WoW turns my mac 'laptop' into an grill, GFX settings suggestions?

[Collected]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try the book suggestion. It may help as I know the table below the laptop becomes very warm too.. I can touch it and it's almost as warm as the laptop got.. so with a book there there may be a little more air flowing around to prevent that. But I appreciate it's not going to suddenly make it ice cold. I'll always get some heat issue. Thanks for the alternative suggestions too.

[moguri]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try the book suggestion. It may help as I know the table below the laptop becomes very warm too.. I can touch it and it's almost as warm as the laptop got.. so with a book there there may be a little more air flowing around to prevent that. But I appreciate it's not going to suddenly make it ice cold. I'll always get some heat issue. Thanks for the alternative suggestions too.

I gamed with a laptop for a long time with your same problem. What I essentially did was just use it as a desktop: got a cooling pad for it, got a monitor and keyboard and set it up that way. When I needed it portable I just unplugged it (for class/library trips) and when I was at home gaming I just plugged it back in. THat way if its running a little hot it wont bother you.

[frott]

I'm using a 2010 Macbook Pro (15 inch) and when I play WoW, my temps kick up to about 75oC and my fans run at 6000rpm and generally the thing gets hot. My hands get warm.. sticky even.. and it's not the most pleasurable of experiences after several dungeon runs.

Are there any settings in WoW related to graphics that I can change that will guarantee a drop in system usage and temps, or am I stuck with this situation because.. and I know someone is just begging to say this so I'll say it first.. laptops are not designed to play games.

I already cap at 50fps but this doesn't seem to help. I've tried changing a few settings but none seem to have a huge impact. I'd rather put up with mediocre graphics than have to keep lifting my hand off the thing to give it some cool air.

Thanks folks.

Portable computers have shied away from the term "laptop" for years now. I believe apple goes for "Notebook" instead, generally. It's painful to watch people have a computer on their lap for many, *ahem* reasons... many other brands vent downward with little feet that the computer is supposed to sit on, so putting it on a soft surface like bed, couch, lap is just bad.

Laptops can run games just fine, you just have to cool it with a cooling table/pad. Lifting your hands wouldn't even do much to alleviate the heat issues. If you're that concerned, get the wireless mouse/keyboard and now you don't have to have your hands on it.

Laptops are not designed with optimal cooling in mind which = space, distance, and heat absorbing/directing materials, which is part of the reason why the components used internally are gimped.

[Coffay]

Hey, ok first off let me just say I'm using the same MacBook so I understand your pain.

However, you're doing what I did and worrying about nothing. The reason I say this is because of a support article on the Apple website relating to this:
apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

So as it says on there, optimal is between like 55oC and 90oC, so your 75oC is perfectly normal (especially when in game).

The previous suggestion of a cooling mat will lower it if you are unhappy with the temp (i.e. its burning your legs lol). My GF recently purchased a CoolerMaster cooler for her laptop as it was severely overheating and I've tried it on mine and it does lower the temp nicely but it isn't really needed.

My suggestion however, is install Windows 7 with Bootcamp (don't do it natively as I imagine you bought a MacBook because you have use for OS X as I do). I installed Windows 7 because I had a piece of coursework in uni last year that I needed Windows for. I installed WoW on the Windows partition just to compare and it runs A LOT better.

On my OS X partition I run the game on
Fair-good settings
Multisampling: 1x
Texture Filtering: Bilinear
FPS: 25-40 (Depending on game location and room temp as on hotter days comp gets hotter and requires more power to cool)
Temp: Around 60-90oC (again depends on room temp and stress of game (i.e. more going on in game with a raid or something like that))

On my Windows 7 partition I run the game on:
High-ultra settings
Multisampling: 8x
Texture Filtering: 8x
FPS: 40-70
Temp: Around 50-70oC (fluctuations for same reasons as above)

So yeah, to summarize, you don't need to worry as 75oC is perfectly fine but if playing on your lap it can be a little hot so maybe buy a cooling mat for for that. Others may disagree with the Windows 7 suggestion, but I don't really care as its personal experience that has me saying it lol

GL with it

[Tyrianth]

Hey, ok first off let me just say I'm using the same MacBook so I understand your pain.

However, you're doing what I did and worrying about nothing. The reason I say this is because of a support article on the Apple website relating to this:
apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

So as it says on there, optimal is between like 55oC and 90oC, so your 75oC is perfectly normal (especially when in game).

The previous suggestion of a cooling mat will lower it if you are unhappy with the temp (i.e. its burning your legs lol). My GF recently purchased a CoolerMaster cooler for her laptop as it was severely overheating and I've tried it on mine and it does lower the temp nicely but it isn't really needed.

