Sims 4 making brand new MacBook Pro overheat!

Aargh, another problem.

I found a way to sync my saves between laptop and iMac, but the laptop gets incredibly hot very quick – processor jumps from 50-60 to over 100 degrees within five minutes and my fan is as loud as the DVD drive was with Sims 3. Is there a way to stop that or at least not get it so hot so fast? Activity Monitor tells me Sims uses from 70 to 120 (!) percent of CPU. It works nice and smooth in high settings but obviously the CPU is working extra hard. It's pretty much the first time ever I actually hear the fan... How do others set it up? Or should I just give up on it?

Retina Macbook early 2015, base model (slowest), El Capitan 10.11.6.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks @Bluebellflora!

Well, for me the Macbook is about portability, so I don't want to stick it on the desk, elevated, with a cooling pad. I have the iMac for desktop play 🙂 So I am curious if anybody actually manages to play Sims 4 on a Macbook Pro that's on their lap (I put a nice piece of thick cardboard underneath as I don't like the smell of burning body hair 😉 ) and if yes, what are their settings.

@raygrantdotcom

Honestly, you'll fry your Mac if you carry on playing on your lap. It has feet on the bottom which slightly elevate it when it's on a flat surface. The aluminium casing is not only pretty but designed to dissipate the heat from the CPU, it can't do that if it's sitting snuggly on your lap - it's cooking. This article explains a bit more about how you should look after your Mac - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6343

Oh you are completely right @Bluebellflora, that's why it's got cardboard underneath now 🙂 it magically made my CPU temperature drop by 15 degrees or so. No longer just putting it on my lap. Still, not enough for Sims 4. Oh well. Maybe I need to try all settings on lowest. I was going to change the resolution to 1920x1080 but I can't, the lowest possible resolution is 2560 horizontal for some reason.

I believe it's Oxygen that is the problem...

On my iMac fans ramp up when playing. Which is OK. But I actually haven't played for a few days and Origin was still in the background and yesterday I noticed the fans were running crazy. I wasn't using anything intensive, then closed Origin. Fans stopped within SECONDS.

Going to look if there are threads about it already... I tried to use the beta two weeks ago or so but it has massive memory leaks. It was the first time ever I saw a "memory full, quit some applications" popup.

Edit: OK, no, Sims: 75-95% CPU (lowest settings available, retina off, laptop mode), Origin 2-3%. Aww, was hoping for an easy solution. At least fan is now working but not roaring.

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?

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  I moved your post to the Sims/Mac section.  This is the best place for Mac-specific tech support.

Hi @ReptileGirl23 ,

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? Fans spinning while gaming is normal on a laptop, they're thinner computers that get hotter than desktop computers. If your Mac overheats a lot, it will slow down its processor for cooling it down and, if that doesn't work, your Mac will shut down to protect itself. Does this happen to your Mac?

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 for gaming, specially if your Mac does not have a dedicated GPU (don't know if this is your case). You might need to down some of your graphic settings to cool down your computer.