Hi all
I put up a thread years ago about running ZBrush on my Macbook Pro and how it got unbearably hot in use. The eventual advice from Pixologic (and used by many) is to switch off multithreading or set the number of threads much lower.
Said MBP is an i7 with 16gb RAM. I was a vague learner and ZBrush hobbyist back then. In the years since I have started using ZBrush professionally at my place of work on a Windows workstation. I generally push it fairly hard with no real issues. It’s fun 
So, I’ve come back recently to wanting to use my Mac license and, lo and behold, the temperature issue is just as bad as ever, if not worse. Have tried it on Mountain Lion, Yosemite and El Capitan now) My Mac gets pretty hot even with threads set to 2. Yes, switching multithreading off calms it down but it cripples the computer. Frankly I don’t want to be sculpting on a workstation class computer but running like I’ve got minimum spec.
Case in point: I also have one of those fancy, ultrathin new Macbooks (you know, the one that only has a single USB C port). 8GB RAM aint bad but it’s a 1.1gHz Core M processor (ouch) and no cpu fan at all. I bought it for writing and for ultraportability. I installed ZBrush for a laugh just to see how it would do… and it’s actually slightly faster than my Macbook Pro (when the MBP has multithreading turned off). And it only ever gets warm.
This is insane. I’m actually considering switching my Macbook and Macbook Pro around to have a glorified netbook be my ZBrush workhorse instead of a pro level machine, simply because I have to seriously cripple it to make it function without boiling itself.
There seems to be loads of conflicting info about what is going on with the multithreading issue but the suggestion that it’s not getting hot, it’s just the fans getting confused is rubbish. You could fry an egg on my MBP when you’ve got nothing on it but a basic dynamesh ball and multithreading on at anything above 2 (and it’s hot at 2 threads). The fan speed and noise seems appropriate to the temperature. I get the impression the fans are working right…
As you can imagine I’m somewhat frustrated. Does anyone know anything about what’s actually going on, if there’s ever likely going to be a fix. I know Pixologic blame Apple and Apple blame pixologic but this is getting nowhere.
Can we even nail down exactly what Mac will overheat and what wont? Maybe I could make sure I get the right Mac?
Has any solid info really turned up in the last few years?
