“We ‘flogged’ the 2019 MacBook Pro 15-inch 8-core to see if would drop below the 2.3GHz base frequency,” Rob Morgan writes for Bare Feats. “Would we see ‘thermal down throttling?'”
The hardware: 2019 MacBook Pro 2.3GHz 8-core Intel i9, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz, 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4 memory, Radeon Pro 560X GPU (4GB GDDR5 memory)
Note: Intel Power Gadget was used to monitor core frequency during testing.
“It could be argued that as long as you remain above the base frequency (or 2.3GHz in this case), your 2019 MacBook Pro is not experiencing thermal down throttling,” Morgan writes. “Though we have yet to benchmark the 2.4GHz 8-core version of the 2019 MacBook Pro, it seems that the nature of Apple’s high-end laptops is susceptibility to thermal down throttling when pushed to the limit.”
Read more and see the benchmarks in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of note, Andrew O’Hara last week wrote for AppleInsider, “The heat piping is the same, the fan speeds are the same, the fan design is the same. The processor has the same TDP, and is the same die size as the 2018 six-core model. But, whatever Apple has done is working. The 2018 six-core machine is still an amazingly powerful machine, even if thermal conditions inside the case pull it back from what it could be. That limitation doesn’t seem to exist in the new eight-core machine.”
Related articles:
Thermal throttling and performance testing the eight-core 2019 MacBook Pro – May 27, 2019
Teardown: Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro and its revised butterfly keyboard – May 24, 2019
Apple again changes MacBook butterfly keyboard after user complaints continue – May 21, 2019
Apple extends Keyboard Service Program to all MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models with butterfly keyboard – May 21, 2019
Apple refreshes MacBook Pro with updated butterfly keyboard – May 21, 2019
Apple introduces first 8-core MacBook Pro, the fastest Mac notebook ever – May 21, 2019
It’s just when you look at some of the competition out there, you’ll see those laptops with vents all over the place and pounds of copper heat-pipes, so they can brag that they won’t thermal-throttle as a MacBook Pro does and they’re right. I think it’s just a matter of what a user is willing to put up with. It seems as though Apple did a pretty decent job with this current MacBook Pro. I don’t have a need for any laptop with that much processing power so I would rather have Apple put that into an iMac desktop without any thermal-throttling issues. I’m sure there’s always some compromise at some point. However, it is annoying to always hear the tech-heads saying how Apple’s computers are always the least powerful around. I have no complaints because most new high-end Macs are all more powerful than what I require.
While this is a good point, I do see others like Razer for instance, building attractive slim computers like the new Pro model and achieving high performance numbers.
Still, you are right. If I try to simulate my workload at its worst, by doing things like pulling down data from a multi-terabyte FileMaker database, sending myself a bogus email with selected data, and populating a new copy of the database locally, while streaming content from 3 4K YouTube videos, making a Skype video call, while surfing the web in Windows and or Ubuntu, my 2018 MacBook Pro, with a text editor open editing a python program, barely hiccups.
So the question could easily be, “What’s my issue?” You are correct. The Mac is more than good enough for most of us.
I guess the answer is that I want to see Apple’s products respected throughout the tech world, and not just viewed as a fashion statement or aspirational consumer purchase. A Mac should be able to handle any task as well as an often less expensive Windows machine.
the day they changed to intel chips they actually priced their hardware appropriately. Prices were in line with windows machines of similar specs, and sometimes the apple was even more cost effective. now this has changed over time and apple hes crept the costs up while keeping the hardware down/muted/crippled. they are becoming a luxury brand. I don’t know if you are all familiar with Gibson guitars, but his happened to them with their previous CEO (they just got a new one). He went full luxury and the company started tanking, guitars became more expensive but of lesser quality. public complained. they went bankrupt. new ceo is righting the ship by going back to basics, the think they are best at. making a good guitar.
apple needs to go back and make a good computer, and forget all these penny pinching services and disposable toy gadgets.