Considering the MBP M1 heatsoaks WITH THE FAN RUNNING; I think it's valid to assume the MBA is just as uncomfortable.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Practical Reasons to Pick the M1 based 2-port 13" MacBook Pro over the M1 based MacBook Air
- Thread starter Yebubbleman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Considering the MBP M1 heatsoaks WITH THE FAN RUNNING; I think it's valid to assume the MBA is just as uncomfortable.
The M1 MBP only heatsoaks because Apple tuned the fan curve for silent operation. You can just program your own and spin the fans up earlier.
There are plenty of normal Intel based "gaming" laptops that I consider uncomfortable to game on under load, which makes zero sense given they are gaming oriented machines.. Asus M15 and Asus G14 namely are both hot at the keyboard and sides to make you wonder what the point was to begin with.
That being said, with the fan running on the MBP13 M1, it's considerably better than my experience with most gaming oriented laptops.. It's tolerable.. Would I still like it cooler to the touch? Yes of course.. but i'd consider this acceptable as is.
That's not the point, I was asked to not "assume" that the MBA gets as hot as the MBP under load.. Based on that the MBA runs to 90c+ as well without a fan and holds those temps, i'm likely correct that the MBA feels much warmer/hotter to the touch (therefore heat soaking worse) than the MBP M1.
A fair assumption base on sound logic, that the Air would have hotter surface temperatures. MaxTech tested both with a thermal camera. Maybe I'll check later.
Although it's important to clarify if we're talking about surface or CPU temps. Ex: the I3 MBA had far better thermals than the I5, simply because it pulled less power, and the M1 MBA only uses ~6.5w continuous.
I watched that video, he confirmed indeed the MBA had hotter surface temps, but only by a few degrees - nothing major at least, of course, at the cost of throttling on the MBA to keep the temps in check.
Both machines in regards to internal CPU temps hit 90c+.. Monitoring my MBP, once it hits 90c+ the fan comes on and it maintains in the mid-to-high 80c range under a Handbrake x265 encode load .. Slight heatsoak occurs over the entire machine but it's just warm, not scorching hot like the Intel based MBP13.
Then you could possibly eliminate the heatsoak entirely with a more aggressive fan curve. I'm running an Intel MBP, and ramp the fan up from 50-75c. Above 75c, the fan runs at maximum RPM. This keeps the surface temps rather cool compared to stock, and on yours, might keep full load temps in the seventies.
It's easier to prevent heatsoak than remediate it.
Sure, of course you can, you can set the fan to 100% before you begin any large load and it pretty much keeps it much cooler overall vs the stock fan profile.. Luckily we already have fan controlling software this early on so i'm pretty happy that I can manually set an RPM to keep the system much cooler (and still extremely quiet).
About 6600 vs 7700 in Cinebench IIRC. That still means that the AIR beats the 2018 15 MBP I9. Incredible.
I'm considering the M1 Air for a possible long term machine, due to the replaceable battery. What is your opinion?
No doubt - i'm not disputing that the MBA even under sustained load absolutely destroyed fan-powered Intel 6 core machines and a lot of the 8 cores as well.
What I am demonstrating is that the MBP M1 with fan has it's benefits of zero throttling - in which if someone if deciding between the two machines, the MBP may be the better choice when you're considering nearly a 20% performance boost over the Air under long duration loads. I encode video content regularly.. 20% faster on the MBP will save me a lot of time over the course of a year compared to the Air.
Fair enough. Does that mean you'd be upgrading to an M1X machine for ~45 percent more multi core speed?
Awesome. Not my use case though; I don't do that much CAD any more, and it tends to be light.Absolutely will be upgrading to a M1X (or whatever it will be called)
The Air's replaceable battery is quite a draw now that it performs well.
I think the Air is the best machine for 90+% of folks out of the M1s right now. Cost being the major factor.. I don't think the MBP is worth $299 more even for up-to 20% more performance long duration workflows. The other bells and whistles included in the $299 aren't worth it either, but if you can afford it, it's whatever.
What I do think will happen is that we will eventually see the MBA and MBP Apple Silicon machines spreading out performance wise even further when the Pro is actually worthy of the "Pro" name again. So right now, I think folks should buy the MBA, not the MBP.
What do you think about long term usage? My MacBook 2011 is dying and I can’t decide what MacBook to get. The air base (7gpu) with 16 gig of ram or the mbp base model with just 8... I just want to play indie games from now and then and so office and multimedia stuff.
what will last longer? My concerns with the air are that the spread heat might be bad for the battery and that it will heat also with smaller games...
Importantly, the battery in the Air is designed for replacement. If you're planning on 9 years of use, I'd get the Air just for that.
Not really. Replacing one requires acetone, heat, and generous mechanical persuasion. Apple stores will often replace the whole keyboard deck, at great cost.
Except we're not seeing reports of that occurring... At least I've not, so please post those unhappy MBA owner reports if you are seeing those.
Not sure you can necessarily assume the state of a complex system from one detail.
It's improbable the MBA is allowed to generate the same amount of waste heat per unit time as the MBP.
You're correct about that, what I believe he's referring to is the amount of heat dissipated by the chassis, not the fan and radiator. The Pro makes more heat, but the rad disposes of it, provided that the fan is turning.