Ars Technica is reporting on complaints surfacing from Nehalem-based (Early 2009) Mac Pro users regarding heat and performance issues when carrying out audio processing tasks.
The problem manifests as what has been described as excessive increases in power use and processor core heat when playing songs in iTunes, watching videos via Quicktime, or even when keeping USB or FireWire-based audio interfaces plugged in and active. While hardware monitors only report a small percentage of processor use, it can still cause performance decreases of up to 20 percent for other tasks.
The reports describe the symptoms are seen when the machine is running under Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6, but did not appear when running under Windows via Boot Camp. This phenomena appears to be easily reproducible, and reportedly increases CPU temperatures by 30ºC, and increase in power consumption that is disproportionate to the minor task.
It appears that AppleCare is still reluctant to acknowledge that a problem exists, and simply state that these temperature spikes are within acceptable limits.
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