I'd like to point out, that the fan speeds are at 6000RPM for each fan, making it a little loud but not unbearable. CPU temperatures were high, peaking at 92C but the GPU never exceeded 80C! This was with the bottom lid on, playing on the Mac's display. I could run the game at 3.1 GHz and 1070/2250 MHz without hitting any throttling (80w limit). GTA IV was a good test for this, as it stresses all 8 threads on the CPU, and stresses the GPU.

The high temperatures made the 80w limit a common issue. The big problem for me was the 80w throttle limit Apple has for the Macbook Pro. Power consumption lowered about 2-5w per component because of the lowered temperatures enabling me to have maximum cpu turbo/gpu overclock with the bottom lid on for many games! For Intel Burn Test, I saw the CPU no longer hitting 105C and throttling 3.4 GHz at 8 threads but instead capped at 95-96!

Before replacing the thermal paste, I could only go up to 1050 MHz before the driver crashing. In many games, the GT 650M exceeded no more than 85C at 1070 MHz core, and 2995 MHz memory! The thermal paste added stability making me go up to 1100 MHz on core speed before crashing. I got a consistent 10C decrease of temperatures from the i7-3720QM, but the GPU gains I got were phenomenal. Before scraping off the original paste, I noticed I saw bare die on the CPU and GPU! I was hoping for around a 10C decrease per component, but after stress testing I was amazed by the improvements primarily the GPU. This was after a quick cleaning near the end of the cleaning process.

2012 macbook pro gpu update