How hot do your M1s run?

[mj_]

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.

Based on my admittedly limited experience (I've since given up on implementing a one-size-fits-all setup with an Apple laptop and have reverted to using a 27" iMac at my desk and a MacBook Air when not at my desk) the scaling factor can make a huge difference. I've always had mine set to smaller or smallest as well because the default setting was way too large on a 27" display. However, long after I abandoned my one-device-fits-all attempts I've learned that apparently, when you select a whole-number scaling factor temperatures (and, on devices with fans, fan noise) decrease significantly. Give it a shot, set your display scaling to "Default for display" and see whether things improve.

There are two other things you can try in addition:

a) try using it with the lid closed. That will disable the internal display, thereby reducing the load on the GPU significantly
b) raising the rear of the device by about an inch in order to ensure proper airflow underneath the laptop, which is where it dissipates heat

The third thing would be to attempt the heatpad mod but I probably wouldn't do that on a brand-new device.

 

[dogslobber]

I got my Mini 16/512 today so have been trying to get the fans running. I know the fan runs as I can switch it on via Mac Fans Control so that's one thing. But my attempts to get the fan to run under load is very frustrating. The best I can do is get it to ~83C but the fan refuses to come on. I'm simply not sure what I can do to force the fan on under load. Coming from Intel machines I expect to be able to get the fan to blare like a jet engine by running for a little load!

 

[BobHinden]

My MacMini (16G/1TB) is cold to the touch.

 

[UCDHIUS]

Ive seen max 58C on my mac mini under full load with the fan only spinning 1800 RPN

I got my Mini 16/512 today so have been trying to get the fans running. I know the fan runs as I can switch it on via Mac Fans Control so that's one thing. But my attempts to get the fan to run under load is very frustrating. The best I can do is get it to ~83C but the fan refuses to come on. I'm simply not sure what I can do to force the fan on under load. Coming from Intel machines I expect to be able to get the fan to blare like a jet engine by running for a little load!

TG pro has an option for manual control of the fan.

for the thread

Under load with parallels running windows on arm.

Allocating 7 cores and 8100 mb of ram

Cinebench R23 60C at 1750 RPM.

16/512 Mac mini

 

[dogslobber]

Ive seen max 58C on my mac mini under full load with the fan only spinning 1800 RPN


TG pro has an option for manual control of the fan.

for the thread

Under load with parallels running windows on arm.

Allocating 7 cores and 8100 mb of ram

Cinebench R23 60C at 1750 RPM.

16/512 Mac mini

I usually run the following from the terminal about a dozen times "yes >/dev/null &" then do 'pkill yes' to stop them.

 

[Zazoh]

Mine is always cold to touch. If I connect to 4K monitor, I run clamshell. Don’t have any use for a big screen and a little screen at two resolutions.

 

[jmususbi]

My Mac Mini runs cool during normal usage but gets rather toasty when I'm encoding video on Handbrake. Funnily enough even at it's hottest I haven't noticed the fan's triggering yet. I use MacsFanControl to manually crank up the fans just for the ease of mind.

 

[TrueBlou]

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.

I think it’s a crying shame that you’re having these problems, ruining what should be a great experience, and you certainly shouldn’t have to put up with them.

I don’t however, think that it’s an inherent hardware problem with the M1, or we would all be seeing the exact same issues.

I, for instance, don’t have a problem with my MacBook Air M1 going to sleep when connected to my monitor, either via HDMI, or DisplayPort adapters. I don’t have a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 display to test with, so I can’t speak to any problems that may exist there.

Likewise with Bluetooth, there’s clearly something amiss, I’ve been reading plenty of reports of people having problems.

I can’t speak for a Magic Mouse 2, I don’t have one, never found them very comfortable. But my Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Keyboard, Satechi Bluetooth keyboard, Logitech MX Master 3 (Mac), several game controllers and other devices have not yet exhibited any issues whatsoever. Even during extended use. I’m hoping it stays that way.

Something has to be causing the reports of these issues, though it is a forum and we always see skewed results in places like this. People are significantly more likely to report issues, than create threads saying, hey everything’s great - it’s human nature, we like to have a whinge about things

Whether what we’re seeing here is down to the expected faulty systems, sadly a 0% failure rate is unachievable in any manufacturing process. Or down to some other influences, well, that’s the bit I’d love to know.

