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bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,929
1,589
Not that I'm doubting you or anything, but if your room is 45F right now you've probably got on a sweater and some sort of winter coat on top. Are you sure it's 45F? lol

I used to live in Santa Cruz, CA where nighttime is almost a constant 45 - 55F all year long. So yeah, I do have a sweater on, but no need for a winter coat.
 

raknor

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2020
136
150
No, just a regular house. That last heat wave that hit the Bay Area a few months ago caused record high temperatures. You really have to live here to feel it.


It's not "usual occurrence" per se, but it did teach me that I'll always need a fan in my computer, just in case.

I do. The OP asked about indoor temperature swings and you are quoting outside temperatures of 110F or 45F. Like I said I lived in a very old badly insulated house and in the worst heat waves my house never made it close to 110F indoors.

Unless you live in a tent in an open field 110F or 45F temperatures (ambient out side) would not result in the same temperatures indoor in a regular house.
 

bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,929
1,589
I do. The OP asked about indoor temperature swings and you are quoting outside temperatures of 110F or 45F. Like I said I lived in a very old badly insulated house and in the worst heat waves my house never made it close to 110F indoors.

Unless you live in a tent in an open field 110F or 45F temperatures (ambient out side) would not result in the same temperatures indoor in a regular house.

Okay, then let's say I was lying, and let's quote the average "best insulation" values of "up to 10 degrees cooler/warmer", that means indoor temps are still within 55F to 100F.

I don't doubt the MacBook Air will perform well when it's cooler, so that's whatever. What about when ambient is 90-100F?
 

raknor

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2020
136
150
What kind of indoor temperature swings are you seeing where you live?

In these parts indoor temperatures are typically ~72F winter, ~78F summer. I'd be surprised if 6F ambient made any appreciable difference.

... and it is almost summer in Australia and other southern-hemisphere nations. I don't follow youtubers but presume at least one or two likely live outside the US? :)
Okay, then let's say I was lying, and let's quote the average "best insulation" values of "up to 10 degrees cooler/warmer", that means indoor temps are still within 55F to 100F.
Those values are still way off. Who lives in a house when it is those temperatures? Most humans turn on the AC/ fans/swamp coolers to keep cool

I have lived in some of the hottest places on the planet like the Middle East where it is consistently hotter than San Jose has ever been on any of the heat waves that last a few days at best.

I have never walked into any house where the room temperature is in the 100s, ever!

I won’t say you are lying but what ever you are on is potent stuff if you think most people live in homes where the rooms are 100F.

In 90-100F any computer fan or not is going to struggle to keep cool and is going to throttle. I don’t even understand the mental gymnastics at play here.
 

bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,929
1,589
I don't think most people live in homes where the rooms are 100F. Please don't put words in my mouth.

And honestly, this doesn't concern what you're quoting, but this whole thread: at what point will ambient temperature matter with the MacBook Air? Will I have to be in AC for it to perform normally?

And what about when I need to use the computer outdoors? Do I just give up?

These are reasonable questions to ponder.
 

raknor

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2020
136
150
I don't think most people live in homes where the rooms are 100F. Please don't put words in my mouth.
You claimed in San Jose CA indoor temperatures reach 110F because of a heat wave. You are doing a fine job of putting words in your mouth

And honestly, this doesn't concern what you're quoting, but this whole thread: at what point will ambient temperature matter with the MacBook Air? Will I have to be in AC for it to perform normally?
And what about when I need to use the computer outdoors? Do I just give up?
What is the hottest the chassis gets running load? from what I have seen about 37-40 C. As long at the ambient temperature is lower than that the Air should reach equilibrium.

These are reasonable questions to ponder.

how would any computer cope when it is 110F outside? As your self that.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,467
6,570
US
And what about when I need to use the computer outdoors? Do I just give up?

These are reasonable questions to ponder.
Think it through. Look at the temperature differential from CPU to ambient since that drives heat dissipation rate (all else held identical).

Let's assume a CPU at 90C/194F and a 78F ambient, the delta is 116F.
Raise ambient to 90F and the delta is reduced by ~10% to 104F.

IMHO it's improbable that a 10% reduction in that temperature differential will have a truly noticeable effect in typical usage.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
Depends what you do on the machine. always has,, so why should reviews of a users experience matter now all of a sudden?

it may be quieter and not kick in for some time, but still. Youtube reviewers were never the gold seal of approval
 

bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,929
1,589
What is the hottest the chassis gets running load? from what I have seen about 37-40 C. As long at the ambient temperature is lower than that the Air should reach equilibrium.

Eh, I won't try to debate the rest of the other points with you. Let's just say... San Jose, CA is not the same as "most people" and leave it at that?

As for this question, this is the hottest the outside casing can get with the Air:

So in 70 - 80F, let's say average around 24C. With that, the Air only reaches 37 - 40C.
Australia is about 90 - 100F right now, let's say average around 34C. We're seeing 60C.

I think we can easily draw a conclusion as to how hot the "outside" can get at 110F.

Think it through. Look at the temperature differential from CPU to ambient since that drives heat dissipation rate (all else held identical).

Let's assume a CPU at 90C/194F and a 78F ambient, the delta is 116F.
Raise ambient to 90F and the delta is reduced by ~10% to 104F.

IMHO it's improbable that a 10% reduction in that temperature differential will have a truly noticeable effect in typical usage.

Yeah, but with a fan, you can speed up heat dissipation by improving airflow.

