gavbon86: I have it too at the moment and it's kicking my ass so hard! Hope you get better soon!.This wasn't always true, Apple has significantly improved OS X performance with 10.6.x vs Leopard. The Cinebench scores are identical under both OSes in case you were wondering. The 15W difference in idle power usage is significant, but honestly it matters a lot less in a system like the Mac Pro than a mini or MacBook Pro. As expected, idle power was a bit higher while load power consumption was identical: Power Consumption Comparison I decided to see how power consumption changed under Boot Camp. We’ve been tracking Mac power consumption in OS X vs. The Mac Pro we’re testing here is clocked much lower than our 2009 Mac Pro, which explains some of the power advantage but not all of it. The same is true under load, although the GPU plays less of a role in our Cinebench render test for load power. If you look at the 2009 Mac Pro with a GeForce GTX 285 however, the 5770/2010 Mac Pro has a significant idle power advantage. If we compare last year’s Mac Pro with the GeForce GT 120 idle power consumption is actually lower than the new Westmere system thanks to the Radeon HD 5770 drawing more power at idle. So helping it along with the above steps will allow your Mac to stay cooler.The big advantage of Westmere is power consumption. The Apples therefore rely on the fans quite a lot to move heat out of the system, and the fans don't work that well, all things considered, when compared with a performance Windows machine. Many Appleist Dunning-Krugers make reference to aluminium being a good conductor of heat when talking about the unibody case, but the fact is that the MBP's casing no longer gets that hot, unlike the 2006-7 Macs which could easily reach 50C on certain areas of the case - and this is due to heat *not* being translated to the case.

a 'traditional' underside-vented Windows notebook. Putting airflow OVER the machine - across the keyboard - helps more than airflow under the machine, as would e.g.

The best way to avoid overheating and the consequent stuttering/etc is to spin up the fans to max prior to doing anything strenuous, never use it lid-closed (even if you have an external monitor), and put it on a cooler or stand which allows for sufficient airflow under and around the machine. It hasn't really changed with the 2010 models. Cooling is terrible on Macs - it's just one of those things.

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