Difference in temperature of 2 MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pros

[maxsquared]

I've got two M1 Pros, 1 personal one fully speced (M1 Pro 10/16 32 Ram) another is a work assigned baseline model (M1 Pro 8/14 16 Ram).

The personal one, I do a lot intensive tasks on it, like photo editing in light rooms, some personal development projects in node/react and JavaScript, some video editing in Final Cut Pro. It never gets warm, only time it got a bit warm is when I converted thousands of RAW photos to DNG.

The work one, mostly office things like Slack, Zoom, Notion, Browser things. It gets warm from the time I turn on the computer, though, the fan never kick in. I'd thought being the less powerful machine it should run cooler.

Is this normal? Lower spec ones actually runs hotter than high specs ones? Or I've just got a bad machine? Though I am not bothered as it's work assigned.

 

[rmgbenschop]

As both machines are used differently you are comparing apples to strawberries (is that even a saying?).

It could be that your work machine runs background processes that uses more resources than your personal machine.
If you want to compare them you need to reset both laptops and see which one runs cooler. I am sure you cannot see or feel the difference.

 

[mr_roboto]

Odds are good that the work machine is running a bunch of corporate virus scanner / device management software that eats lots of resources.

 

[maxsquared]

Odds are good that the work machine is running a bunch of corporate virus scanner / device management software that eats lots of resources.

Nah, work at a startup, the machine was pretty clean when I was given, didn't even have Rosetta.

 

[StudioMacs]

Have you operated both computers side by side in the same setting?

 

[AAPLGeek]

Could be due to different ambient temps

 

[Stefdar]

I've got two M1 Pros, 1 personal one fully speced (M1 Pro 10/16 32 Ram) another is a work assigned baseline model (M1 Pro 8/14 16 Ram).

The personal one, I do a lot intensive tasks on it, like photo editing in light rooms, some personal development projects in node/react and JavaScript, some video editing in Final Cut Pro. It never gets warm, only time it got a bit warm is when I converted thousands of RAW photos to DNG.

The work one, mostly office things like Slack, Zoom, Notion, Browser things. It gets warm from the time I turn on the computer, though, the fan never kick in. I'd thought being the less powerful machine it should run cooler.

Is this normal? Lower spec ones actually runs hotter than high specs ones? Or I've just got a bad machine? Though I am not bothered as it's work assigned.

So the one you run Zoom and "browsers" on (maybe Chrome), has higher temperatures, and you are wondering why.

 

[maxsquared]

So the one you run Zoom and "browsers" on (maybe Chrome), has higher temperatures, and you are wondering why.

On the other one I run Teams which is way more resource intensive.

 

[doboy]

Run a more scientific comparison before drawing conclusions. You're trying to compare apples to oranges (or strawberries).

 

[StudioMacs]

On the other one I run Teams which is way more resource intensive.

Have you run them side by side?

 

[darngooddesign]

Do identical things on both and compare.

 

[Tagbert]

Do identical things on both and compare.

Ding, ding, ding

 

[jav6454]

I've got two M1 Pros, 1 personal one fully speced (M1 Pro 10/16 32 Ram) another is a work assigned baseline model (M1 Pro 8/14 16 Ram).

The personal one, I do a lot intensive tasks on it, like photo editing in light rooms, some personal development projects in node/react and JavaScript, some video editing in Final Cut Pro. It never gets warm, only time it got a bit warm is when I converted thousands of RAW photos to DNG.

The work one, mostly office things like Slack, Zoom, Notion, Browser things. It gets warm from the time I turn on the computer, though, the fan never kick in. I'd thought being the less powerful machine it should run cooler.

Is this normal? Lower spec ones actually runs hotter than high specs ones? Or I've just got a bad machine? Though I am not bothered as it's work assigned.

The issue is with the M1 Pro. Since yours is top spec'd it means it has the complete M1 Pro die. The baseline pretty much has either deactivated cores due to manufacturing defects or binning of the M1 Pro. It may get hot due to power being gated or inefficiencies.

Also, there is a theme of silicone lottery going on. Yes, that's a thing. Some chips within the same wafer can provide different heat output or even perform differently (more or less).

However, I wouldn't think much about it if the difference is 2 degrees. That's just silicone lottery.