MacBook Pro GPU Diode over 100 degrees Celsius hot?

Solution 1:

It's probably not too much of a problem. If the system gets too hot, OS X will know to throttle down or shut down.

If you're worried or this happens too much (or the system declares it's too hot), take your laptop into an Apple Store or Apple Authorized reseller and have them check it out to make sure nothing's wrong.

Solution 2:

Yes, that is bad.

Apple's fan controls favor quiet over safety and tend to key off the CPU temperature, ignoring the fact that the GPU can go far out of spec even while the CPU remains relatively cool. 3D games in particular can burn out the GPU because of the native control's bias toward CPU temperature.

If you are going to play video games on an iMac or MacBook, I strongly recommend obtaining fan control software and setting a steep profile so that the fans spin aggressively with CPU temperature, thereby keeping the GPU from going out of spec. If you are playing games in Boot Camp, having a separate fan controller is absolutely essential.

It sounds like you may already have some damage to the GPU or motherboard. If you are still under warranty or AppleCare, try to find an artifact that you can reproduce at the Genius bar and get the GPU/motherboard replaced. Remember that the system will be cold when you get there, so it may take a while to reproduce heat problems. The Geniuses like to use the iTunes visualizer as a test case, but if you have an offline game that produces problems that will work as well.

In any case, increasing the fan speed to keep the GPU temperature down while playing 3D games will greatly extend the life of your system.

Solution 3:

Try the app "Macs Fan Control" and set the right fan to the GPU. I set a max of 65c...seems to never really go above that for me...

Solution 4:

I have a late 2011 MBP 15", after i switched from my 2009 MBP i definitely noticed that the 2011 runs much warmer and louder (fan). This is regardless of the task at hand. I've spent hours researching this and it looks like the i7s just run hotter than the core 2 duos. If your experiencing issues such as what you described, i highly suggest you take it into an Apple store to be looked at.