..only USB-C ports, horrible shallow keyboard, keyboard that breaks from tiny crumbs and costs $600 to fix, a touchbar that basically no one likes and removal of the best Apple invention ever, the MagSafe power adapter, you would think that they would have tested this thing to AVOID further criticism on this model. The name "Throttlebook" will live on.</p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#295252">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Just watch the follow up video from the same guy that started all of this. In it he has 6 i9 laptops. 3 thick (as he calls them) and 3 thin and light laptops.</p><p><br></p><p>The 3 gaming laptops run full clock speed, between 4.5-5.1ghz according to him and NEVER throttle. The fans get loud but they work as advertised. The other 3 will throttle at some point. ASUS model (?), Dell XPS 15 and this Macbook with the patch. Out of all of them he clearly states, even with the patch, that the Macbook is the slowest of the 6.</p><p><br></p><p>Simple physics. Too much CPU not enough cooling. Since they can't fix the cooling they gimp the CPU via a software patch.</p><p><br></p><p>It would be like….here is your new V8 corvette. However when it gets hot we shut off 4 of the cylinders so it does not overheat and you NEVER get the full power of the engine.</p>
dontbe evil
<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent;">sure sure sure magic fix to slow down cpu … it’s never apple faut … ROTFL</span></p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#295337">In reply to sglewis:</a></em></blockquote><p>Did you watch the new video??? </p><p><br></p><p>Under load the CPU never gets above the base clock speed. It "might" have been missing some code but the fix was to throttle the CPU so it is more consistent. Even fixed it was the slowest of the 6 i9 laptops tested in this round. The thicker gamer/Windows laptops never throttled and got between 4.5-5.1ghz.</p><p><br></p><p>Customers are NOT getting the advertised i9 clock speed with this Apple Macbook. </p>
wocowboy
Premium Member<p>Looks like the patch actually did fix the problem, Cnet and Apple Insider among other sites, have run some tests and report no problems. We will see what happens once the YouTubers get through running their torture tests that do not replicate any sort of real-world use and report back. </p>