Apple's design philosophy has been oh
let's be generous and say ambitious
lately
first we had the much smaller MacBook
Pro 2016 with its completely redesigned
low profile key switches that don't take
too kindly to dust and debris otherwise
pretty nice machine then we got the iMac
Pro which crammed up to an 18 core
processor into a design this thin with
well predictable thermal results and now
in 2018 we are getting the own oh sorry
oh now we get to see what happens when
you cram a core i9 into a chassis this
small end oh one second what's this
don't forget the sponsor spot : oh right
Mac Walden Mac Weldon makes great
underwear t-shirts socks wallets and
more they believe in simple shopping and
if you use code tech tips you'll get 20%
off through the link below
whether you use your MacBook Pro for
coding 3d animation or just for browsing
Facebook you've probably been wondering
why the heck Apple was taking so long to
embrace intel's 8th gen cpus with their
dramatically higher performance and
greater core counts well as it turns out
they were cooking up something that on
the surface looks the same same aluminum
chassis same touch bar whether you love
or hate it and same lack of full-sized
USB ports although i'm all equipped with
dongles now at this point anyway but
then when you get under the hood is
actually really different from the last
generation the machine now responds to
hey Siri commands what's the weather
like outside the keyboard got a membrane
to keep dirt and debris out of the
switches the display as Retina as ever
gets true tone sensors so that it will
actually adapt to ambient lighting
personally not a fan but to each their
own and those same for Thunderbolt 3
ports are now running Intel's new Titan
Ridge controller which means support for
higher resolution monitors with
DisplayPort 1.4 though it should be
noted that is only on MacBook Pros that
are equipped with dedicated graphics
cards this is intel's fault because they
still haven't added DisplayPort 1.4 to
their onboard GPUs getting back to
performance then let's go even deeper
now we opted for a nearly top spec model
with 32 gigs of DDR 4 RAM so it turns
out they could do that they just needed
to put a slightly bigger battery in it
because upgrading down the line will not
be an option since the memory is
soldered directly to the logic board we
also went for a 512 gigas SD that again
will hopefully be enough forever because
this too is soldered directly to the
board and this is for us anyway where
the controversy actually really starts
with this machine so the 2018 MacBook
Pro includes the same T 2 encryption
chip that we saw on the iMac Pro which
in and of itself is not a
thing where we're Pro encryption and pro
user privacy around here the problem is
the specific way they're doing it so
instead of making the SSD a
self-contained swappable module with
encryption Hardware built onto that
Apple has integrated the whole thing
into the motherboard so the workaround
for this used to be that if your
motherboard died there was a special
data recovery port that was wired into
the SSD portion of the motherboard and
you can use that to pull the data off of
an otherwise dead logic board for
transfer
but then Apple went ahead and they
removed that port in this model so what
that means is that as far as we know
right now if any motherboard component
causes a system failure without taking
the your logic board to someone like
Lewis Rossman for diagnostics and
resolder E something that Apple does not
endorse doing and that even assumes that
such a fix is possible
you are completely Sol on getting any of
your data back from a dead logic board
machine now time machine which
thankfully is really awesome will
prevent most catastrophic data loss but
it's just something to be aware of
because it's still possible that if
you're on the road a lot something could
get lost in the mix if your machine were
to fail for any reason bringing us then
to our last component selection the
top-of-the-line core I 9 mobile
processor so thanks to its higher core
clocks and extra cash not to mention its
six-course if you're into programming
editing video or rendering complex 3d
scenes this is the option you would
obviously want to choose except that
reports of performance crippling thermal
throttling began to roll in almost as
soon as the first MacBook 2018 box was
opened and we actually saw it firsthand
in our recent live stream we were a
hundred degrees
once the workload started it took only
seconds for our processor to be running
well below its base advertised clock
speed and then it only took another day
or two for Intel to remove the tool that
we were using to monitor the situation
from their website for some definitely
not PR related reason some folks were
even reporting lower performance than
the last gen MacBook Pro in adobe
premiere now Apple has since issued an
oops we didn't notice this product was
fundamentally broken firmware update to
