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solouki

macrumors 6502
Jan 5, 2017
339
213
Hi all,

First of all, I haven't read through every post and so may have missed the following point already having been made in an earlier post, so I apologize if I missed it. And I'm sure you all already know this anyway, but I thought I'd mention it just to be clear.

As long as 100C is far from a phase transition temperature (e.g., the melting point of Si), which I believe it is, then comparing 30C to 85C to 95C to 100C might sound like a large percentage difference in temperature, but it is actually much smaller than it might at first appear. Atom migration (diffusion) in a solid matrix has an activation energy and the kinetics are, I believe, controlled by an exponential dependency on the temperatures. But it is not the temperatures given as degrees Celsius, rather it is the temperatures given by degrees Kelvin that are important. Thus the actual temperatures should be listed as 303K to 358K to 368K to 373K instead of the ones given in degrees C above, and now there is a much smaller percentage change in the pertinent temperatures that go into the exponential functions than when these temperatures are listed in degrees C.

For instance, the difference between 95C and 100C appears to be a mammoth 5% temperature change which sounds like a large percentage change, but in reality it is only a 1.3% temperature change (from 368K to 373K) for the temperatures that count (the physically pertinent absolute temperatures that are included in the exponential functions describing the kinetics of the diffusional process).

An aside example:
A number of years ago an NFL quarterback who shall remain nameless was ensnared in "deflategate" where his game balls were under-inflated allowing for a better grip on the football. A number of writers, including some publicly famous physicists and science writers and engineers, calculated the temperature difference required to yield the measured deflated pressures, but their calculated temperatures were incorrect because they employed degrees F (or the equivalent degrees C) instead of the proper degrees K (or the equivalent degrees R) in their computations. They also employed the gauge pressures instead of the absolute pressures. Their argument was that their computed temperature differences could not be achieved at the ball game and thus cheating (manual ball deflation) had to have occurred. The proper Clausius-Clapeyron equation, employing the proper absolute temperatures and pressures, yielded entirely different temperatures required for the "deflategate" ball pressures, and ones that indeed could be attained in a locker room setting. I, and about a dozen other physicists, pointed out these errors in the computations at that time, and it was eventually publicly admitted that the original computations were indeed incorrect. This was a case of not grasping the underlying physics of the problem and thus simply plugging the wrong numbers into an equation to yield incorrect answers.

But back to the M1 chip temperatures ... my personal opinion, and I'm no expert in solid state physics and silicon and so my opinion is probably worthless, is that the minor increase in atom migration in the silicon of the M1 chip caused by a 1.3% temperature increase is probably a very minor effect on the lifespan of the computer than running the fans to keep the temperature at 95C where the fans's failure mode is caused by mechanical wear on bearings, a much greater risk for failure I would think than the minor increase in atom migration in the M1 silicon. What do you guys and gals think? I'm probably wrong, so please correct me if you have further information.

Regards,
Solouki
 
Last edited:

Queen6

macrumors G4
Way entertaining thread guys ? Anyone worried about the temps of Apple's Silicon has to be new to the Mac :p

100% stock including the battery, runs well and truly owes me nothing. These pre Retina 15" MBP's run hotter than hades ??? to the point you learn not touch the chassis in certain places...
Screen Shot 2022-03-13 at 11.39.46.png

IMO Mac's are generally pretty solid and the major reason to alter fan curves was the reduce the noise or if lucky tame the throttling tendency of the Intel based Mac's. When used in anger this MBP was literally running at 100% for days on end. It rapidly reaches very close to 100C nor does it throttle and it's yet to killed by such usage :)

Q-6
 
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throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,198
7,353
Perth, Western Australia
Way entertaining thread guys ? Anyone worried about the temps of Apple's Silicon has to be new to the Mac :p

100% stock including the battery, runs well and truly owes me nothing. These pre Retina 15" MBP's run hotter than hades ??? to the point you learn not touch the chassis in certain places...
View attachment 1974388
IMO Mac's are generally pretty solid and the major reason to alter fan curves was the reduce the noise or if lucky tame the throttling tendency of the Intel based Mac's. When used in anger this MBP was literally running at 100% for days on end. It rapidly reaches very close to 100C nor does it throttle and it's yet to killed by such usage :)

Q-6


Yup. My old 2011 didn't die of heat death despite its best attempts, it was the pre-ordained GPU failure due to manufacturing defect. The CPU and the rest of the machine is still working today. I just decided I like the 13" form factor better and discrete GPU reliability/heat less, so upgraded. Twice now. Machine still works.

