[tombert]

I had the 2019 Macbook Pro i9, so I think a function to determine thermal throttling could be written very simply:

    function isThermalThrottling() {
        return true; 
    }

Seriously, I loved that computer for the most part but I was a little annoyed that I paid a lot of money for the i9 CPU just to get worse performance than the i7.

[scarecrowbob]

I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9. I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion (i almost certainly read about it somewhere), but there were certainly a couple of weeks where it was driving me crazy.

A dumb thing for sure. I still like macos better than windows and I'm heavily invested in a production workflow with logic. Moving to linux would be my next move, but after making that dumb change it's quite a functional machine.

[auscompgeek]

It was definitely a relatively well known problem with the 2019 MBP on the internet at some point. I found a Reddit thread linking to a news article about this. https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/vi3grj/you_should_char...

It was so much of a problem that at work we added a check that you were charging from the right ports to our internal doctor script (think like `brew doctor`).

[Klonoar]

I help out with an emulation community. Any time anyone with a 2019 MBP comes in with issues, I stop them from giving any more details and just have them check this first.

99% of the time it works 100% of the time.

[tombert]

FWIW, I replaced that MacBook with a Thinkpad (AMD Edition) about a year, and i have been extremely with it. Not only was it one of the easiest Linux installs I have ever had, but the hardware feels solid, the keyboard (while not one of the legendary classic Thinkpad keyboards) is nice to type on, the 4K screen looks nice, and everything just feels well built and snappy.

Outside of the terrible speakers, it is a nearly perfect computer. I don’t really mind a crappy speaker on a laptop since it usually lives on mute and when I need decent-enough quality audio I will plug in headphones or Bluetooth to a speaker, but YMMV.

Still, if this computer ever breaks then I will likely buy another thinkpad.

[thatwasunusual]

> I am writing this comment from a 2019 i9.

Same here, but...

> I have to charge it from the right hand ports. I think that is dumb, but it did solve the issue.

I _had to_ do this for a while (around 2023, I think, not that it matters), but I no longer have to. I don't know what has changed, unfortunately; I haven't reinstalled anything, and I can't say I have uninstalled anything either. It's really weird...

[j45]

You were not alone.

The epic takedown post of the issue on stackexchange which proved it is below, I ended up at it from somewhere on social I think.

[tmpz22]

My old 2015 MBP would lose internet if I had a display and charger plugged in at the same time.

Took awhile to diagnose that one.

[shalomv]

I had the 2019 MacBook Pro i9 too. Applying thermal pads to the VRM module fixed the throttling problem. It was like a brand new computer, the one I thought I was purchasing.

After buying it, I regularly had throttling issues. Nothing seemed to help. I tried all the recommended tricks but wasn’t getting anywhere. (I had two external monitors and using adobe creative suite back then.)

I came across some forum posts about the VRM module not being able to cool and that was making the system think it was overheating. It sounded reasonable so I decided to give it a shot. I got the thermal pads, carefully opened the laptop and applied a few layers to the various components to make sure it was touching the case (this is what makes this mod work properly, heat transfer to the aluminum case.)

It worked like magic, it felt like a brand new computer after months of bad experiences.

Only side effect was that bottom case gets really hot (that heat needs to go somewhere) so I couldn’t comfortably use it on my lap. But I never regretted doing the mod for a second!

I retired what was my then favorite computer for an M3 MacBook Air with 24gb ram and couldn’t be happier. I still have fond memories of my 16 inch 2019 MacBook Pro, if you still use that computer, please do yourself a favor and at least look into adding thermal pads to the VRM modules.

[Centigonal]

I did the same mod on my 2019 MBP 16, and I got two more years of useful life out of it in exchange for nearly burning myself a few times when watching a movie or running some kind of CPU-intensive task with the laptop touching my body (even through a t-shirt or jeans!). Eventually, the airflow from the cooling fans started to weaken and the display flex cable started to get a bit squirrely on me. I'm on a 14" M-series MBP now, and it's freakishly quiet and efficient.

[ozim]

I think it was just any laptop with i9 just bad CPU for a laptop.

I had dell and swapped it as soon as was possible to i7.

I think they just made those only because they knew there will be enough people thinking “bigger better CPU == better laptop” - and yeah seems like I am not the only one that got caught with that. But I also trusted that someone there did any testing…

[achandlerwhite]

On these MacBooks the VRR modules were particularly prone to overheating and throttling because of the GPU regardless of the CPU model.

[j45]

There is one pretty epic stackoverflow post that AI searches probably won't find.

