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mariecountmein's avatar
mariecountmein
Seasoned Newcomer
7 years ago

Re: Sims 4 making brand new MacBook Pro overheat!

So I bought a brand new MacBook Pro (13" 2.3 ghz i5) and it gets extremely hot when I play Sims 4. People keep saying "iMacs aren't for gaming, neither are laptops" but I never had this problem with my 2015 MacBook Air. That laptop never gave me any issues while playing sims.

Does anyone have any solutions or answers for why this is happening?

9 Replies

  • fons_garmo's avatar
    fons_garmo
    Hero (Retired)
    7 years ago

    HI @mariecountmein ,

    Hot is normal when gaming, specially on a laptop. But does it actually overheat? Do you see a performance reduction when the Mac gets hotter?

    If temperatures are between the normal operation temperatures (always bellow 100ºC) it won't be a real problem. The new MacBook Pro has an all-new, thinner, design so its thermal response to stress like 3D gaming might be hotter temps on the aluminum case.

    Laptops are not really designed to game, specially if your Mac does not have a dedicated GPU. You might need to down some of your graphic settings to cool down your computer.

  • ReptileGirl23's avatar
    ReptileGirl23
    7 years ago
    I'm having the same problem with my new Macbook pro 13"! If you find a solution please let me know! my 2008 MacBook (duo 2ghz, 2gb ram) will play sims without overheating but will just lag a bit. This new MacBook pro is useless for sims and gets boiling hot!
  • Alexiholic's avatar
    Alexiholic
    7 years ago

    Honestly, laptops just really aren't great for running games because they don't have a good built in cooling system. (I think some proper gaming laptops have better cooling but idk) In the winter I usually just run a usb powered laptop cooling stand and crack the window open so it can draw in the cool air, but what I recently discovered for the summer is I just place it on a regular old box fan (sounds stupid but it works) Throw some noise canceling headphones on to drown out the drone and it does wonders. I have a 4 year old MacBook and with the box fan the internal fan doesn't even turn on.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  • @Alexiholic thanks for the helpful tips!
    I guess it still doesn’t explain the fact that the old MacBooks with far less power (my 10yo one is 2gb ram!) can manage it just fine with literally no problem at all but a brand new MacBook Pro struggles. Oh well!
  • nickinbigd's avatar
    nickinbigd
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    I am having this same issue. Brand new MacBook and the keyboard gets so hot I scorch my fingers typing in cheats, etc. This only happens with Origin/TS4 nothing else. I’ve turned off Retina display and lowered settings but it makes no difference. I’ve purchased a cooling tray which helps underneath but does nothing for the key board. Perhaps I need to also invest in an external keyboard? 

  • nickinbigd's avatar
    nickinbigd
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    I should add that I didn’t notice this problem initially but it has become impossible to ignore since the latest update from Origin, 

  • njcholaas's avatar
    njcholaas
    6 years ago

    I've got the exact same problem with my new 2019 15" MacBook Pro (specs: 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz RAM, 2.3Ghz Intel Core i9-9880H and AMD Radeon™ Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5)

    And I can't even run the game on low settings, with Retina Display turned off and Laptop mode turned on without sitting in front of a offtaking Jet.

    I run a CAD Programm on it with big Projects and it works just fine, where my 2011 iMac's fans turn on.

    How can that be?

  • I have the same problem. Late 2018 Macbook Pro with 2.9Ghz i9 CPU, 32GB DDR4 RAM, Radeon Pro Vega 20 4GB dedicated GPU.
    Temperature of the cpu climbs to around 90° within 30 seconds of starting up Sims 4. To make matters worse, Apple, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the i9 needs more power than the power adapter can supply when the CPU/GPU is under heavy load, so it shuts off the charging circuit, and then starts to draw power from the battery as well. I've had my battery deplete to 0%, whilst still plugged in to the power adapter. At around 5% battery the computer will become extremely laggy, and saving the game can take 10 minutes. Once the battery gets down to 0% the Macbook will simply go to sleep as it can no longer get sufficient power for the CPU/GPU to continue performing.

    I ran two simultaneous stress tests on the CPU and GPU and couldn't get this to happen, yet it does with Sims 4 every time. Clearly something in the EA code is causing issues.

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    6 years ago
    @Steph71France @njcholaas

    Interesting about the i9 CPUs, almost like the OS isn't throttling power as it should when the game is loaded if it's in danger of overheating. What CPU % is showing in Activity Monitor? Which version of macOS are you both running?

    I have the current 2019 27" iMac with the 3.6 GHz 8-core i9 9900K and AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8GB and it plays beautifully on maxed out settings. That has better cooling and is a desktop CPU though. I also have the 2017 15" MBP with 3.1 GHz quad core i7 and AMD Radeon Pro 560 4GB, all settings maxed out. It gets hot but I play on a cooling pad and it's fine. I play the exact same game on both with the same Saves, Tray and Mods folders.