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Love-hate 🍏 relationship

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 19, 2021
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Idk if that's truly normal,bit with my room at 21-22°celcius ,my MBP 14 base 8/14 is 45-50°,and when running some light stuff ,it gets to 55-60 I'd say .

Meanwhile my MBA M1 is 26-34° at idle -crazy cool isn't it - ,and around 40° with the same tasks

Is that normal ?
 
Mine runs a little bit colder under the same room temperature conditions. After 2 hours of light/mild use, these were my temps on idle:

Screenshot 2021-12-04 at 14.52.04.png

But comparing it to the M1 (my girlfriend has the MBP 13 M1 2020) and it definitely runs colder than M1 Pro (mine is 10CPU/16GPU btw)

So i'd say yours stays within range and nothing to worry, when taking this screenshot it was for a guy that told me that his MBP 16" M1 Pro was idling at 50ºC (not sure about his ambient) ... right now my MBP is charging and light browsing, ambient is 20.5ºC and SSD is around 29ºC and CPU's and GPU's around 41-43ºC, other sensors around 30ºC and saw it around 50-60ºC on chip side when doing some benchmarking or CPU was busy with facial recognition on Photos.

IMHO you're fine and CPU is totally within the accepted temperature ranges.
 
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Mine runs a little bit colder under the same room temperature conditions. After 2 hours of light/mild use, these were my temps on idle:

View attachment 1927157

But comparing it to the M1 (my girlfriend has the MBP 13 M1 2020) and it definitely runs colder than M1 Pro (mine is 10CPU/16GPU btw)

So i'd say yours stays within range and nothing to worry, when taking this screenshot it was for a guy that told me that his MBP 16" M1 Pro was idling at 50ºC (not sure about his ambient) ... right now my MBP is charging and light browsing, ambient is 20.5ºC and SSD is around 29ºC and CPU's and GPU's around 41-43ºC, other sensors around 30ºC and saw it around 50-60ºC on chip side when doing some benchmarking or CPU was busy with facial recognition on Photos.

IMHO you're fine and CPU is totally within the accepted temperature ranges.
What software do u use to check temps ?

I'd still expect the 8c to run cooler than your 10c tho ...idk if I should call mine a deffective unit for that,but still i kinda miss how cool to the touch my MBA was.

I know I'm fine,but wondering why it's "hot" like that (ik it ain't hot but u get what I mean don't u)
Btw do u also have your fans kicking in below 70°?

I must check if there is sth running in the background maybe ,don't remember the command
 
Didn't still hear the fans kicking in TBH nope, during the Geekbench tests, maybe they were too short to make the system to activate them. Neither with Photos, but of course with this one, I could have been missed some activity, cause this ones are not noisy at all.

To monitor the temps I use Macs Fan Control in just-monitoring mode, you can install also a helper and control the curve of your fans and try playing a bit and see if that makes a difference.

If you're within the first days of usage, Mac always is indexing in the background, check the CPU and other stuff activity with "Activity Monitor"

IMHO, to certify if I were you, I'd do some thermal tests, just to see if you're under a reasonable margin, and to see how your fan curve works, but from what I've read, I think you're within the margin, maybe tending a little bit to the hot side, but well, I'm not an expert.

You can always rely on more experiences if somebody posts them, or consult directly with Apple if you're not truly satisfied. Still in the return period?
 
Didn't still hear the fans kicking in TBH nope, during the Geekbench tests, maybe they were too short to make the system to activate them. Neither with Photos, but of course with this one, I could have been missed some activity, cause this ones are not noisy at all.

To monitor the temps I use Macs Fan Control in just-monitoring mode, you can install also a helper and control the curve of your fans and try playing a bit and see if that makes a difference.

If you're within the first days of usage, Mac always is indexing in the background, check the CPU and other stuff activity with "Activity Monitor"

IMHO, to certify if I were you, I'd do some thermal tests, just to see if you're under a reasonable margin, and to see how your fan curve works, but from what I've read, I think you're within the margin, maybe tending a little bit to the hot side, but well, I'm not an expert.

You can always rely on more experiences if somebody posts them, or consult directly with Apple if you're not truly satisfied. Still in the return period?
I'll try your SW to see if it gives me different results lol

I don't hear the fans either tbh ,i just saw they were being used (tg pro tells u about temps as well as fans spin)

I'm not within the first days at all

Thermal tests as in? Running benchmarks ?

Yep still within return period.but honestly there are so many things that could be bad if I request another unit lol...

Problems with display, keyboard,hinge,CPU ,fans...
 
If u have 1 minute,mind testing with fans off ? :)))

Also why would u do that ,can't u set the fans to kick in if >55 for example ?

