MBP getting hot?

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Hey everyone,

I have a MBP 15" that I mainly use for school stuff, however I also play Starcraft 2 on it (the only game I have installed) and when I do, it gets very very hot. I have a HeatShift cooling pad, but it still feels very hot to the touch in the left hand corner in the area above the esc - f3 keys. THis got me thinking, should I install SMC fan control and manually set it to high when I play games, or would that be a bad idea? How bad is it for the computer to be that hot? Do you guys think the cooling pad is enough, or would doubling up with SMC be a good idea?

Thank you
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2018 15" MBP, 2019 11" iPad Pro, iPhone 11 Pro
Searching the forums first would answer all of those questions.
It is fine. Don't worry. Don't install SMC.
Please remember to Search before posting. Thank you.
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
You are going to wear out your fans if you do that for long periods of time. Just let the computer do its own thing. It knows what to do and how to preserve itself it does get too hot.

Playing games, rendering, and encoding, are all CPU intensive activities and thus generate a lot of heat.
 
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I searched this and multiple forums on this topic and kept getting clashing answers; some say a worn out fan is better than frying your computer, and some say Fan control isn't needed, so I figured I'd post to clarify. Thanks for the help
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 15" 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo
I also have the 15" MBP and I play World of Warcraft. It can get pretty toasty in a raid situation or any place where there are graphically intensive situations or lots of players in the same frame. Don't worry about it, the Mac can handle it.
 
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Too many...
Here's the thing that many new macbook aluminum owners don't really know, because chances are, their last computers were made out of solid aluminum. The aluminum absorbs the heat more because it is aluminum, and made out of one piece, from the point where the motherboard attaches, to the part where your palms touch. It is all one piece. So, it's not that your macbook is getting too hot, its more like you are more able to understand what the internal temperature is of your computer due to aluminum being a good heat absorber...that's why you see a lot of aluminum and copper heat sinks. The reason why you don't feel heat in other laptops is because they are mostly all made out of a steel cage that is wrapped in plastic, which does not absorb heat at all, making it feel like it's really running cool, but in fact is deceiving you.

In regards to the SMCfanControl, your computer has very specific, and LOTS of set point at which the fan speed increases with heat. If your fans are not speeding up a lot, but you think it's warm, you don't trust your computer enough. While it is true that its simpler/cheaper to wear out a fan than to let your computer cause heat damage on to itself, it will handle it! It is nice to see your fan's rpms though...
 
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Hi
I had kinda the same problem when I tried to load 1 too many youtube videos. It wold get really hot and the fan would get really loud, but I bought this iLap and the metal stand really does help keep it cooler. (I have an old white MacBook btw)

Hope this helps!
 

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