The new M1? No need to alter fan curves as it is mostly silent... there's plenty of thermal headroom but apple have decided that the 100C reading, as measured by the hot spot on the M1 Pro (vs. whatever the measurement is on the intel chips - likely different) is fine.

As they've designed, built and presumably tested the things and I have AppleCare.... I trust their judgement.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Yup. My old 2011 didn't die of heat death despite its best attempts, it was the pre-ordained GPU failure due to manufacturing defect. The CPU and the rest of the machine is still working today. I just decided I like the 13" form factor better and discrete GPU reliability/heat less, so upgraded. Twice now. Machine still works.

The new M1? No need to alter fan curves as it is mostly silent... there's plenty of thermal headroom but apple have decided that the 100C reading, as measured by the hot spot on the M1 Pro (vs. whatever the measurement is on the intel chips - likely different) is fine.

As they've designed, built and presumably tested the things and I have AppleCare.... I trust their judgement.
This 2011 15" seems to be rather more the exception than the rule as it remains to be the same as it left the factory. It's spent a lot of time being pushed hard and generally abused, yet still runs as expected. As said when it fails it fails.

I have Macs Fan Control installed on my M1 MBP, just an exercise in curiosity really. I see no need to manually alter the fan curve. The MBP very much runs cool & quiet, you can push the system hard and the fan will become noticeable, nothing close to the levels of the Intel MBP's.

I don't love all with the M1 13" MBP; port solution isn't great & Touchbar is just plainly hit or miss depending on the application. I'm rather ambivalent towards it myself as it can add, yet take away and it's gone anyway, which TBH was given. For me the positive's far outweigh the negatives as the M1 13" MBP is a excellent notebook and when you can have this level of performance in such small package what's not to like :)

985179-d47bbefc083f96b4deeeed953a99c709.jpg


I like the new 14" & 16" MBP's and although I don't have a need is very much a step in the right direction for Apple. The 2016 redesign turned off many working professionals due to it's form over function approach (thin for the sake of being thinner). Worse they proved to be unreliable due to the same mantra (Butterfly Keyboard), wrong CPU's in the wrong chassis, what could possibly go wrong ?

Thankfully Apple (finally) listened. At the end of the day both professional's & consumers want convenient ports, not dongles. They expect premium notebooks sold on performance not to throttle near instantly as they are paying for said performance. Right now the Mac is in a good place as long as you can implement Apple Silicon into your workflow/usage.


Q-6
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,198
7,353
Perth, Western Australia
It's the same group that was spreading misinformation about 8GB = 16GB. When challenged with common sense they throw a tantrum and proclaim they're "real engineers" but in the end stop spouting nonsense.

UH, don't lump me in with that, i've always stated that you should get as much RAM as you can afford within reason.


edit:
ah, see you're just basically making stuff up about people to try and get a "win". If you can find anything on this forum where i have suggested going for less RAM, or that any sort of ram = any other amount of RAM, go for it, and quote/link it here, i'll wait.

Also, have never said i was a real engineer. So two lies in two sentences, gg mate.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,198
7,353
Perth, Western Australia
This 2011 15" seems to be rather more the exception than the rule as it remains to be the same as it left the factory. It's spent a lot of time being pushed hard and generally abused, yet still runs as expected. As said when it fails it fails.
Sounds like you were lucky and got a non-defective one.

The root cause of the problem is defective manufacturing in the AMD GPU on-board. Mine had the higher spec GPU for its year for what its worth.

I'm sure that not every single one left the factory faulty, but plenty did, as did mine, and that's why it failed after 5 years. I hear baking them can help but to be honest i've got no need for it any more so haven't bothered. At the time i was trying to do desktop replacement with it GPU wise and have since learned that no mobile GPU is going to be both quiet and as fast as anything i have on the desktop.
 
