Chosen Solution

Hi, I bought a used 15” mid 2015 2,8 Ghz Model and have never owned a “high end specs” MacBook Pro Model before (only the lower tier versions of 15” MBP 2012 and 13” Models but those without dGPUs of course). I have some interesting observations regarding the machines temperatures and fan speed. I hope you guys can help me and report your common temperatures you have while running this machine. Now my problem with this “new” 2015 machine is that the fans run constantly rather high than low and whenever I use the machine ever so slightly, creating a spike in CPU usage over a short time, the fans immediately run high and the macbook gets close to annoyingly noisy. A CPU Usage of only 14% results in fans spinning at 3500 rpm and the machine going up to even 70-80°C really quickly. Merely browsing a website like this makes my machine also run at 2800-3300rpm and 65-70°C. My concerns are rather for the idle temperatures because I figure, running the CPU at 100% during my work with After Effects/Premiere/etc makes the fans spin at 6000rpm max naturally. With “yes” CPU Tests in Terminal and other Benchmarks/Tests the machine reaches 90-98°C easily and comes very close or even reaches its tJunction Max at 100°C. Luckily, there are no signs of excessive thermal throttling though and the machine will run at its 2,8 or more Ghz using Turbo Boost without dipping lower, even for longer periods of time . Now, of course I understand, simply put: more Ghz = higher temperatures, dGPU = higher temperatures as well. But this somehow still feels strange to me. As I have never experienced such behavior from a Mac since the Core Duo Models before (it’s quick changing high fan noise is amusingly the thing I have always hated most about most Windows Laptops), I wonder if anything is wrong my machine (hidden water damage or another hidden hardware defect?) or if this in fact is totally normal behavior for this machine, having both the most powerful Intel i7 2,8ghz of that years MacBook models and the AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB. I use Activity Monitor, SMC Fancontrol, TG Pro and Intel Power Gadget to monitor the machine. I have so far done: — NVRAM/SMC Reset/reinstalled MacOS/etc./etc. — disassembled, cleaned and checked the machine for signs of water damage (no obvious marks found) — Reapplied heat paste (two times with different methods and amounts) (MX-4 and Cooler Master MasterGel) Of course I know of methods like using fan controlling tools to reduce the temperature but in my case it’s the combination of the already high temperature with the already fast spinning fans creating a lot of noise. So “adding more noise” by turning up the fan speed would not really be an option or actual solution to my problem. Any other sources on the internet say their “2015 MacBook Pros” run at ~41-50°C during idle, some mention 50-60° but there is no way to know if their way of measurement is either the same (CPU Core? CPU Peci? Running SMC Fancontrol at 6000rpm constantly?) or if they actually have the very same 2,8ghz Model and not “(some kind of 2014) MacBook Pro (13” with an Intel i5) 2,8ghz” when they say “Go to the Apple Service, you might have a Virus! My 2015 MacBook Pro runs really cool! ” ;-) I hope you get the picture. I hope some other users of the 2,2ghz, 2,5ghz and 2,8ghz 2015 Models can chime in to find some reliable answers and thoughts through the board. Maybe even for other users, who hopped on the apparent recent trend of “getting the good old 2015 MacBook Pros in 2018/2019” instead of the newer 2016/2017/2018 Models with Touch Bar and the keyboard, which still seems prone to failure. Thanks!

I’’m not sure if you have a true hardware issue or expecting more than what this given system can offer you. A laptop is not a desktop! It just doesn’t have deep cooling options. Often I find people over stressing their system either because its RAM and/or storage is limited given what they are trying to do. Or, are running Apps the system is just not able to support given its age and/or the shear size of the given project. Both Adobe After Effects & Premiere are great apps but they are both CPU/GPU as well as RAM/Storage hungry depending on how big or complex the project you are working on. You likely need to monitor your processing and RAM usage using Activity Monitor. Given you have a SSD drive you likely need to reconfigure how you are using it, and you maybe undersized as well. I strongly recommend you remove as much as you can from your boot drive as the system leverages it for Virtual RAM (VRAM). You may need to review your SSD’s health unlike HDD’s SSD wear every time the given block is reused. When you have a very full drive the system needs to work harder to move less used blocks for more heavily used blocks (wear leveling). To reduce this you need to leave more of the drive unused. As a rule of thumb I recommend a 256 GB or smaller have 1/3 of the drive left unused. larger drives 1/4. If you are working on large projects you might need more!

You know, I wonder but I experience exactly the same behaviour from exactly the same machine. I’m very sad, as this is a totally opposite to what I expected from Mac (and I had reasons to). It whines sometimes even while easy web browsing. It does it stupidly, temps might rise to ~65 only, but it ramps up and to 50+% and doesn’t stop till it’s ~50. When discrete GPU invokes, even the slightest load in C4D viewport with the lightest model imaginable may crank the fans up to 6000 rpm! INSANE! I cleaned and repasted it, undervolted, I did everything I could but as soon as I launch C4D and start working it kills me with noise. I’m toasted, it’s unbearable. Why does it happens? Is this an issue or a fault of the model? Did previous generation with GT 750m behave the same? How da **** to solve this? I’m about to sell it asap, can’t bare it. Help us please ;(