It's about 48-50 with them off. Fans are very cheap and easy to replace, and on a 10-year timeline keeping things cool will pay dividends. It's also a lot easier to keep the system cool under a heavy load too: if you allow it to heat up before the fans kick in it takes a lot longer to return the system to an acceptable temperature.

Also it's still silent to me at 2000 - can't hear it at all.
 
If you give me some hours, when MBP finishes charging and has again stabilized, I can show you temps on idle, playing a youtube video, and also while performing those benchmarks, cause yes, I was referring to those for "thermal tests", Geekbench can be a good avg measure to monitor mid/high-usage temps, Cinebench just for "extreme" cases. I'll give you also fan information if it kicks in or not.
 
It's about 48-50 with them off. Fans are very cheap and easy to replace, and on a 10-year timeline keeping things cool will pay dividends. It's also a lot easier to keep the system cool under a heavy load too: if you allow it to heat up before the fans kick in it takes a lot longer to return the system to an acceptable temperature.

Also it's still silent to me at 2000 - can't hear it at all.
Oh ok.max or pro ?

Are they though? Doesn't it get harder to replace fans in macs nowadays?

Yep I agree with all of your points !

Even at 2500 rpm i can't hear it either i must say.but I'm afraid of dust tho 😬
 
If you give me some hours, when MBP finishes charging and has again stabilized, I can show you temps on idle, playing a youtube video, and also while performing those benchmarks, cause yes, I was referring to those for "thermal tests", Geekbench can be a good avg measure to monitor mid/high-usage temps, Cinebench just for "extreme" cases. I'll give you also fan information if it kicks in or not.
I approve your request. Go and find what I need ,valiant knight
 
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I approve your request. Go and find what I need ,valiant knight
I'm a guy kinda obsessed with computer temperatures, been watercooling all my desktops since 2008 ... that's my fault though 😂, I really like them to run cold, so I understand your concerns and the more references you can collect to compare, the better, here to fulfill the temperature's lost dignity hahahaha
 
I'm a guy kinda obsessed with computer temperatures, been watercooling all my desktops since 2008 ... that's my fault though 😂, I really like them to run cold, so I understand your concerns and the more references you can collect to compare, the better, here to fulfill the temperature's lost dignity hahahaha
if so im sure u might have loved the air

and yes you should go to a therapist i think ,ahaha

btw ,i bring new.just tested running in safe mode (all extensions and running-at-boot programs disabled ),and the temps are much lower.see below.i suspect thats because i have many extensions running in the background as u can see...or maybe is there some hidden sw running which idk about ? might interest @DjanSeriyAnaplian




Capture d’écran 2021-12-12 à 15.01.47.png




Capture d’écran 2021-12-12 à 15.02.53.png


Capture d’écran 2021-12-12 à 15.12.22.png
 
I'm a guy kinda obsessed with computer temperatures, been watercooling all my desktops since 2008 ... that's my fault though 😂, I really like them to run cold, so I understand your concerns and the more references you can collect to compare, the better, here to fulfill the temperature's lost dignity hahahaha
oh so yeah so when you test your unit,mind telling me how many running processes there are in the background,and if you rly have spare time id love if you could boot into safe mode as well eheh
 
oh so yeah so when you test your unit,mind telling me how many running processes there are in the background,and if you rly have spare time id love if you could boot into safe mode as well eheh
TBH I don't think I need to boot into secure mode to give you a "safe" temperature average, my install is just fresh from this week (I wiped it all on Monday to test "Erase all content and settings" feature) and didn't import nothing, so I started clean, the only program that should be running in the background (and at login) is Magnet, and literally I just installed that within VSCode, OhMyZsh, Brew, Spotify, GarageBand, Twitter, Whatsapp, Telegram and KeePassXC, and none of them should be running background processes.

Also I tend to have my Bluetooth off till I really need to connect something, in 30 minutes or so, I'll post you my results. Letting the Mac to cool down and start a real heat-off "process" as it was open with no previous activity.
 
Hello there again, here are my results:

- First, after letting the Mac to cool down for 30-40 minutes, I just opened the lid and waited there for 3 minutes to idle to take the first shot:

Screenshot 2021-12-12 at 16.05.21.png

- Second, I started to play a video in youtube (LTT in 1440p-2160p) on Safari for 10 minutes while on Firefox I started to browse MacRumors forums and a local newspaper, finished with 8 tabs, also I opened Twitter app and lurked for a couple of minutes and clicked some video, so kinda mild use. Here's the shot after those 10 mins and processes in-going:

Screenshot 2021-12-12 at 16.17.05.png

- The third test, I decided to record the screen while running Geekbench5 CPU test, and here's the video so you can see all the process.


