Apple improves performance of MacBook Pro 2018 with an update



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Apple ended up communicating about the reduced performance of the new MacBook Pro. The company has sent several sites a brief statement that recognizes the problem and provides a solution in the process: an additional update of macOS 10.13.6 is available for users of these Macs.

That should conclude a week of controversy, at least we hope so. Apple is offering an update from High Sierra tonight, only for users of MacBook Pro with Touch Bar 2018. This update is supposed to "improve the stability and reliability" of these Macs, according to the list of changes displayed in the Mac App Store.

But the release that accompanies it is very clear: it is to unlock these laptops, limited by poor management of temperature and performance diminished accordingly. The update weighs 1.5 GB anyway, we do not know what's in it, but Apple may have corrected much more than one might think.

As a reminder, the first testers of these MacBook Pro noted that the processors of the generation Coffee Lake did not work at full speed and that they turned in slow motion to avoid overheating. This particularly affected the Core i9, the most expensive option on the 15-inch and also the most powerful processor in the range. In this case, the performance drop was such that the Core i7 provided by default was faster in the facts.

There was clearly a problem somewhere and we had learned this morning that it was probably a software bug, not a bad hardware design, which would have been a lot more embarrbading. Good news, Apple confirms that it was a bug of a software nature, even if the explanation remains mysterious. The company indicates that after many performance tests, it " identified that a digital key was missing in the firmware ", which had an impact on the temperature management which could in turn

We do not know exactly what it's all about, but this morning's badysis suggested that it was a poor adjustment of processor power that could be involved. Anyway, it will now be necessary to wait for the first returns to check if the additional update of High Sierra is enough to correct the bug and offer users the expected performance.

Apple also confirmed that the bug concerned all models, not just the 15-inch Core i9, although it was on this particular model that the problem was most noticeable. The company contacted Dave Lee, the youtubeur who first discovered the problem, less than 48 hours after the release of his video. On the same test, which consisted of a video rendering with Adobe Premiere, tonight's update brought a performance gain of around 35%.

We also learn that the bug was never identified during pre-market testing of the model. According to Mac Rumors quoting directly from Apple, the problem in question would be a " isolated bug ", corrected with a " simple fix ". We will not know more officially, but we imagine that it will be possible to check what has changed after installation of the update.

[MàJ 24/07/2018 20h40] : Dave Lee's first promising return the youtubeur who released the information first. He did the same test with Premiere as in his video and the result is much better: the Core i9 is maintaining its base frequency, just below 3 GHz, for the duration of the exercise.

Good news, therefore, even though Apple has stated explicitly that it has worked on Dave Lee's problem. Let's hope that the patch is used in all cases, not just this one.

[MàJ 24/07/2018 21h37] : we did a quick test with the 2018 MacBook Pro equipped with a Core i9 currently testing the editorial, and the difference is also noticeable. Using an app that mines crypto currencies to use the maximum processor, as well as Valley Benchmark to use the graphics card to the maximum, here is what we had before the update.

Before installing the additional update of High Sierra …

Note how the frequency of the processor keeps alternating between 800 MHz, its minimum value which betrays an overheating of the component which must feed it, and approximately 2 GHz. This effect of yoyo is abnormal and it betrays the presence of the bug that was mentioned in the morning.

After installing the update, the processor maintains its frequency without falling to 800 Mhz, which is great news. In our opinion, this is a sign that it was a misconfiguration of the processor power, although we will wait for expert feedback to say.

… and after the update

You may have noticed that the processor is stable, but around 2 GHz, which is quite far from its base frequency, 2.9 GHz. Is because the GPU is also used and the cooling system struggles to keep both components at full power. Nevertheless, we have redone the test only with the app that uses the CPU and obtained the same results.

The app used is probably not very well optimized and we will submit the machine to our usual battery of performance tests to get the feel of it.


Apple's Communiqué

Here is the full message that Apple sent to the press:

Following extensive performance testing under numerous workloads, we've identified that there is a missing key in the firmware that impacts the thermal management system and could drive clock speeds down under heavy loads on the new MacBook Pro.

A bug fix is ​​included in today's macOS Sierra High 10.13.6 Supplemental Update and is recommended. We apologize to any customer who has experienced less than optimal performance on their new systems.

Customers can expect the new 15-inch MacBook Pro to be up to 70% faster, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to be up to 2X faster, as shown in the performance results on our website. [19659023]! function (f, b, e, g, n, t, s)
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