Also, temperature differential may be higher than you think. Please see above.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,616
Los Angeles, CA
I just want to share my MBP experience with thermals and fan noise. The YouTube reviews I watched said the fan is silent, it’s hardly even spinning even under max CPU load. My experience is MUCH different.
I’m playing Fortnite in “windowed mode”. And after 30 minutes, the fan is easily audible and you can feel lots of hot air blowing out the back. For some reason “windowed mode” causes this more.

My feeling is the Youtubers aren’t maxing out the CPU and GPU simultaneously for that long. My fan RPM is much higher with pretty average gaming.

Anyway my final thoughts on the cooling are that the heat pipe and fan work very well, and are sized correctly for this CPU when you actually push it to its limit.
Don't forget that Fortnite isn't Apple Silicon native yet. I'll bet your experience would be quite different with a native title such as World of Warcraft.
 

jon08

macrumors 68000
Nov 14, 2008
1,886
105
Can someone comment on MBA thermals in clamshell mode vs non-clamshell mode? Does it get any hotter when in clamshell mode?
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
Can someone comment on MBA thermals in clamshell mode vs non-clamshell mode? Does it get any hotter when in clamshell mode?
I’ve been using my Air in clamshell doing a lot of compiling software and doing video compression and I haven’t noticed any heat problems at all. I used HandBrake to compress a movie in x265 which took well over an hour and the case was slightly warm. When it throttles it isn’t particularly noticeable.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,616
Los Angeles, CA
30 minutes on Fortnite is really good. When I launch Fortnite, The Intel fans kick in within 20 seconds.

As people get used to this type of performance, what was once amazing two weeks ago will now feel average. But then they will not be able to go back to their previous laptops.

This will be similar to when Retina was first introduced. Once you have seen it, Retina is normal and you cannot go back.
Retina was really pretty, don't get me wrong. But so many games and websites and apps weren't optimized for it, making the experience look and feel like crap. I was grateful to have bought the non-retina 15" MacBook Pro back then. I thought the Retina Macs were cool (wasn't a fan of losing built-in Gigabit Ethernet, but whatever; dongles), but I was definitely not ready to own one then and I don't regret the decision even looking back on it now.

Similarly, the performance and thermals of M1 Macs seem groundbreakingly awesome. To the point where the 2020 Intel Air and 2020 Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro seem like jokes by comparison (though those machines were pretty lackluster as far as Intel Mac notebooks that have just ditched the butterfly keyboard are concerned). But, there will be those (and I'm one of them) that need Intel for things that either aren't moving over to Apple Silicon at all, or will be drastically different when they do come to Apple Silicon (being able to virtualize Windows and use Boot Camp, for instance). Plus, it's not like I don't have plenty of Intel and AMD PCs around that thermally behave similarly to Intel Macs. I do believe we will all eventually be spoiled to Apple Silicon Mac performance, but hell if things still aren't way too early to get cozy still.
 

Brien

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2008
3,827
1,406
Yeah, max CPU load is about 7 - 10W, and max GPU is about 7W. Max for both about 15W.

7W should not need a fan, but 10 - 15W should. That's normal.

I suspect this is less because Youtubers are not stressing the machine enough, but rather because we're in winter. Room temp is now low enough that most folks won't really need the fan at all.

Wait until summer and we'll see. I suspect the MacBook Air will throttle quite badly, while the Pro won't throttle but its fan will be quite loud.
Unless you live in a non-insulated shack without a furnace, I don’t think that would have as much of an effect as you think
 

mactinkerlover

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2020
173
113
I just want to share my MBP experience with thermals and fan noise. The YouTube reviews I watched said the fan is silent, it’s hardly even spinning even under max CPU load. My experience is MUCH different.
I’m playing Fortnite in “windowed mode”. And after 30 minutes, the fan is easily audible and you can feel lots of hot air blowing out the back. For some reason “windowed mode” causes this more.

My feeling is the Youtubers aren’t maxing out the CPU and GPU simultaneously for that long. My fan RPM is much higher with pretty average gaming.

Anyway my final thoughts on the cooling are that the heat pipe and fan work very well, and are sized correctly for this CPU when you actually push it to its limit.
I agree. People really need to realize that the fans do come on and these do get warm under extreme load. What I have found really gets the fan going is if I push the cpu and gpu at the same time, like playing an extremely cpu and gpu intensive game, 3d animation, or anything else that utilizes the cpu and gpu at the same time. I think the issue is that the reviewers are pushing only the cpu and they are in loud rooms, so they can't hear the fan over the noise of their room until it gets close to max.
 

johnkree

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2015
296
294
Austria
Guys... noises are perceived very differently by everyone. It’s bs to say all the reviewers are lying because there is noise. I grew up on a farm. I hear every car that passes by our house because it’s a noise that wasn’t there half of my life.
and then there are people living in towns that don’t notice cars at all.
Im sure there are people that find the Intel fan noise acceptable and I’m sure there are audiophiles that hear the heat spreading in the MacBook Air. So what?
just find what’s acceptable for you.
If the fan is too loud get the air. If the air is too slow wait for the next gen. :)
 

MK500

macrumors 6502
Aug 28, 2009
434
550
and I’m sure there are audiophiles that hear the heat spreading in the MacBook Air
Oh man you got me laughing out loud on this one. Nice. ?

I am doing audiophile type listening tests on my Air right now, and can assure you I haven't heard the heat spread yet. I'm listening carefully. If I hear that heat spreading this thing is going right back to Apple!

Oh man. So good. ?

By the way; the DAC/amp in the Air is sounding good so far.
 
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