LR4 cooks CPU

[matthias_]

I have started to monitor CPU-temperatures when batch exporting photos from LR4. Not surprisingly the CPU gets very hot. Actually the temperatures are so high (90 to 100 degree celsius) that I am suspecting that batch exporting from LR4 can seriously reduce the lifespan of the computer. Nevertheless it explains why I recently had to turn off my computer during an batch-export because of a kernel-panic (screen that tells you to shut down your computer). I would like to reduce the CPU power LR4 requests for batch exports. Any ideas?

Temperatur-monitor used: smcFanControl
Notebook: MacBookPro i7 8GB

[kaelaria]

Laptops, macbooks especially, run very hot - they have crappy cooling solutions because of well, no space.  It's quite normal for the i7 macbooks to peak above 100 deg.  Yes, prolonged use will cut off some CPU life, but that's still far beyond how long you would be using the system - you're talking  a decade instead of 12 year or so (rough example).  As far as that goes you are solving a non-problem.  Now if you are getting shutdown warnings, you have a hardware issue - possibly clogged fans and such.  See Apple for that problem.  Your system was designed to be pegged at 100% CPU and still run all day long - just hot

[RFPhotography]

I'd agree.  Laptops do run hotter than desktops. Lack of space for airflow and weak fans.  Can't speak for Macs, but in Windoze you can assign how many processor cores are dedicated to any one application.  Maybe check to see if there's a similar feature in the Mac world and restrict LR to 2 cores instead of all 4.  It'll run slower but should be a bit cooler too. 

Do see if there's some other issue with the computer as well that may be preventing cooling.  Environmental factors can play a part too.  In an old apartment I used to live in there was no A/C.  In the summer it would get quite hot in the apt. and my desktop would routinely overheat and shut down.  Make sure there's nothing in your workspace that could be impeding the airflow as well.

[David Eichler]

I'd agree.  Laptops do run hotter than desktops. Lack of space for airflow and weak fans.  Can't speak for Macs, but in Windoze you can assign how many processor cores are dedicated to any one application.  Maybe check to see if there's a similar feature in the Mac world and restrict LR to 2 cores instead of all 4.  It'll run slower but should be a bit cooler too. 

Do see if there's some other issue with the computer as well that may be preventing cooling.  Environmental factors can play a part too.  In an old apartment I used to live in there was no A/C.  In the summer it would get quite hot in the apt. and my desktop would routinely overheat and shut down.  Make sure there's nothing in your workspace that could be impeding the airflow as well.

What about recent Mac Minis? How is their cooling?

[jpegman]

I have trouble believing the 90-100 deg CELSIUS!  
My old quad core desktop heat sink was loaded with dust and my PC was shutting down on thermal protection before I realized it was due to dust.  My PC was shutting down at 70-75 deg Celsius as I recall.  

After blowing out the heat sink fins, the PC rolls along at 30-35 deg C, and under 100% load for extended periods (compressing Gb of files for 30+ minutes) it still never exceeds 40 deg C.  

Looking at Intels web site, the i7 mobile processors have a max temperature of 105 deg C - your MacBook seems very close to design max T.

[Wayne Fox]

I'll admit that on occasion I revert to my old gamer geek status and play a little world of warcraft and I"ve heard my MacPro 2.7ghz i7 to the point the fans are pretty much full speed.  I've checked temperatures at this point with iStat Pro, and have never seen the CPU get anywhere close to 100c. The GPU may get up to 70 or so, the CPU maybe 58 to 60.

being the curious sole that I am I fired up my Lightroom library and set to export 100 images simultaneously at 3 different settings.  The fan's gradually sped up and the temperatures a little, but everything settled after about 4 or 5 minutes to @5000 rpm on the fans, and about 54C on the CPU and about 68c on the GPU.  The process has been running for over 10 minutes now, and no temperature increase. Most of these are MFDB files so pretty large files.  This is tethered to a thunderbolt display and laptop is closed which tends to make it run a little hotter.

So it seems your 100c is pretty high.  I can't get close to that running multiple programs ... even running the game and 3 LR export processes.