My suggestion however, is install Windows 7 with Bootcamp (don't do it natively as I imagine you bought a MacBook because you have use for OS X as I do). I installed Windows 7 because I had a piece of coursework in uni last year that I needed Windows for. I installed WoW on the Windows partition just to compare and it runs A LOT better.

On my OS X partition I run the game on
Fair-good settings
Multisampling: 1x
Texture Filtering: Bilinear
FPS: 25-40 (Depending on game location and room temp as on hotter days comp gets hotter and requires more power to cool)
Temp: Around 60-90oC (again depends on room temp and stress of game (i.e. more going on in game with a raid or something like that))

On my Windows 7 partition I run the game on:
High-ultra settings
Multisampling: 8x
Texture Filtering: 8x
FPS: 40-70
Temp: Around 50-70oC (fluctuations for same reasons as above)

So yeah, to summarize, you don't need to worry as 75oC is perfectly fine but if playing on your lap it can be a little hot so maybe buy a cooling mat for for that. Others may disagree with the Windows 7 suggestion, but I don't really care as its personal experience that has me saying it lol

GL with it

There shouldn't be that much of a difference between W7 and OSX. Check your power settings in OSX to ensure that it's set for better performance and not better battery life.

[Coffay]

I know for a fact its all set to performance, as that was one of the first things I set when I bought it lol but yeah tbh I barely use OS X anymore lol

[Yibsu]

I'm not sure how it works on a Mac but with my laptop which runs Windows 7 if you switch the power options to a lower power usage setting it will lower the temperature quite a bit (High performance -> Power saver is about a 20 degree Celsius change, although you don't have to do it that much). I don't think 75 degrees is THAT bad, although it depends on your GPU. I know most modern graphics cards can handle until 95ish.

[chaud]

There really isn't much you can do beyond adding fans under it. Well, maybe you could....

[muCephei]

I rarely if ever play WoW on my Macbook Pro anymore. Its a 4 year old plastic body and even with graphics set to the lowest they can go I still only pull 30fps and temps hit near 90c...very very bad...

[Cows For Life]

Yea, the MacBooks aren't meant to be gamed at, really. They've solved the overheating issues somewhat on the 2011 air/pros by removing the discrete GPU completely. :P
Sit near a window in the winter, get a coolingpad, or do what I used to do when I was forced to use a laptop as only gaming-computer; Freeze water into plastic bottles (several, so you can switch them around) and when they're solid ice, lay them down next to the computer.
All band-aid fixes really. The problem is the airflow.

You can still get discrete GPU in the 2011 model? Only problem is both the CPU and GPU use even more power so they run even hotter than the 2010 models.

[Deleted]

you can always lower video settings and turn on the FPS limit in game, that will reduce stress by a lot.

Cooling pad is a solution as well.

[BicycleMafioso]

You can still get discrete GPU in the 2011 model? Only problem is both the CPU and GPU use even more power so they run even hotter than the 2010 models.

Not in the Air-models at all, and not in the 13"-MBP. They are availible in the 15" and 17"-MBPs, yes, but they are far too big to consider as far as notebooks go. And the one with the HD6490M is USD1799, the one with the HD6750M is USD2199.

[XenuMC]

What I do on my Macbook, is lower the framerate to about 30 fps. You can choose this in the advanced options. I don't need more then 30 fps and it makes such a huge difference in performance required. Makes my laptop cooler and more silent.

[Aqua]

Asus laptops for the win. Mine's a year old, barely warms up my desk. And I'm currently raiding 25's from the US to my EU server, it's having to chug out some serious settings...

I just don't like Apple Laptops, forgive me, I know that does nothing to solve your problem. Erhm... Yeah a cooling pad sounds like your quickest and cheapest solution.

[Deleted]

just stop using a mac for gaming.. or anything.
problem solved.

[Hyve]

I'm not running a Mac Laptop, but I do run an iMac.

Do to the compact nature of Laptops, they can get pretty hot real quick, however Macs go that step further and make things even smaller. My iMac has parts reaching 85º C. Best bet, as has already been stated, get a cooling pad.

[bigjedistud]

Get the cooling pad for any Notebook you own Mac or not. Even tho you may be in the optimal range, heat is the killer of computers so want to run as cool as possible as much as possible.

[Deleted]

Alienware laptop = game laptop

get an Alienware

While I do hate Macs they do have their uses (small/stylish, long battery), suggesting Alienware is far worse. It's what is giving Windows computers a bad name. They are almost as overpriced as Macs (can't really get any worse when you have to compare it to a Mac).

[Roscoe]

75oC? Pfft. My AMD Turion x2(64) reached 100oC one day when I was playing WoW. My average temp when playing WoW on all LOW settings is 94oC. Talk about a grill.