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cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,474
California
Hi all,

First of all, I haven't read through every post and so may have missed the following point already having been made in an earlier post, so I apologize if I missed it. And I'm sure you all already know this anyway, but I thought I'd mention it just to be clear.

As long as 100C is far from a phase transition temperature (e.g., the melting point of Si), which I believe it is, then comparing 30C to 85C to 95C to 100C might sound like a large percentage difference in temperature, but it is actually much smaller than it might at first appear. Atom migration (diffusion) in a solid matrix has an activation energy and the kinetics are, I believe, controlled by an exponential dependency on the temperatures. But it is not the temperatures given as degrees Celsius, rather it is the temperatures given by degrees Kelvin that are important. Thus the actual temperatures should be listed as 303K to 358K to 368K to 373K instead of the ones given in degrees C above, and now there is a much smaller percentage change in the pertinent temperatures that go into the exponential functions than when these temperatures are listed in degrees C.

For instance, the difference between 95C and 100C appears to be a mammoth 5% temperature change which sounds like a large percentage change, but in reality it is only a 1.3% temperature change (from 368K to 373K) for the temperatures that count (the physically pertinent absolute temperatures that are included in the exponential functions describing the kinetics of the diffusional process).

An aside example:
A number of years ago an NFL quarterback who shall remain nameless was ensnared in "deflategate" where his game balls were under-inflated allowing for a better grip on the football. A number of writers, including some publicly famous physicists and science writers and engineers, calculated the temperature difference required to yield the measured deflated pressures, but their calculated temperatures were incorrect because they employed degrees F (or the equivalent degrees C) instead of the proper degrees K (or the equivalent degrees R) in their computations. They also employed the gauge pressures instead of the absolute pressures. Their argument was that their computed temperature differences could not be achieved at the ball game and thus cheating (manual ball deflation) had to have occurred. The proper Clausius-Clapeyron equation, employing the proper absolute temperatures and pressures, yielded entirely different temperatures required for the "deflategate" ball pressures, and ones that indeed could be attained in a locker room setting. I, and about a dozen other physicists, pointed out these errors in the computations at that time, and it was eventually publicly admitted that the original computations were indeed incorrect. This was a case of not grasping the underlying physics of the problem and thus simply plugging the wrong numbers into an equation to yield incorrect answers.

But back to the M1 chip temperatures ... my personal opinion, and I'm no expert in solid state physics and silicon and so my opinion is probably worthless, is that the minor increase in atom migration in the silicon of the M1 chip caused by a 1.3% temperature increase is probably a very minor effect on the lifespan of the computer than running the fans to keep the temperature at 95C where the fans's failure mode is caused by mechanical wear on bearings, a much greater risk for failure I would think than the minor increase in atom migration in the M1 silicon. What do you guys and gals think? I'm probably wrong, so please correct me if you have further information.

Regards,
Solouki
Yep.
 
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MacCheetah3

macrumors 68020
Nov 14, 2003
2,285
1,225
Central MN
They've never got it right in the past, though. Dead GPUs from overheating and damaging the substrate. Warped logic boards that GPUs rise from or have broken solder connections. The CPU might survive but the chips and components around certainly wont appreciate the heat.

Apple always prioritises quiet running over longevity.
Weak/poor soldering/balling has been a mistake made by several manufacturers, for example:


(In my experience, computer repair shop, this plagued several models from Dell, HP, Compaq, as well as other PC brands.)

Additionally, noise levels and frequencies are worthy of consideration. Those who have spent their time with laptops, SFF PCs, high end graphics cards and other systems/components utilizing 95 mm and smaller fans at or near max RPM know how obnoxious they can be.

This is all very true. Maybe I’m just too accustomed to the never ending tinkering in the PC world. It just makes me nervous about the longevity if temps of the CPU, GPU and RAM are often in the 80-90C range.
I see this has been addressed plenty of times in this thread. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things I want to re-highlight:

Foremost, the most popular/influential content creators, apparently, often enough loose sensibility.

You have simple fun stuff like:


Informative/practical stuff:



Although, Jay does have plenty of technical info oops moments. But he’s not trying to be Steve (GN).