 

[Pmperry]

I think it’s a crying shame that you’re having these problems, ruining what should be a great experience, and you certainly shouldn’t have to put up with them.

I don’t however, think that it’s an inherent hardware problem with the M1, or we would all be seeing the exact same issues.

I, for instance, don’t have a problem with my MacBook Air M1 going to sleep when connected to my monitor, either via HDMI, or DisplayPort adapters. I don’t have a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 display to test with, so I can’t speak to any problems that may exist there.

Likewise with Bluetooth, there’s clearly something amiss, I’ve been reading plenty of reports of people having problems.

I can’t speak for a Magic Mouse 2, I don’t have one, never found them very comfortable. But my Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Keyboard, Satechi Bluetooth keyboard, Logitech MX Master 3 (Mac), several game controllers and other devices have not yet exhibited any issues whatsoever. Even during extended use. I’m hoping it stays that way.

Something has to be causing the reports of these issues, though it is a forum and we always see skewed results in places like this. People are significantly more likely to report issues, than create threads saying, hey everything’s great - it’s human nature, we like to have a whinge about things

Whether what we’re seeing here is down to the expected faulty systems, sadly a 0% failure rate is unachievable in any manufacturing process. Or down to some other influences, well, that’s the bit I’d love to know.

I went through Apple, they said if I was seeing kernel panics it likely means the hardware is faulty... I can only assume it is the M1 that's faulty as the T3+ works fine with the 16" MBP.

The mouse is the most frustrating, in that I'll use the device for hours, and then all of a sudden, it will just disconnect and reconnect twice in a row. It's crazy stupid! Again, this doesn't happen with the MBP 16. While the Magic Mouse isn't the most comfortable, it does provide precision and the ability to use gestures like the Magic Trackpad does. I also have a Logitech T651, but the Logitech Options is having a few compatibility issues with the gestures.

With the Display, it will always wake up for me, but unlocking with the watch is a frustrating endeavor with the M1 as it has been somewhat inconsistent at times (this points to the WiFi / BT issues again). The big thing with the display though, has been the fact that it tries to force wider gamut on a non-HDR monitor and there doesn't appear to be a way to turn that off. I fixed that one by swapping the monitor out between the PC and the Mac.

The battery drain issue sucks, but I would bet more people have it, and just don't realize it, because they leave the laptop plugged in and charging over night. It's not worst problem I could have and certainly not as frustrating as the mouse issue. Update, I figured out what was causing this last night... If I leave anything connected to the USB ports (even if that device is off), it prevents the laptop from fully going to sleep, considering two different devices did this, I would say this is likely something Apple needs to look into.

Anyway, I scheduled the return of the M1 and I'll just wait to see if the 16" Apple Silicon model is better able to resolve these issues.

Overall, the M1 was a speedy little laptop, I had no issues with performance and it was pretty nice, but I can't deal with it being flakey for day to day use. I love my MacBook Pro 16, and I sincerely hope they resolve these issues going forward.

 

[Beau Slim]

My Air being cold has been more of a problem. I find it uncomfortable on my lap if it has been sleeping for a few hours. Someone needs to sell a laptop warmer.

 

[dogslobber]

My Air being cold has been more of a problem. I find it uncomfortable on my lap if it has been sleeping for a few hours. Someone needs to sell a laptop warmer.

I've discovered this with the M1 Mini. The cat usually sits on my old Intel Mac as it's always warm but not the M1 Mini which is freezing to touch in the winter time.

 

[darngooddesign]

My Air being cold has been more of a problem. I find it uncomfortable on my lap if it has been sleeping for a few hours. Someone needs to sell a laptop warmer.

Might I suggest the first-gen Powerbook 12", which Apple Support tried to argue that the extreme heat was not an issue since they never specifically said it supposed to be used on my lap. LOL

 

[GoodGuy12345]

I was looking to upgrade my 2018 mac mini to an M1 mac mini but now seeing these temps. I don't like it would be any better than the intel in terms of heatwise. I run a lot of 3D apps and have many windows open at once, but if M1 still can get to about 90C, doesnt sound that good.

Has anyone tried a solution to cool it down so the mac can still run a ton of apps?

 

[yellowhelicopter]

but if M1 still can get to about 90C, doesnt sound that good.

Well, it certainly can. But the difference is that for Intel Macs it's a normal condition, and for M1 ones it's a (very) rare occurence.