How hot do your M1s run?

[Corncab44]

I got an M1 Air 16GB/1TB yesterday. Absolutely loving it though I do notice it gets fairly hot when plugged into a 4k monitor with the lid open. (But lol don't get me started on the jet engine situation when I did the same thing with a 16" I returned over the summer - this is night and day).

Today I had an unreasonable number of windows/tabs/programs open (laziness rather than necessity) and it did clearly throttle at around 95+ C. I still would prefer to keep the air since I prefer the ergonomics for typing and lack of touchbar, but I do wonder how often I'd wish I had a fan (albeit a very quiet one!).

What readings are you all getting doing various tasks?

It's such a stellar machine in any case. I'll keep testing it out.

 

[CMMChris]

MacBook Pro user here. In regular office usage my SoC temp stays at 27 to 33°C. 4k video editing has it between 40 to 60°C. Fan is off for the most part and if it turns on I can barely hear it.

I once did a complex 8k project in Final Cut which fully maxed the machine out during export (both CPU and GPU). SoC temp hit a maximum of 93°C after about one hour of exporting with the fan going full blast. Didn't go any higher than 93°C, total export time was close to three hours.

When only maxing out CPU or GPU temps stay much lower. For example, running Cinebench the temps rise to a maximum of 70°C. Fan only turns on close to the end of a single run and remains rather silent.
Things are looking similar with tasks that only tax the GPU like games. Playing Dirt Rally at 1440p with max settings the fan starts kicking in after 7 minutes or so. Temps stay within 70 to 80°C with the fan staying below 2000 RPM.

To be honest, I am surprised you managed to hit 95°C with just "a number" of apps / tabs open. My usual office workflow has the following opened:

• Two Safari windows side by side with around 5 tabs
• Microsoft Excel
• OneNote
• Skype
• Facebook Messenger
• Vienna RSS Reader
• Microsoft Outlook
• Spotify

With that I am seeing temps in between the 27 to 33°C range as mentioned above. Now I can start opening tabs in Safari like mad (I once tried 50) and I still don't see any slow-down and the temps only rise to about 45°C while loading the tabs and then drop back down to 30°C again. Looks like some app went "crazy" on your machine?

 

[darngooddesign]

Can someone with an MBP tell me what their fans do while manipulating a complex 3d model and then render while not connected to an external monitor. Side question, are the M1's fans much quieter than then Inel fans at the same level (mine is a 2014).

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have experienced zero heat with my M1 MBA.

 

[eicca]

I'm typing this with my old MBP torn apart on my desk for a thermal overhaul, and I 100% love the idea of having a fanless MBA and never having to do this again.

 

[Corncab44]

MacBook Pro user here. In regular office usage my SoC temp stays at 27 to 33°C. 4k video editing has it between 40 to 60°C. Fan is off for the most part and if it turns on I can barely hear it.

I once did a complex 8k project in Final Cut which fully maxed the machine out during export (both CPU and GPU). SoC temp hit a maximum of 93°C after about one hour of exporting with the fan going full blast. Didn't go any higher than 93°C, total export time was close to three hours.

When only maxing out CPU or GPU temps stay much lower. For example, running Cinebench the temps rise to a maximum of 70°C. Fan only turns on close to the end of a single run and remains rather silent.
Things are looking similar with tasks that only tax the GPU like games. Playing Dirt Rally at 1440p with max settings the fan starts kicking in after 7 minutes or so. Temps stay within 70 to 80°C with the fan staying below 2000 RPM.

To be honest, I am surprised you managed to hit 95°C with just "a number" of apps / tabs open. My usual office workflow has the following opened:

• Two Safari windows side by side with around 5 tabs
• Microsoft Excel
• OneNote
• Skype
• Facebook Messenger
• Vienna RSS Reader
• Microsoft Outlook
• Spotify

With that I am seeing temps in between the 27 to 33°C range as mentioned above. Now I can start opening tabs in Safari like mad (I once tried 50) and I still don't see any slow-down and the temps only rise to about 45°C while loading the tabs and then drop back down to 30°C again. Looks like some app went "crazy" on your machine?