- After that one, closed everything and decided to let the machine to cool down for 5 minutes, here's the final shot:

Screenshot 2021-12-12 at 16.26.14.png

As you can see, my fans never turned on, nor on Geekbench test neither while on second real usage test. Hope this helps in your research.

Best of lucks!
 
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edit: so sorry, double posted by mistake, page was taking so long and it didn't seem to react till I clicked again.

edit(2): Forgot to say that ambient temp was 20ºC, and also, funny thing, right after I saw the video that I posted w/Firefox, when quitting it, WindowServer bug arised and it was eating 100% CPU for 3-5 minutes, and sensors showed temps around 50-55ºC and fans weren't turning on, so IDK if that's good at all neither, check your "Activity Monitor" if something weird is eating that CPU. After a reboot and some minutes, temps are back to my last shot from previous post.

My model is MBP 14" 10CPU/16GPU/32GB/1TB SSD
 
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Hello there again, here are my results:

- First, after letting the Mac to cool down for 30-40 minutes, I just opened the lid and waited there for 3 minutes to idle to take the first shot:

View attachment 1927216

- Second, I started to play a video in youtube (LTT in 1440p-2160p) on Safari for 10 minutes while on Firefox I started to browse MacRumors forums and a local newspaper, finished with 8 tabs, also I opened Twitter app and lurked for a couple of minutes and clicked some video, so kinda mild use. Here's the shot after those 10 mins and processes in-going:

View attachment 1927219

- The third test, I decided to record the screen while running Geekbench5 CPU test, and here's the video so you can see all the process.
View attachment 1927220

- After that one, closed everything and decided to let the machine to cool down for 5 minutes, here's the final shot:

View attachment 1927221

As you can see, my fans never turned on, nor on Geekbench test neither while on second real usage test. Hope this helps in your research.

Best of lucks!
Your mild usage's temps are same as mine at idle lol

Anyway thanks a lot for all of that,even recorded a video ! Tysm

All in all, it looks like my Mac isn't deffective ,I'd have to check my background processes I suppose..
 
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Your mild usage's temps are same as mine at idle lol

Anyway thanks a lot for all of that,even recorded a video ! Tysm

All in all, it looks like my Mac isn't deffective ,I'd have to check my background processes I suppose..
I think if you idle around 41ºC-42ºC with an ambient of 21-22ºC it's good, take a look at my last shot after I demanded some juice from the CPU, it clearly stated there, and my ambient is 1-2ºC lower, and this is the MOST important one, no matter what, ambient temps influence a lot, cause you can't just subtract, if the whole ambient is 2ºC lower, it's a hell of an impact regarding final results.

The first shot is just an illusion cause it's just 3 minutes from a "fresh reboot" and the machine warming up by doing nothing but powering the screen.

So yes, as mentioned before, I think yours maybe is a little bit on the hot side because of processes, or maybe because of the chip, silicon lottery can be tricky sometimes, but IMHO, really nothing to worry about. And you saw how I am regarding temps 🤣
 
I thought there’s something wrong with my 2017 15 MBP being quite hot.
But if the latest MB Pros are also overheating, I think I was unnecessary worrying.
 
I think if you idle around 41ºC-42ºC with an ambient of 21-22ºC it's good, take a look at my last shot after I demanded some juice from the CPU, it clearly stated there, and my ambient is 1-2ºC lower, and this is the MOST important one, no matter what, ambient temps influence a lot, cause you can't just subtract, if the whole ambient is 2ºC lower, it's a hell of an impact regarding final results.

The first shot is just an illusion cause it's just 3 minutes from a "fresh reboot" and the machine warming up by doing nothing but powering the screen.

So yes, as mentioned before, I think yours maybe is a little bit on the hot side because of processes, or maybe because of the chip, silicon lottery can be tricky sometimes, but IMHO, really nothing to worry about. And you saw how I am regarding temps 🤣
i gotcha

thank you very much for your time again.and good luck with your obsession(s) ,i know what its like lol

oh and is silicon process more of a lotery than intel and amd manufacturing process?
 
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I'm a guy kinda obsessed with computer temperatures, been watercooling all my desktops since 2008 ... that's my fault though 😂, I really like them to run cold, so I understand your concerns and the more references you can collect to compare, the better, here to fulfill the temperature's lost dignity hahahaha
Sorry to bother u again mister Kelson,but I figured u may know about that since u care about cooling and temps :)

I sometimes wanna lay on the couch ,but my bedsheets are made of cotton which i often find on the Mac afterwards (particles of flannel) ,and I'm afraid it gets into the vents ,and ducks the Mac overtime

And also in general I'm afraid of dust.do you have any advise /experience on that topic ? Am i just being afraid for nothing ?
 
