Do the new MacBook Pro Core i7 overheat while running Windows?
I personally experienced insane overheating with older MacBook Pros when running Windows Vista or XP on them via bootcamp. Turns out this was because the video card would max out and poor bootcamp driver support (or something to that extent). My question is, do the new MacBook Pros with the i7 processors and the video card switching technology overheat? Additionally does anyone know if the switching technology would work while running windows and how is the battery life while running windows?
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I doubt bootcamp would properly utilize the gpu switching on the fly. The drivers for windows in bootcamp are pisspoor. Why not run a virtual machine? VirtualBox is free. I have VMWare Fusion which is great, but I just purchased Parallels 5 and I’m very disappointed in their support. Especially because it “half-way” converted my Fusion vm, so now it doesn’t work in either : (
@coogan Virtual Machines are great in some instances, but sometimes I have to use Visual Studio (a MS product only) while traveling and have no access to a wall outlet. Virtual Machines use up substantially more CPU cycles then just running visual studio on windows, thus consuming the battery quicker. You might ask, “well, why not just get a regular PC”, but the thing is that sometimes I need both OS’s running natively, and I don’t want to haul two different PC’s. Furthermore, I like to blow off a little steam and play some video games…which virtual machines can’t do…
Parallels 5 supposedly runs games better than native windows. My MBP has the 8600GT w/512MB, but running Oblivion IV in bootcamp for XP raped my battery to around an hour. Bootcamp in general just isn’t power efficient. I’m jealous of the battery life of the new macbook pro line, but I typically get 2–2.5 hours regular use from a full charge.
I use Visual Studio as well, but I’ve got a separate tower with a SSD and it loads just as quick as you can click. I swear it takes 20–30 seconds to load.
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