What are you measuring temps with? Also, do you have an external monitor plugged in? I imagine that both is more taxing and lets me run a bunch more windows at once. I've actually managed to push memory pressure into the red on a few occasions. When I close the lid of the laptop screen temps fall around 10 degrees. Still not sure which reading I should be looking at (they go from 90+ to 80+ and 80+ to 70+)

Now, I have also been powering my laptop via usb-c cable running from my LG monitor. I could try going back to the original power charger to see if that makes any difference but I doubt it, and I don't want to give up the convenience.

 

[Corncab44]

I have experienced zero heat with my M1 MBA.

Have you tried with an external monitor (I'm using a 4k) and a bit of multitasking?

I don't mind the heat per se, nor throttling if it only occurs some of the time, but I do seem to be pretty hot almost always with a monitor connected.

From reviews it seemed like the fan was only really a difference maker if you were doing graphics-intensive projects for long periods of time. I'm surprised to be up in the range where it would be helpful to have a fan in my day to day (albeit very sloppy window-wise) work.

 

[someoneoutthere]

I have not heard the fans go off on my base model M1 Mac Mini while it's connected to a 4K monitor, playing various titles on Steam running max/ultra settings. Doing the initial setup, installing apps, browsing the web, watching 4K content and everything else I have done with this machine; I have not had the fans go off.
My Intel 13" MBP (2020, QC i5/16GB) sounds like an airplane about to take off when I do similar tasks on the go.
Hope it helps!

 

[Corncab44]

I have not heard the fans go off on my base model M1 Mac Mini while it's connected to a 4K monitor, playing various titles on Steam running max/ultra settings. Doing the initial setup, installing apps, browsing the web, watching 4K content and everything else I have done with this machine; I have not had the fans go off.
My Intel 13" MBP (2020, QC i5/16GB) sounds like an airplane about to take off when I do similar tasks on the go.
Hope it helps!

Thanks, that's useful. But also makes it more perplexing that my Air M1 would so want a fan with heavy but every day work loads. Maybe spotlight is still working...

Do you know what temperatures you're getting when playing games or other intensive tasks?

 

[jdb8167]

If you just have a lot of apps and tabs open but aren't really doing much with them then I would say that 95°C is too hot. Something is running wild in the background and you should use Activity Monitor to figure out what it is.

Edit I just noticed that you got the MBA yesterday. It is likely that a lot of one time processing is happening. You can look in Activity Monitor to verify this.

 

[ArPe]

When I’m using a computer for processor intensive work then I ensure that I’m using the system efficiently. That usually means only the working app will be open. I’ll open browsers and email apps only when absolutely necessary. Music can be played on another device. Social media on another device. Email notifications come through on the iPhone and Watch.

That keeps the CPU focused on one main task so that I can keep the system as stable and cool as possible regardless of how much processing power, memory or what cooling system it has.

 

[Coheebuzz]

My Mini is cooler and quieter than my monitor, i didn't even know monitors make a sound before this.

That's with running Blender, Substance Designer/Painter, Unity and the Adobe stuff (often simultaneously with just 8GB ram) and none of them are native.

 

[Jouls]

From reading this forum I get the impression that using an external 4K monitor with the M1 portables does seem to tax the cpu and gpu more. But I could be wrong.

 

[Clausewitz]

I have a Pro but I haven't yet connected to an external display. What I have noticed though is that my Pro is sometimes "less cold" under the hinge area than the area under the trackpad.

 

[Invisible Elf]

My MBA gets quite warm, sometimes uncomfortably so, while gaming WoW for long sessions while simultaneiously using my iPad Pro as an external display. When not using any external display there doesnt seem to be any issue.

 

[ascender]

The only time I've been able to get my 16GB MBA to warm up is when using a nightly build of Handbrake to do some encoding. Other than that its always been cool and (obviously) silent, even when running Windows and installing updates... also when connected to a 4K Ultrafine monitor in clamshell mode.