Sorry to bother u again mister Kelson,but I figured u may know about that since u care about cooling and temps :)

I sometimes wanna lay on the couch ,but my bedsheets are made of cotton which i often find on the Mac afterwards (particles of flannel) ,and I'm afraid it gets into the vents ,and ducks the Mac overtime

And also in general I'm afraid of dust.do you have any advise /experience on that topic ? Am i just being afraid for nothing ?
You don't bother me at all. Regarding the dust and floating particles, it's an enemy you can't defeat but with filters, which are frequently used within desktops, but for laptops it's not really worth it unless the manufacturer includes them by default, vent holes are really small and it requires a lot of effort for a final result that really matters.

My only recommendation for this is try to be careful and avoid dusty environments as much as possible, also if you have a mini air-blower can be helpful sometimes for vent-holes if you see some dust pile accumulating there, be really careful with those though, dust and fast-moving air can drive to static charge, so nothing really powerful and avoiding direct airflow to the vent.

Despite that, dust will accumulate inside your computer, no matter what, and the only solution for laptops as for any other computer, is to open and clean it (there are diff methods to accomplish this) ... specially the fan blades, which will be the most crowded dust space. In the case of an Apple laptop computer, I'd be extra-careful if I had to perfom this inside cleaning operation, but also, to make you remain calm, if your work environments are mostly "clean", you won't need this till the 3th or 4th year of operation :)

PS: Macbooks are the computers which I found less dusty than any other laptop I opened.
 
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You don't bother me at all. Regarding the dust and floating particles, it's an enemy you can't defeat but with filters, which are frequently used within desktops, but for laptops it's not really worth it unless the manufacturer includes them by default, vent holes are really small and it requires a lot of effort for a final result that really matters.

My only recommendation for this is try to be careful and avoid dusty environments as much as possible, also if you have a mini air-blower can be helpful sometimes for vent-holes if you see some dust pile accumulating there, be really careful with those though, dust and fast-moving air can drive to static charge, so nothing really powerful and avoiding direct airflow to the vent.

Despite that, dust will accumulate inside your computer, no matter what, and the only solution for laptops as for any other computer, is to open and clean it (there are diff methods to accomplish this) ... specially the fan blades, which will be the most crowded dust space. In the case of an Apple laptop computer, I'd be extra-careful if I had to perfom this inside cleaning operation, but also, to make you remain calm, if your work environments are mostly "clean", you won't need this till the 3th or 4th year of operation :)

PS: Macbooks are the computers which I found less dusty than any other laptop I opened.
oh really,youre so nice

if so ill ask you one more,how come the left fan isnt as powerful as the right ?

i mean left is shown as 5779 while right is 6241 in mac fan control,isnt it weird ?

isnt it kinda hard to open a mac nowadays tho...also would it help to run the fans at max speed,monthly,perhaps?

they must be lest dusty given the design of the cooling system and the and their placement,i mean,i hope its better in terms of dust lol
 
i mean left is shown as 5779 while right is 6241 in mac fan control,isnt it weird ?

isnt it kinda hard to open a mac nowadays tho...also would it help to run the fans at max speed,monthly,perhaps?

they must be lest dusty given the design of the cooling system and the and their placement,i mean,i hope its better in terms of dust lol
I asked myself the same question but didn't go further about it, my initial guess it would be that there are more sensible components "piled-up" on the right side that needs to be cooled with higher power, but I could be wrong and it's just for balance.

Regarding to blow your fans at max speeds, I would suggest not, it can help of course to act as that "mini air-blower" that I mentioned, but you would actually be sucking/moving more dust into the computer while doing this, don't get me wrong, in a almost-closed environment as the laptop is, the less the fans spin the better, cause it means no dust will actively go inside your computer and won't pile up among the blades or other components, that's one of the reasons the curves of these fans are set that way (also cause Apple likes to make computers quieter but not as colder as you'd like)

My 2 cents, forget about the dust, you can't fight it, be careful but not obsessive, trust me, it's a laptop and meant to be used on-the-way, if you see a real overheat problem, I'd check first fan malfunction than dust, but I'll leave Apple to do it if you feel unsure about it.

PS: Enjoy your computer! :)

edit: One useful thing you could do from time to time is brush your hole vents aiming to pull the dust out with soft-soft brushes while your computer is off, and being careful to do it slow to avoid any static charges
 
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