A mix of practical/informative demo and needless:



And the extremely ridiculous:




Basically, social media is primarily showmanship and business — at least nowadays. Additionally, the lines of "you should be doing this" and “we are just having fun” are too blurred. Ultimately, it’s unfortunate, easy to get lost in the magnificent spectacles and sales pitches, and definitely not just you.


Lastly… Of course, components operating at (presumably) borderline safety threshold for extended periods is not good. However, it’s also not likely to strike as a catastrophic event either.
 

Andropov

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2012
746
990
Spain
You can go have a look at the Mac Studio disassembly to see that Apple clearly has put a lot of effort into keeping the heat from the SoC confined to the SoC and the heatsink only.
 
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cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,474
California
You can go have a look at the Mac Studio disassembly to see that Apple clearly has put a lot of effort into keeping the heat from the SoC confined to the SoC and the heatsink only.

Yep. Very impressive thermal design, which I’m guessing results in very slow fan RPMs. And as you pointed out in The Good Place, both the top and bottom surfaces are cooled, which should eliminate any concern about solder joints (which is all you really are worried about here. 100C is nothing as far as germanium-doped-silicon is concerned.
 
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bobcomer

macrumors 601
May 18, 2015
4,949
3,699
Yep. Very impressive thermal design, which I’m guessing results in very slow fan RPMs. And as you pointed out in The Good Place, both the top and bottom surfaces are cooled, which should eliminate any concern about solder joints (which is all you really are worried about here. 100C is nothing as far as germanium-doped-silicon is concerned.
I agree, the thermal design looks a lot better than most I've seen. I wont have my Studio for another couple weeks, so I can't really comment on actual noise, but it appears a lot of people think it's way louder than earlier Mac's, even some intels. The fan never goes to zero (I like that, others don't), and it spins pretty fast and is audible. Idle seems to be 1300, and it can't be set lower than something in the 1100's.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Weak/poor soldering/balling has been a mistake made by several manufacturers, for example:


(In my experience, computer repair shop, this plagued several models from Dell, HP, Compaq, as well as other PC brands.)

Additionally, noise levels and frequencies are worthy of consideration. Those who have spent their time with laptops, SFF PCs, high end graphics cards and other systems/components utilizing 95 mm and smaller fans at or near max RPM know how obnoxious they can be.


I see this has been addressed plenty of times in this thread. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things I want to re-highlight:

Foremost, the most popular/influential content creators, apparently, often enough loose sensibility.

You have simple fun stuff like:

Although, Jay does have plenty of technical info oops moments. But he’s not trying to be Steve (GN).

A mix of practical/informative demo and needless:

Basically, social media is primarily showmanship and business — at least nowadays. Additionally, the lines of "you should be doing this" and “we are just having fun” are too blurred. Ultimately, it’s unfortunate, easy to get lost in the magnificent spectacles and sales pitches, and definitely not just you.


Lastly… Of course, components operating at (presumably) borderline safety threshold for extended periods is not good. However, it’s also not likely to strike as a catastrophic event either.
It was the transition from lead based solder that tripped up a lot of companies. As the replacement solder of the time was more brittle and prone to failure (thermal fatigue). Yes AMD & Apple didn't do their homework, yet they never anticipated such a retrograde step, how could they as the specs of the lead free solder on paper met and exceeded...

Also explains why some systems of this era continue to run as intended. In the electronics industry it's not uncommon for manufacturers to have multiple vendors with slightly differing spec's. Some chips undoubtedly were fabricated with a less brittle more malleable solder that didn't prematurely degrade due to thermal fatigue. I own one.

TLDR:
AMD's design was solid for the time, Apple's stance and implementation of cooling worked in the lab yet struggled IRL taking a lot of work in SW to resolve. Add in lead free solder, issue was exacerbated by Apple's cooling solution; the rest is history, hence why the failure rate of the 2011 15"/17" was so high.

Q-6
 
Last edited:

MacCheetah3

macrumors 68020
Nov 14, 2003
2,285
1,225
Central MN
It was the transition from lead based solder that tripped up a lot of companies. As the replacement solder of the time was more brittle and prone to failure (thermal fatigue). Yes AMD & Apple didn't do their homework, yet they never anticipated such a retrograde step, how could they as the specs of the lead free solder on paper met and exceeded...

