# macbook pro i9 9880h questions



## Jzs (May 15, 2022)

Hi guys, recently I find my laptop lagging when doing 3d modeling or compiling projects in unreal, so I run a cinebench r23. The result kind of stunned me. Quite bad, even rather bad for a mac. Scratching my head and still cannot find a reason.

In the first picture, you can see thermal, this is understandable cause I push it so hard these 2 years. But the other yellow blocks confused me, especially when they turn red on and off alternately... And the frequency is slightly above base frequency, somewhere about 2.3Ghz, never hit 3Ghz, *before the thermal turns red*. It can easily reach 4.1 Ghz with light load, (not in any benchmark including TS bench) And IMHO, the pl2 shouldn't be there, the power consumption is constantly 35w, 10w below the 45w TDP...

Here're all my settings, cannot undervolt, and cannot tune the current, I only check the "disable and lock turbo power limits", which seems doesn't work.  




by the way,  I’ve added thermal pads on VRM.


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## unclewebb (May 15, 2022)

Look at your first screenshot. The cores are equally loaded running Cinebench but the temperatures of the first four cores vary; 97°C, 80°C, 100°C, 79°C. This is always a sign that the heatsink is not making even contact with the CPU cores. It might be a problem with the thermal paste or thermal pad or it might be a heatsink that is not perfectly flat like it needs to be to make proper contact. I have zero Apple experience so I am not sure if this is normal or not. The heatsink on the CPU needs to be removed and inspected for flatness with a straight edge and the thermal paste needs to be replaced. I have heard that Noctua NT-H2 works well at high temperatures. You need a top quality paste to survive at 100°C without it pumping out.

If you installed the RW driver into the ThrottleStop folder, you can remove it. The newer versions of ThrottleStop no longer use this driver.



Jzs said:


> I only check the "disable and lock turbo power limits", which seems doesn't work.


It looks like it is working. Why do you think that it is not working? If your CPU is grossly overheating, checking this box is not not going to solve your overheating problem. The 9880H has a 45W TDP rating. Your cooling cannot prevent the CPU from overheating and thermal throttling at only 35W. That is the problem.



Jzs said:


> And IMHO, the pl2 shouldn't be there


Only worry about boxes lighting up red under the CORE column in Limit Reasons. The first screenshot shows THERMAL glowing red. That is the #1 problem that is causing throttling. Some Apple laptops have a poor reputation for including proper cooling. With an inadequate heatsink, it is normal for some Apple laptops to continuously bounce off of the thermal throttling temperature when trying to perform any stressful task like running Cinebench. Hopefully the heatsink is adequate to fully handle the heat a 9880H can put out. This CPU probably needs over 70W of cooling so it can run Cinebench at full speed. Your cooler is struggling at 35W. Without proper cooling, your 9880H will only run Cinebench at about 60% of its maximum rated speed.









						Product Specifications
					

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.




					ark.intel.com
				




The 9880H does have a Configurable TDP-down capability of 35W. Most PCs do not use this low TDP mode. I am not sure if Apple uses this. Fix the cooling first and you can worry about everything else after that.

TVB throttling can be solved by clearing the Thermal Velocity Boost box in the FIVR window. Unfortunately your laptop has locked the FIVR voltage control register so you have to live with some TVB throttling.

Watch for VR CURRENT turning red in Limit Reasons. This means the on board voltage regulators might not be designed to provide enough current to fully power a 9880H CPU. It takes a lot of engineering to get maximum performance out of an Intel 8 core mobile CPU. Installing a 9880H into a poorly cooled, thin and light laptop with inadequate voltage regulators is not going to cut it.


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## ir_cow (May 15, 2022)

Unfortunately for you MacBooks are not great for cooling. iFixit teardown of the 2019 Macbook Pro (model with 9880H) shares the heatsink with the GPU and its super small too.








						MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown
					

A beloved old feature returns to the MacBook...




					www.ifixit.com


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## Aquinus (May 15, 2022)

Also the GDDR variants use more power when driving multiple monitors as well whereas the HBM2 variant is a bit more power efficient, so that's a consideration. As it's been made pretty clear, the cooling on this laptop isn't ideal. I own one and I know (although I never run Windows on it.) If you're going to put heavy load on this platform, your best bet is to prematurely get the fan spun up. Apple's own firmware is pretty sluggish when it comes to adjusting based on temperature, probably to make it less noticable when the fan ramps up. Either way, if I'm going to play a game or so something that'll hit the CPU hard, I always start by cranking the fan.

Another consideration is that since this is an aluminum chassis, the bottom tends to get rather warm under load. Having something to help transfer that heat can help, be it direct contact with something that can dissipate the heat more quickly or by simply having airflow under the chassis.

Edit: Another thing to consider is that if you've never opened the laptop, you could have some dust stuck in the fins of the heatsink. I've opened my laptop several times because temps had gotten worse over time and the main culprit every time has been dust buildup.


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## dgianstefani (May 15, 2022)

Repaste with Kryonaut extreme and repad with Gelid Ultimate.

Solved.


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## unclewebb (May 15, 2022)

dgianstefani said:


> Solved


That's nonsense. You are not going to solve anything when the CPU heatsink is shared with the GPU. It is badly underdesigned for the kind of heat a 9880H can put out.


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## dgianstefani (May 15, 2022)

It's a 3 year old notebook, changing the factory 3-5w/mk paste that's dried out with fresh stuff will most likely drop temps by around 10c. 

35W isn't that much heat. Changing the TIM and cleaning a bit of dust will solve the issue.

Unless of course you're speaking from extensive experience of repasting older macs? Because I am, lots of people at uni have the same problem.


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## Aquinus (May 15, 2022)

dgianstefani said:


> It's a 3 year old notebook, changing the factory 3-5w/mk paste that's dried out with fresh stuff will most likely drop temps by around 10c.
> 
> 35W isn't that much heat. Changing the TIM and cleaning a bit of dust will solve the issue.
> 
> Unless of course you're speaking from extensive experience of repasting older macs? Because I am, lots of people at uni have the same problem.


The 9880H in the MBP is basically 45w PL1 and 95w PL2. I will agree though that dust can really hurt the thermal performance of this laptop and as I said earlier, I highly recommend cracking that sucker open and cleaning it out on a regular basis, particularly if you're like me and run the fans at full tilt more often than not. You also can't forget that both the GPU and CPU share that heatsink and the 5600M (at least in my laptop,) has a TDP of 50w, so when I'm playing a game (like Factorio just a moment ago,) the GPU is almost at full tilt and the CPU is fully loaded on at least one core. That's an easy 65 watts that the cooler has to deal with which is almost double what you're suggesting.

Trust me, I own one of these laptops. I know the thing pretty damn well. With some games like Farm Sim 22 cases I've seen the battery drain under full load while connected to a 100w charger. So don't tell me that this laptop only has to dissipate 35W of heat energy.


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## dgianstefani (May 15, 2022)

Throttlestop itself says max is 41w. 5600m is 50, so that's 90 max, 60-80 more realistically, assume 100% synthetic load which doesn't happen continously in real loads.

That's not a lot of power.

100+ plus draining on charge is due to screen, ram, modem, etc. taking power.

Regardless, repasting and cleaning will improve the situation.


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## unclewebb (May 15, 2022)

dgianstefani said:


> max is 41w


Max is only 41W because it is thermal throttling like crazy.


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## ir_cow (May 15, 2022)

dgianstefani said:


> Throttlestop itself says max is 41w. 5600m is 50, so that's 90 max, 60-80 more realistically, assume 100% synthetic load which doesn't happen continously in real loads.
> 
> That's not a lot of power.
> 
> ...


Did you look at the cooling solution at all before commenting?  Repaste will help, but it isn't going to solve the problem.


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## Aquinus (May 16, 2022)

dgianstefani said:


> Throttlestop itself says max is 41w.


Interesting, but wrong.


unclewebb said:


> Max is only 41W because it is thermal throttling like crazy.


I think you're onto something.


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## Jzs (May 16, 2022)

I see, the stock thermal paste. It’s still fine on my gpu(5500), but seemingly won’t last long. I will change it to tpm 7950 and give a try. 

Thx everyone.


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