My Macbook Air CPU regularly reach 100ºC. Is that normal?

[SergioMonge]

I have a Macbook Air of late 2018 (8,1). After some performance drops this summer, I have started to check the temperature in my mac with Macs Fan Control application.

I have discovered that whenever I open any taxing application (any game for example, but also other simpler applications), my CPU Core sensors (they seem to be called CPU Core 2 and CPU Core 3) frequently reach 100,0 ºC degrees. They never go over 100,0 ºC (which is really suspicious).

Is this normal or my laptop is slowly damaging itself?

 

[Shirasaki]

It is. The moment you turn it on, your MacBook is damaging yourself overtime, just like every single living human.

But I suspect the temperature you see is not the right temperature. You can find some benchmark software and see their temperature reading. Oh, 100C, if real, is not Normal.

I use SMC Fan Control (something with this name) that adjusts fan speed through SMC, meaning it will keep this setting as soon as SMC is not reset. You can try to crank up your MacBook Air fan speed to max and see if the temperature goes down a bit.

 

[Macdctr]

100 ºC is not normal. You should be seeing average temps of 60 ºC in normal usage so with prolonged usage at 100 ºC I would say you are slowly damaging your computer due to excessive heat buildup. Eventually components on your logic board will fail and your computer will die. I would have your computer checked out and if under warranty have it replaced if you can...

 

[Aegelward]

It seems that the MBA no longer has a heat pipe going to it's fan and instead has a heatsink that appears to connect to the bottom chassis, the fan essentially just circulates air around the case.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[AustinIllini]

100 sounds fake.