Apple Releases Retina MacBook Pro SMC Update to Address Gaming Frame Rates and Fan Issues

Apple today released MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update 1.1, addressing an issue with frame rates while playing graphics-heavy games and fixing several other bugs.

About MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1

This update resolves a rare issue where users may experience slow frame rates when playing graphics-intensive games on the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It also includes bug fixes for Power Nap, wake from sleep and fan control.

retina_macbook_pro_hand
Retina MacBook Pro owners will no doubt be testing the update to see whether the fan control bug fixes mentioned in the release notes address the widespread complaints with fan speed spikes under relatively low loads.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

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Top Rated Comments

Josheh Avatar
157 months ago
Nah, this machine has been laggy/underpowered for the screen. It needs a 2GB GPU in it to be a 'Pro' machine and able to power that screen correctly. I won't even touch it for video/graphic work. It's just not up to par yet.

exactly, this is why I avoid 1st gen hardware from apple


retina 15" = weak GPU, weak CPU, riddled with bugs


gen 2 retina 15" will be glorious

You know, I read up a lot and saw a lot of people complaining about various problems. I dove in anyway and haven't had near the issues that others have had. Actually, I haven't had any issues really. I'm not sure where you guys are getting your opinions, if they're based on people complaining, or if they're first hand experiences. Let me share mine with you though, my first hand experience.

I purchased the Retina model because I thought it'd be great for photography. I do photography, web design, photoshop, and 3d work on this computer. It's amazing and has worked great in all of those capacities. I use it while mobile, and I also connect it into a couple of monitors and use it as a work station. It has performed well, about as well as a highend laptop might. It may not perform as well as my workstation at work, but well, that's a workstation. It's beefy, it's got the room to be beefy, it's not trying to compact itself into a portable fashion.

I'm sorry that you feel the Macbook Retina is so crappy of a product, but some of us have found it to be successful. I enjoy this computer and have no regrets. I've had no issues that made me think this product is beta, or whatever.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hungry&Foolish Avatar
157 months ago
exactly, this is why I avoid 1st gen hardware from apple


retina 15" = weak GPU, weak CPU, riddled with bugs


gen 2 retina 15" will be glorious

that's a myth.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
york2600 Avatar
157 months ago
My Retina has been flawless, but here goes nothing
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
schmidp Avatar
157 months ago
I just downloaded it. Everything went flawless, except for one thing. Restarting. The fans blasted as the computer started up again, lasted a second or two but other than that, it was fine.

This is the expected behaviour. The fans run on full power to protect your components during the update.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nilk Avatar
157 months ago
exactly, this is why I avoid 1st gen hardware from apple

retina 15" = weak GPU, weak CPU, riddled with bugs

gen 2 retina 15" will be glorious
1st gen Retina 15" is already glorious. I run 3 displays (one is a Apple TB display) off of that "weak GPU" and don't have any noticeable performance issues.

As for CPU, the rMBP I have Geekbenches 10788, and the 2013 model does 12547. How is that weak? A top end 27" iMac does slightly better (12878), and other than that it's only 6+ core Mac Pros that do better -- so only desktop machines do better.

That said, I say it's better to wait for future revisions unless you are forced to buy something now, but that's more because there is still a good amount of software that isn't Retina-ready and less about the hardware.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maxosx Avatar
157 months ago
Kudos To Apple

I have one of the affected late 2012 (Jan 2013) 15" MBP retina SanDisk SSD equipped models.

This was for some of us, a very frequent daily issue. Mine spun up the fans on & off hourly.

Kudos to Apple for taking this seriously and doing an excellent job of fixing it.

I've been testing mine over & over for an hour. I am now 100% certain it's fixed, as the iTunes "song" that we identified as one of many triggers to cause the fans to roar, no longer does it.

Now _this_ is a stellar example of Apple showing us they can still operate as efficiently as Apple Computer Inc. did when at its peak.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)