I assume when you see 100c, your fans are running at full rpm (not sure what that is but seems to be 5500 rpm or so?)  One issue with smcFanControl is it can limit your fan speeds (some people liked it to keep fans quiet) perhaps it could be bugged?  The main use for that is to make your fans run faster than the default OS settings.

Just curious as to your export parameters ... I was basically just doing a resize and then a glossy sharpen setting.

[stever]

the heat sink in my old Dell laptop got blocked with dust (bad design, hard to blow out) and the temp sensor would shut it down after rendering about 30 1:1 previews.  i'm sure the shut down was well before it reached 100C.

[Phil Indeblanc]

My PC is stable on idle at 44c.
I run a 860/ 2.8ghz overclocked to 3.6ghz on air cool.
I do hit 98c sometimes (according to CoreTemp).
The ambient temp can get warm in the summer as the AC struggles. But I never had a warning.

I've been thinking about doing a CPU/MB upgrade...Newegg has the
i7-3820/10MB/120watt cache for $299
i7 2700K/8MBcache/$329...

Or is it worth doing 6 core!! :-)

[Paul2660]

Are you increasing the fan speed with SMC fan control?   As pointed out, they do run hot.  SMC will let you really crack up the fans.  I use it when on mac side, and a similar tool when under bootcamp.  They really get hot
under bootcamp as windows can't get to hardware level to control fans.  This has been an issue since day one on the macbookpro and windows/bootcamp.  Thank goodness for "speedfan"  still works great.   
I can't speak much to LR on the mac, but with Captureone7, once you start to process, you can watch the temp's climb and hear the fans kick on my 15".  I tend to stay on the windows side for LR where it "she runs hot" as John Hiatt would say.

Since you are on Mac side, double check your SMC fan control settings.  I have occasionally turned them back and not caught it.  

Phil:  One thought on the processor upgrade.

On your point, I would consider maxing your ram out.  You are running great on the current processor, how much ram do you have.  I just up'd my main box to 32GB from 16GB and with LR you do see some improvement, not
so on CS.   LR seems to have better overall memory management.  I am impressed that you are able to overclock that much and stay on air.  You must have a big fan?

I am currently on a i7 3.4 not overclocked cooled by air and so far it's running great.  4 core 8 logical.

Paul Caldwell

[RFPhotography]

What about recent Mac Minis? How is their cooling?

No idea.  As I said in my original comment I can't speak specifically to Macs.

[PeterAit]

Goodness, now you have me frightened. It seems that I have been wasting my time taking photos, processing them, printing, exhibiting, and selling. I have never given a thought to my CPU temperature. Silly me, to ignore such an important thing. I shall immediately mend my ways.

[Wayne Fox]

Goodness, now you have me frightened. It seems that I have been wasting my time taking photos, processing them, printing, exhibiting, and selling. I have never given a thought to my CPU temperature. Silly me, to ignore such an important thing. I shall immediately mend my ways.

 So if you touched your laptop and it was really hot when running Lightroom, you'd just blow it off because you just want to be a photographer?  I've seen laptops (both mac and PC's) completely fried by lack of attention to cooling.  This thread is certainly not out of line if the OP is really seeing this kind of heat which would be obvioius by just touching it, and  finding out what the temperature was and the fan speeds are with a utility is the first diagnostic step is to try and determine where the heat is coming from.  Most modern laptops can report internal temperatures in several locations, and most have fans that vary speed based on those temperatures.  Things can certainly go wrong.

 I understand your point and in many threads it's quite applicable, but here it seems out of place.

[Sheldon N]

+1 to Wayne's comment.

I have  a PC overclocked to 4.4Ghz and I don't see temps any higher than 70C on heavy loads in LR preview generation or Export. Something is wrong if you are hitting 100C. It will really shorten the lifespan of your computer. 

Is there any issue with dust buildup in your internal components?

[kaelaria]

You can not compare desktop CPUs in a desktop - to mobile CPUs in a laptop.  They run hotter by design - that's normal.