It turned out a lot of the thermal throttling (kernel_task usage) on the i9 macbook pros went away if you plugged in the power on the right side, instead of the left.

Why turned out to be a chip (thunderbolt I think) that didn't have enough cooling.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find...

One could also put quiet cabinet fans under the i9 Macbook Pro to make it draw air away and run markedly faster. [1]

That, combined with the keyboard failures, meant I could put a wireless keyboard on top of the laptop keyboard and use it, with fans underneath.

This is how I took it to the Apple store for warranty repair, which made a point of it having a pretty massive design flaw.

I asked them this if it was a feature of all macbooks when you buy the fastest ones to have to cool it the right way and not use the keyboard in case there might be dust in the air. The laptop was way too overspecced.

The i9 laptops were made far too thin to cool themselves appropriately in any situation, full stop.

All to say, if I could detect which USB-C port was pulling power in, on those laptops, I could guess pretty accurately what will happen on that i9.

It's sad to know the M4 Max Macbook Pro has the same issue, even though the laptop is thicker. Doesn't make me want to upgrade anymore.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playsta...

[merb]

I had that problem as well. Especially when connected to two external monitors. I did not love the machine and the M1 Max was such a big upgrade because of that and I could upgrade to the m3 max later and give my m1 to somebody else. Both apple silicon machines are going strong for a long time I guess.

[lbourdages]

I had that laptop and it is the worst computer I have ever owned. As soon as you booted the fans would start spinning. There were sometimes kernel panics when plugging or unplugging Thunderbolt devices.

I have an M1 Max MBP now and it has been absolutely perfect.

[thedougd]

Same! Still have it as a side machine.

My favorite and most painful issue was a bug in USB charging. Sometimes it would fail to charge from my monitor (USB-C) yet it would believe it’s connected. The battery would eventually run to zero and the machine would shutoff without warning. No low battery warning would be shown because it believed it was charging however it was not. Resolved with my M3.

Also fun with that generation is that you can’t plug in a dead laptop and start using it right away. Takes about ten minutes of charging before you can power it on.

Also fun, it would not establish power delivery with my monitor in this state. I’d have to plug it in with a regular charger to bootstrap it. Also resolved with my M3.

Now that it’s aged, the super capacitor for the clock no longer holds charge and the time is usually wrong on cold boot. I wish that was serviceable.

[tombert]

I had heard of the super capacity issue, and while mine had not shown any symptoms of that I decided to sell it before it did.

[tombert]

The laptop it was replacing was a terrible Asus computer that literally started falling apart and delaminating after about six months. It felt like it would break a bit more every time I touched it. Asus themselves was wholly unwilling to do anything about it, and they acted like I had been juggling with the damn thing when all it ever did was live on my desk or next to my bed.

It was the third Asus computer I had owned that broke way earlier than it had any right to, and I swore a blood oath that I will not buy another Asus product.

Point is, considering how terrible that laptop was, “annoying thermal throttling” was still a considerable upgrade, so I loved it in spite of it.

[Aurornis]

The thermal solution for the last generation of Intel MacBook Pros was very bad.

When the Apple Silicon models were released, everybody attributed the lower fan noise improvements entirely to the new chip, but the newer chassis had a much better thermal solution too.

I could run my M1 MacBook Pro at similar power draws to my Intel MacBook Pro and the M1 would be very quiet while the Intel sounded like a hair dryer.

[LoganDark]

I had a Mid-2015 MacBook Pro with an i7 and I still ran the fans at full speed at all times (actually above full speed). I had a couple fan failures due to that, but otherwise I think it was worth it.

[j45]

2014-15 were among the best macbooks ever made. All laptops fail eventually from pushing them extremely hard.

[anonzzzies]

I had that one with 64gb: got a new one twice but could not get it to act normal. It just got so incredibly hot, it was uncomfortable. It was one of my worst hardware purchases.

[tombert]

Mine was also 64GB. I was working at Apple at the time and I had a discount that I wanted to maximize, so I went onto the shop website and maxed out literally every option available to me. Total damage ended up being like 4 grand.

I don't remember it being super uncomfortably on my lap, though I almost exclusively wear very thick jeans so maybe I was somewhat shielded. It did get super hot.

Despite that, I did actually like the laptop a lot; it had a nice heavy weight to it, which was actually good for me since it felt very firm when I typed on it on my desk, and the keyboard was nice to type on. It benefited from low expectations because the laptop it was replacing was an Asus that was such a piece of shit that I swore a blood oath that I would never give Asus money ever again, which I have not broken.