Why is my Macbook Pro is overheating with X-Plane10?

Question

I have just upgraded my Apple Mac Pro from Yosemite to El Capitan. With help, I've recovered from the loss of all my email boxes but now find that my Mac rapidly overheats when loading X-Plane 10, even with just the opening screen asking for 'choose an airport'. Has anyone else notice these problems?

Comments

Hi, which MBP do you have? I've just purchased the newest 15" 2.2 i7 retina, and it's struggling big time with x-plane. Extremely frustrating as my mother's lower spec 13" with a lesser graphics card runs it flawlessly in 3D cockpit.

Answer 1

X-Plane is a very demanding application. It's possible that the new OS is using more system resources and making your laptop work harder to begin with, then starting X-Plane makes it work even harder.

Comments

Thank you for your comments. I've just rolled back from El Capitan to Yosemite but X-Plane 10 still gets to 96 deg C within a minute. The same hot result came from loading the 32-bit version of X-Plane 10. I'll try getting my Apple Mac Pro dedusted to rule that idea out. Maybe I need a new, more capable video card. The specifications of my Apple seem to be OK compared with those laid down by the X-Plane makers. So it's all an interesting mystery.

Answer 2

Thank you for your welcome comments; I don't feel so alone now. To answer your questions:- My Mac is a          15 inch Retina, early 2013, 2.7 GHz, Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB.

  I tried downgrading to Yosemite but had the same 'red heat'. I'm back on El Capitan and still 'red hot'. Apple in Watford subjected my laptop to a 45 hr hardware test and all is normal. I downloaded the Apple Temperature Gauge for a few pounds just to get some proper evidence and saw 105 deg C once or twice. I downloaded Unigine Valley bench-tester (free and suggested by Apple Support). That test roasts my Mac too. Fascinating that your mother's machine performs flawlessly; is it a laptop too?

The solution I have come up with is to sit my Mac directly on a hot-water bottle that's been in the freezer for several hours. This gives adequate cooling provided that I occasionally move the Mac around a bit if the temperature gauge shows the Mac is getting extra hot. If the temperature is acceptable i.e. up to about 85 deg C (guessing) you see green bars only, associated with each of the CPUs. I normally have to put up with one or two amber bars. If I get a red bar, I have to panic and move the Mac quickly around quite a bit to lose some of the heat. After all the hours of phoning and visiting Apple and generally thinking of a solution, I am pretty sure that laptops are so brilliantly made in such a small volume that the fans and exit holes are just not designed for X-Plane 10. This software does so many millions? of calculations per second that it produces too much heat for our machines. You may know that 'gaming machines' have water-cooled' video cards. I've seen them in Maplins

PLEASE let me have your comments. Regards, Roger Adamson.

Comments

Gaming machines do not normally have water-cooled video cards; the dedicated graphics cards they have tend to utilize high-quality cooling fans. With this, a general in-flow and out-flow of air is required for the PC itself.

Now, as to why the computer keeps overheating, it can be more a problem with the general cooling system of MacBooks; they are great computers, don't get me wrong, but being generally more aimed for business and smaller-scale hardware use, X-Plane tends to be too much for the compact size to effectively handle.

Answer 3

Okay, I will write a shorter answer for any quick passer-bys.

The typical MacBook is not readily equipped with the hardware to efficiently run X-Plane 10. With integrated graphics and an average CPU, they are known to overwork and not bring the performance that people otherwise want with X-Plane. As an outsider, I initially heavily recommend purchasing a performance laptop instead of a MacBook for X-Plane 10... but for MacBook users, you must understand that Intel HD graphics are not entirely suitable for a complex flight simulator such as X-Plane.

Once again... the GRAPHICS is a huge part of it. I see many people are confused as to why even older computers still out-perform new MacBooks: that is because even moderate dedicated graphics cards perform better than integrated graphics seen in a number of MacBooks.