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Wait what
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: El Dorado County, California
 
2014-11-09, 03:20

Yeah, MacBooks and the recent, thinner iMacs are *really* not designed for any kind of use that stresses either the CPU or GPU for more than a few seconds at a time; the case internals just can't dissipate that kind of heat, and so they have to be throttled (in some cases, severely) to compensate. Even then, those components often end up running hotter than they're designed to, potentially reducing their useful lifespan (in one case described in the MacRumors thread you posted, the high-end GPU in one tester's Retina iMac ran at 106ºC for an extended period of time during a gaming test session, which is crazy; most chips are designed with a maximum operating temperature of 100ºC).

This is precisely why I use my iMac for everything but gaming, and keep a PC around dedicated for that purpose.
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