Intel MacBook Pro Fan/Turbo Boost

[Chris August]

Ever since a December update of PT back in 2020 my MacBook Pro runs horrible. It was over heating, the fans were going full blast and Avid had me installing third party apps to turn off turbo boost. Now they have that "feature" to turn it off in the actual PT software. Instead of fixing the problem, they added a way to just turn it off.

My sessions run extremely slow and laggy. I want to be able to turn turbo boost on, but not only do I not want to hear fan noise, I also don't want my laptop running that hot.

I'm just wondering if I'm alone in this boat or what. I have a friend in a studio next to mine and he's running PT 11 and doesn't have any of these issues. Is it an Avid thing? An intel Mac thing? I have a backup laptop and its the same problem so I know its not my specific laptop. Also, I can run Logic Pro or Ableton and not have this issue.

I've kept pushing through with PT because I just assumed at some point it would be updated and everything would be great and I could have my wonderful turbo back...now I'm starting to think thats not happening.

Also, I have this problem even with an empty session. No load bearing virtual instruments or plugins. Just having PT open and that turbo boost on will cause my fans to start running at full speed and make my laptop hit above 90 C.

[Darryl Ramm]

Full system specs? What exact date code/EMC # mac, how much memory, CPU spec etc.

Install something like iStats if you don't have it or similar already. What CPU and GPU temps are you seeing and what are the fan speeds. Numbers are much better than you are throwing around qualitative stuff. Are both fans running around the same RPM?

macOS version?

Discrete GPU enabled?

Hopefully you don't have any anti-virus software installed? But if so disable or even better uninstall it.

What external displays are connected? Try this with just the MacBook Pro internal display with all others physically disconnected.

You are running with the MBP lid fully open?

Look in all the vent holes with a bright light and see if they look like there is dust/lint in there (seriously that caused me grief with an old MBP).

Try getting the MBP up off the desk, with spacers/let air get to the back of the

Is your system fully optimized?

What are some examples of sluggish?

This might be related to graphics stack changes, but that does not jive with all your descriptions.

That this happens with nothing running that may point to bad plugins. You may not need to be using them, just having them installed can sometimes cause bad things. You should try moving all .aaxplugin plugin files to the unused folder and just see if that changes the behavior. (Pro Tools will put back the standard plugins ones when it starts). Normally that craziness of errant plugins just burning CPU will show up with high CPU meter use. What do the Pro Tools CPU meters and Activity Monitor CPU meters show? Leave only the default plugins installed while you keep doing other troubleshooting.

What is the Pro Tools disk cache set to? "sluggish" can be a sign of running out of memory, but that should not be affected by disabling turbo (but there maybe are maybe remote cases I could imagine it might). Activity monitor can give clues you are low on memory esp. if swap used is a significant number. Memory pressure chart is also a good tool, green is great. Appearing to have memory used and cached files taking up all physical memory is *not* a bad sign (shows the memory management is working). But running out or memory with no session loaded typically takes a corrupt plugin, or say oher program running that is leaking memory. Make sure memory pigs like Goole Chrome etc. are not running.

Make sure no unneeded software is running. Not just apps, but look for processes in Activity Monitor that are consuming CPU or lots of memory.

Dynamic plugin processing enabled?

You can try increasing IO buffer size

Much or all of the stuff here you may already have gone through with Avid support, but you likely need to explain what you've already looked at in detail to get the most useful help here. And clearly as you test stuff above youw ant to flip between turbo enabled or not and see what improves.

[Chris August]

Hey Darryl! I have a 16" 2019 2.4 8 core i9 with 64 GB of RAM and a 4tb SSD. MY current macOS is 12.3, but its been doing this ever since around Dec 2020 so it would have been Big Sur and I think I was actually running whatever was before that when this originally started.

Discrete GPU is enabled. I am currently using an external with the laptop in clam mode, but it does it no matter what. Low quality ext, 4k ext, no ext...still happens.

I have a nice laptop stand that actually has a very quiet fan running. Was hoping that purchase would help but it didn't.

My system is fully optimized as far as I know. I was an early purchaser of the Carbon and I've been having these problems ever since then. I actually returned the Carbon at the time because I was having other problems as well and went back to my Apollo x8. Just to clarify, that was on a different laptop than my current one.

The sluggish stuff is opening plugin menus, scrolling, duplicating plugins or tracks, creating new tracks... pretty much the normal pro tools operations tend to just run slower.

I was originally just posting to see if in general people were having this problem. I mean, they put the switch in the playback engine for a reason that I can only assume a lot of people are dealing with this. Back when I was messing with the Carbon stuff this was one of the main problems. The moment I would plug that thing in to my ethernet port, it would heat my cpu up and my fans would go crazy. They told me this was a known issue and it only happened with the MacBook pros. So their solution was to add that selection in the playback engine. The problem is that whatever they did when they updated PT at that same time also created this issue with the laptops.

So overall I was reaching out on here to see if other people with Intel MacBook pros are having this same issue with PT Ultimate. Maybe I could buy a Mac mini and I'd be good to go.

I'll test moving all my plugins to the unused folder when I get to the studio in the morning and see if that works. I would love nothing more than to find out I have some corrupt plugin and I could start using turbo boost again.

I really appreciate your response Darryl!!!

[Darryl Ramm]

Oh Carbon. I'm pretty sure this issue has been discussed by Carbon owners in the Carbon section of this forum. You should have a read there. Maybe you already have. I don't have time right now to go find those posts.

This will not have anything to do with you running *Ultimate*.

FWIW I have an very similar MBP and it runs with great thermals (compared to my much older MBP). When running CPU heavy stuff I do find having the case fully open helps, as does mounting it on a Rain Stand so it's off the wooden desk. And I run with an LG 5K monitor connected. 2021.12 on Big Sur.... but no Carbon.

I would try switch between Carbon and Built In Output as the playback engine and if you can show Carbon is the cause of problems then push on Avid support for a fix to whatever is broken with Pro Tools with Carbon.

[Chris August]

I don't know why, but I totally forgot to put that I returned my carbon after only have it for 2 weeks. Too many issues. I've been back on my Apollo x8 ever since.