Macbook Pro runs hot when VM is open

[PhillipW4]

I am running the latest version of Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro. Whenever my Windows 10 virtual machine is open, the laptop fan runs at full power and the machine gets hot within a matter of only a couple minutes. So hot, in fact, that the laptop can no longer be on a lap comfortably. My virtual machine is nothing more than a plain jane Windows 10 64 bit install. It is not running any services or fancy stuff, I use it only for a handful of tasks that I don't have Mac software to handle. I open it up occasionally to run Windows Update and keep it up to date. I initially thought the system load was from the update processes, but the issue persists even when the virtual machine is completely at idle. This has been an issue for quite a while, and I have just dealt with it, but it actually seems to be getting worse instead of better with time.

I am attaching screen shots of the important system info for my configuration. I am hoping someone in the community might be able to offer some suggestions.

 

[Asish]

Hello, Have you checked the CPU on the Windows side? If not please open Task Manager and check CPU usage on Windows 10 VM.

 

[PhillipW4]

Hello, Have you checked the CPU on the Windows side? If not please open Task Manager and check CPU usage on Windows 10 VM.

Here is a screen shot of the Windows process screen. Windows has been booted for less than 5 minutes here. My MacBook was booted from a shut down power off state from a full shut down. It is noticeably warm for no apparent reason, as nothing is running on either machine except Parallels for the purpose of taking this screen shot.

When I cold booted the laptop, I got the other pop up message from macOS, so I am not sure if that may be a contributor as well.

 

[NickK7]

@PhillipW4 This could be related to Thermal Throttling, which the 2019 i9 MacBook Pros are notorious for (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250878229 and https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2019-16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747). Install Hot (GitHub - macmade/Hot: Hot is macOS menu bar application that displays the CPU speed limit due to thermal issues.) to see if this is causing the issue. Parallels Support has also recommended using Turbo Boost Switcher (Turbo Boost Switcher for OSX / macOS (rugarciap.com) to see if that helps VM Performance. Enabling Low Power mode on Monterey may also help your VMs sluggishness. I know these are just workarounds but I've struggled with this issue myself since early 2020.

 

[PhillipW4]

@PhillipW4 This could be related to Thermal Throttling, which the 2019 i9 MacBook Pros are notorious for (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250878229 and https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2019-16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747). Install Hot (GitHub - macmade/Hot: Hot is macOS menu bar application that displays the CPU speed limit due to thermal issues.) to see if this is causing the issue. Parallels Support has also recommended using Turbo Boost Switcher (Turbo Boost Switcher for OSX / macOS (rugarciap.com) to see if that helps VM Performance. Enabling Low Power mode on Monterey may also help your VMs sluggishness. I know these are just workarounds but I've struggled with this issue myself since early 2020.

Thank you for all this info. I am certain you are correct; it must be related to the thermal issues documented in that Apple article. For me, I am not noticing any performance problems. The Mac and the VM will do whatever I ask them to, which admittedly isn't very taxing, but they force the machine to get really hot and run fans hard just by being open. It's very frustrating.