Intel Power Gadget Utility Mysteriously Removed Only For Mac After MacBook Pro Throttle-Gate

YouTuber Dave Lee first brought attention to the problem earlier this week when he discovered that while under the load the MacBook Pro with Core i9 option reported clock speeds as low as 2.2GHz instead of its base clock of 2.9GHz. Apple Insider then later confirmed those findings with its own testing.

Now, the Intel Power Gadget 3.5.2 tool that everyone has been using to monitor clock speeds in real-time on the MacBook Pro has mysteriously vanished from Intel's website. While the Windows and Linux versions of the app remain, the download link for the macOS version is no longer active. Some redditors, however, have posted mirror links for those that still want to download the utility for use on their MacBook computers.

The timing of the removal of the utility is rather curious given the increasing scrutiny that Apple is facing over the issue. Benchmark results showed that in some cases, the Core i9, which is a hexa-core processor, scored worse than its Kaby Lake-based Core i7 predecessor (quad-core).

Many people point the blame at Apple for putting the Core i9 in a relatively thin chassis that likely wasn't designed to deal with the immense heat generated by the processor. That taxing thermal profile is the reason for the throttling, which makes the expensive CPU upgrade not really worth it for professionals. In Lee's testing, he was able to place the MacBook Pro in freezer, which resulted in improved benchmarks scores (thanks to less of a heat strain on the processor).

We've reached out to Intel for comment on the removal of the utility from its website and will report back when we get a response.