Fan Cooling better at thermal Time Outs? M2 MBP vs M2 MBA

[veedubbin]

I have an 11 inch MacBook which I love because of its lightweight design and my ability to easily ported on my backpack and work anywhere. I wish that they still made a smaller model like this. However, lately I’ve been working a lot outside in the hot Florida heat (usually under a fan and covered porch)! The six-year-old MacBook keeps taking thermal timeouts, letting me know that I need to wait until it cools down and preventing me from working.

Therefore, I’m looking at upgrading to a new M2 notebook. I’m wondering if the fan on board of the MacBook Pro will help prevent these types of thermal shut downs vs the fabless design of the MBA, which is more similar to my 11 inch MB.

Any experiences with older MBPs taking thermal time outs despite the active fan?

 

[JPack]

There's no thermal issue with M1 MBP, so there shouldn't be with M2 MBP.

Apple deliberately undersized the heatsink on M1 MBA to limit performance. We have yet to see what M2 MBA looks like inside, but it's likely similar due to product positioning.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

There's no thermal issue with M1 MBP, so there shouldn't be with M2 MBP.

Apple deliberately undersized the heatsink on M1 MBA to limit performance. We have yet to see what M2 MBA looks like inside, but it's likely similar due to product positioning.

Deliberately? Some conspiracy theory there. The MBA is not a machine where you should be doing sustained heavy workloads which is why it gets the base chips and it should be common sense by now for all Apple users. The fact that it can do these things is testament to it’s power but that was never it’s purpose.

MBA can do some amazing things and the 11” MB isn’t even anywhere near the amount of efficiency the new ones have so you’ll be good with an M1 or M2.

 

[JPack]

Deliberately? Some conspiracy theory there. The MBA is not a machine where you should be doing sustained heavy workloads which is why it gets the base chips and it should be common sense by now for all Apple users. The fact that it can do these things is testament to it’s power but that was never it’s purpose.

MBA can do some amazing things and the 11” MB isn’t even anywhere near the amount of efficiency the new ones have so you’ll be good with an M1 or M2.

Apple went from a finned heat sink (2018-2020) to a featureless and flat heat spreader in M1 MBA.

It's not a conspiracy, it's basic engineering science. The bigger the surface area, the better the cooling. Apple didn't "forget" to have a proper heat sink in M1 iMac or Mac mini.

 

[jav6454]

Deliberately? Some conspiracy theory there. The MBA is not a machine where you should be doing sustained heavy workloads which is why it gets the base chips and it should be common sense by now for all Apple users. The fact that it can do these things is testament to it’s power but that was never it’s purpose.

MBA can do some amazing things and the 11” MB isn’t even anywhere near the amount of efficiency the new ones have so you’ll be good with an M1 or M2.

No conspiracy here. Apple made the MBA fanless and hence they touted it as passively cooled. Hence, in benchmarking and some real world testing the MBA was found to throttle often which lead to performance impacts.

As @JPack stated, physics plays against the type of thermal dissipation the MBA is using.

 

[veedubbin]

Do you all think that the design with the fan would be less likely to thermal timeout in outdoor radiant heat than the fabless design? Seems like common sense would say that I should go with a design that includes a fan here.

 

[JPack]

Do you all think that the design with the fan would be less likely to thermal timeout in outdoor radiant heat than the fabless design? Seems like common sense would say that I should go with a design that includes a fan here.

There is no doubt about that. If you are always outdoors in direct sunlight, MBA won't be able to cool itself.

 

[jav6454]

Do you all think that the design with the fan would be less likely to thermal timeout in outdoor radiant heat than the fabless design? Seems like common sense would say that I should go with a design that includes a fan here.

Yes it will throttle under radiant heat as the heatsink will be absorbing that radiant heat with no way of transferring it to the air effectively. On a MBP with fans, heat is transferred over to the cooler air thereby cooling your Mac even under the sun.