address the situation so what we figured
we'd do is put that to the test we'll be
comparing our MacBook Pro 2018 against a
reference desktop and two other core I 9
equipped laptops one with a similar form
factor to the MacBook and another with
ample cooling to show us well how you
could really expect a core I 9 to
perform with adequate cooling as usual
we'll kick things off with our gaming
results not too many gaming benchmarks I
mean it is a Mac actually these results
are not too shabby considering that the
Asus Zenbook Pro rocks a faster gtx 1050
TI GPU and it looks like our Radeon pro
560 in here performs roughly equivalent
to our desktop rx 550 in this thermal
package which of course raises the
question how much better could it do
with a proper cooler we'll get to that
but first let's look at productivity
this is interesting our 2018 MacBook Pro
with the fix applied closely matches or
even beats our other core i9 machines in
CPU heavy workloads like Adobe Premiere
and blender but only in Mac OS in
Windows 10
using boot camp which remember is an
apple supported solution it falls way
behind so is this a matter of Mac OS
taking better advantage of Intel's
Speedshift technology than Windows does
maybe our recorded temperatures will
help us paint a clearer picture here
very interesting so for starters calling
what they did a firmware fix is a little
disingenuous since firmware is typically
OS agnostic and what Apple has done
clearly only works in Mac OS at this
time so in Windows the 2018 MacBook Pro
is idling cooler than a soos is
similarly equipped Zenbook pro but then
it immediately drops to its lowest power
state when a heavy load is applied just
like before the fix the good news is
that on Mac OS both the frequency and
power curve are much smoother with no
throttling whatsoever making this a much
more usable machine I mean it's mostly
good news because the thing to keep in
mind then is that all that Apple's
really done here then is maybe apply a
new fan curve along with TDP and clock
speed limiting to the processor that
manages to help it avoid constant
performance killing power state changes
they are still allowing the CPU to run
at 97 degrees as measured in an
air-conditioned office the problem
though is that's all they really can do
at this point since opening up the
device with an eye fix-it kit made it
immediately obvious that they haven't
redesigned the thermal solution here to
handle the new 45 watt core i-9 CPU
which isn't to say that they were
helpless for the last two years during
the development of this laptop there's
clearly things they could have done but
we don't even entirely an apple for this
there is an industry-wide problem that
exists right now where laptop
manufacturers are installing high
performance processors in devices that
they are designing to either thermal
throttle and/or run at unreasonable
temperatures like I I get it I get the
appeal of marketing top-of-the-line
specs in an amazingly thin package and
technically 97 degrees is lower than the
t-junction of a hundred degrees for a
modern intel see
you but I mean if you were a PC tech
back in the Intel Prescott days you'll
remember running anything this hot is
not cool
pardon the pun and over time will
absolutely cause bored warping or worse
which as we mentioned before when we
talked about this is where the
controversy starts comes with
significant data loss implications on
this particular product and this is all
something that I wouldn't consider ideal
on a consumer product and I certainly
don't consider ideal on a professional
one so let us know in the comments do
you agree do you disagree has the pro
become a meaningless word for more
expensive I want to know your thoughts
and I also want to know if you guys have
ever heard of D Brent D brand is your
source for awesome vinyl skins they're
available for laptops phones tablets
consoles controllers and more they use
high quality authentic true textured 3m
vinyl on every product they are cut with
unrivaled precision they measure many
times to ensure they get a factory fit
for your product and not only do they
look great D brand skins also help
protect against incidental scratches and
scuffs during everyday wear and tear
their customer service robots are easy
to work with and wonderful and their
products are affordable and ship
worldwide so don't take my word for it
check out D brand at the link in the
video description and get a skin for
yourself or friend B brand makes a great
gift so thanks for watching guys if this
video sucked you know what to do but if
it was awesome get subscribed hit the
like button or check out the link to
where to buy the stuff we featured in
the video description also linked in the
description is our merch storage has
cool shirts like what the hey we'll have
a Mac Weldon store link down there too
ah like the shirts I normally wear and
our community forum which you should
totally join
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.