 

[mj_]

@Corncab44 what tool/tools are you using to get your temperature readings? What scaled resolution is your 4K display set to?

 

[seadragon]

So, if the MBA gets hot with the lid opened, would it be even worse if run in clamshell mode?

 

[darngooddesign]

With the lid open its driving two screens.

 

[Pmperry]

I got an M1 Air 16GB/1TB yesterday. Absolutely loving it though I do notice it gets fairly hot when plugged into a 4k monitor with the lid open. (But lol don't get me started on the jet engine situation when I did the same thing with a 16" I returned over the summer - this is night and day).

Today I had an unreasonable number of windows/tabs/programs open (laziness rather than necessity) and it did clearly throttle at around 95+ C. I still would prefer to keep the air since I prefer the ergonomics for typing and lack of touchbar, but I do wonder how often I'd wish I had a fan (albeit a very quiet one!).

What readings are you all getting doing various tasks?

It's such a stellar machine in any case. I'll keep testing it out.

Overall it runs okay, but the two issues I have daily are...

I shutdown my external monitor and close the laptop, then the thing never truly goes to sleep (I tend to run it on battery so as not to continuously overcharge the battery), you can see it in the screenshot below... My 16" Intel MBP has never done this.

Also, randomly, my Apple Magic Mouse 2 will disconnect and reconnect twice... This didn't happen on my Intel based MBP 16".

There have been other issues that were one off, but I worked through those, and no the laptop never really overheats, but I run an external QHD display. I will say that Apple techs claim the M1 overheating is a hardware problem.

I am leaning towards returning the M1 though as I feel like these two issues should not be happening and a reinstall of the entire laptop has not corrected the issues. You might end up doing the same, if it truly is a hardware issue.

 

[Corncab44]

@Corncab44 what tool/tools are you using to get your temperature readings? What scaled resolution is your 4K display set to?

I'm using sensei and istat menu. May uninstall sensei since it seemed to use a bit of power. Downloaded a couple since I wasn't sure which worked with AS. On the 4k monitor it's either scaled to most space or second most (things are smaller). I walso have Switchresx running on the laptop screen.

 

[Corncab44]

When I’m using a computer for processor intensive work then I ensure that I’m using the system efficiently. That usually means only the working app will be open. I’ll open browsers and email apps only when absolutely necessary. Music can be played on another device. Social media on another device. Email notifications come through on the iPhone and Watch.

That keeps the CPU focused on one main task so that I can keep the system as stable and cool as possible regardless of how much processing power, memory or what cooling system it has.

That certainly makes sense. Unfortunately for my work I need a large number of browser windows open, including some in Chrome for work. For everything else I'll try to move to Safari though Firefox is my favorite browser and this AS version is mean to be optimized. Still seems awful resource hungry, just like the AS Chrome.

Then I have various other productivity/editing things open. Usually not exporting video, but the cumulative effect seems to take a toll on my air.

I'll experiment again with no Firefox and as little Chrome as possible.

 

[spiderman0616]

I've had my M1 MBA running about 10 apps at once while streaming video and running Affinity Publisher at the same time, and the hottest it's ever gotten is ever so slightly warm to the touch. Definitely not the leg hair burning heat that would come off of my work MBP or my old 13" MBP from back in the day.

I have had it with zillions of browser tabs open in Safari. I refuse to install Chrome on it. I have not yet attempted to hook it up to one of my docks and use it with a large monitor.

 

[someoneoutthere]

Thanks, that's useful. But also makes it more perplexing that my Air M1 would so want a fan with heavy but every day work loads. Maybe spotlight is still working...

Do you know what temperatures you're getting when playing games or other intensive tasks?

Most of the readings are in the 85-120F range according to iStats, under load. Like I said, I have not heard the fans kick in for my Mac Mini and it does not feel warm/hot by any means.
Edit: Idling temps are between the 60-75F range (just a ballpark reading of all of the sensors the app reports.)

 

[lpolarityl]

Mine has never gotten hot (MBP). I've yet to hear the fan and I've had it for about 2.5 months. I've used it nearly everyday since having it.