Also explains why some systems of this era continue to run as intended. In the electronics industry it's not uncommon for manufacturers to have multiple vendors with slightly differing spec's. Some chips undoubtedly were fabricated with a less brittle more malleable solder that didn't prematurely degrade due to thermal fatigue. I own one.

TLDR:
AMD's design was solid for the time, Apple's stance and implementation of cooling worked in the lab yet struggled IRL taking a lot of work in SW to resolve. Add in lead free solder, issue was exacerbated by Apple's cooling solution; the rest is history, hence why the failure rate of the 2011 15"/17" was so high.

Q-6
Off topic, speaking of brittle and poor implementation… An even more common hardware problem was the DC port on laptops. Many companies provided zero reinforcement on the inside. So, the power pin(s) would be the only anchor/brace and, of course, would break the solder with little carelessness. Beyond the tediousness of disassembly and reassembly, the damage was not a hugely difficult repair. However, obviously, without doing a mod, I would appropriately warn customers the problem could happen again and again.

Hopefully, this is not the situation with laptops produced in the past decade.
 
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erythoxylin

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2022
5
4
I think that based on what intel wrote on their website, The safer choice is B.
last sentence from the link below,
"....PC cooling isn’t just good practice. It’s also important for getting the best performance from your build, and for potentially increasing the lifespan of your components."

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...g-the-importance-of-keeping-your-pc-cool.html

There is a potential that helping to keep your system cool will help it last longer. Not a certainty, but a potential. I think that as a company, Apple would like all of us to replace our devices every 2-4 years, and even with apple silicon, a quieter device also equals a hotter device, which potentially may not last as long as a cooler device. Less devices dying after 3 years = less money for apple, so it is in their interest financially for their engineers to also consider planned obsolescence and ways to make consumers buy something new again. They are a company. They are not a not-for-profit scientific research institute. It s not in their financial interest to design devices made to last 10-15 years, but lucky for us, sometimes they do last that long, and they may last longer if we try to keep them running cool. potentially. I’ll air on the side of caution.

timmu is right
do you remember problems with iBooks G3 or G4 ?
any apple computer (or iPhone ) will last up to 2-3-4 years
some of good old internal design models like iMac's with 3 ventilators last up to 7yr
 
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MauiPa

macrumors 68040
Apr 18, 2018
3,438
5,084
timmu is right
do you remember problems with iBooks G3 or G4 ?
any apple computer (or iPhone ) will last up to 2-3-4 years
some of good old internal design models like iMac's with 3 ventilators last up to 7yr
timmu is right
do you remember problems with iBooks G3 or G4 ?
any apple computer (or iPhone ) will last up to 2-3-4 years
some of good old internal design models like iMac's with 3 ventilators last up to 7yr
You did note he is quoting Intel whivh runs it’s chips @105C?
 

TimmuJapan

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2020
373
651
You did note he is quoting Intel whivh runs it’s chips @105C?
“He” is running his intel macs with the fan curves adjusted and has reapplied thermal paste to ”his” 2012 MacBook pros that are still rocking.

@MauiPa , you have bestowed me with too much dignity in how you refer to me as “he.”
??‍♂️?
 

MauiPa

macrumors 68040
Apr 18, 2018
3,438
5,084
“He” is running his intel macs with the fan curves adjusted and has reapplied thermal paste to ”his” 2012 MacBook pros that are still rocking.

@MauiPa , you have bestowed me with too much dignity in how you refer to me as “he.”
??‍♂️?
My apologies, and excellent way to indicate I am wrong, thanks for that
 
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dimme

macrumors 68040
Feb 14, 2007
3,264
32,159
SF, CA
I usually use istat menus to keep a eye on my computers, mostly for network transfer speeds. but do look at the CPU tems once in a while. The only app that stresses out my 24" M1 imac is xplane 11 and in istat menu the CPU temps reach into the low 90'sC. I also have a copy of TG pro which I run sometines when running Xplane because it will log the temps to a log file, and the temps there are about 8 to 10C higher. I think it is because istat takes a average approach and TG pro used more data points. I not too concerned about running at 100c, but what I find interesting looking at the TG pro numbers is how fast it can go from 100C to 90C in seconds.
 
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