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Here we go... I wanted to do a test that anyone can do themselves so it should make it fair for everyone to try to find out when throttling happens to a Mac.
To start things off I have the Intel Power Gadget and Terminal open. With terminal I'm running a bunch of "yes commands" to max out the CPU usage right away. My office is at 72℉ (22.2℃). I have already turned the fan onto it's full speed with iStat Menus.
Realizing that it's not a fair test until I stress the integrated graphics part of the CPU (not worried about RAM but that shouldn't affect the CPU's heat or make it throttle differently). So I fired up everyone's favorite music app and played some music and started the visualizer.
Spikes in the "GT" frequency is due to me switching around to get the window open instead of fullscreen.
Here we can see the integrated graphics working hard.
Still not a "fair" test... So I maxed out the speaker volume....
...Display brightness...
...and even the keyboard backlight.
Volts and watts and amps. Oh my!
OOOOOOOOH HE'S TRYIN'!
iTunes is working hard trying to play songs. Gaps in the GT frequency are due to songs not playing and the visualizer doing less work but we're well past the 10 minute mark.
What did the designers at Apple say when the i9 MacBook Pro was an initial thermal flop?
Ives got a bad feeling about this!
And with that, over fifteen minutes into the stress test. That frequency line is nice and calm running at 2.9GHz just like it did from the beginning. Thank you for taking the time to join me. If it seems sloppy, I do have to get back to work and eat and walk the dog... later!
OH! this is a Mid 2012 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz i5, 16GB of RAM (despite Apple's claim it only can hold 8GB), and a 2TB Micron 1100 SSD.