14" M4 Macbook Pro running *much* warmer

[rocketpig]

This started maybe two months ago, so it's entirely possible it's a Tahoe thing. But over the past couple of months, my MBP is getting wayyyy warmer than it used to. I don't hear the fan kick on often, but the fan is also so quiet I may not notice if it does.

My workflow is typically Chrome and Safari (loads of open tabs on Chrome), and one of the Adobe suite open (typically Photoshop, Illustrator, or Media Encoder). Then a smattering of random, low-energy apps like Sublime Text and TextEdit.

Is anyone else having this problem? I think the most likely causes are one of the following:

1. Tahoe
2. Chrome
3. Photoshop

Any guidance is appreciated!

 

[rocketpig]

Oh, it's an M4 Pro MacBook Pro, to be clear. Forgot the second "pro".

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I have the same model, and I've noticed that while running Android emulators in Android Studio, it's getting significantly hotter than it used to, and battery life is consequently cut drastically.

I can't pinpoint exactly when it started, but it wasn't happening with the old OS. It's definitely something new that started between 26.0 and 26.2.

 

[rocketpig]

I have the same model, and I've noticed that while running Android emulators in Android Studio, it's getting significantly hotter than it used to, and battery life is consequently cut drastically.

I can't pinpoint exactly when it started, but it wasn't happening with the old OS. It's definitely something new that started between 26.0 and 26.2.

Yeah, I think that's when it happened to me as well. I don't think it immediately followed the Tahoe install, or I probably would have noticed that.

By the way, I moved all my work tabs from Chrome to Firefox, and shut down Chrome. My laptop hasn't gotten hot since I did that a few hours ago.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I was at Starbucks tonight. 97% to 25% in 90 minutes on my 14" M4 Pro MBP, flipping between Android Studio and xcode.

A few years ago I remember using a similar workflow with a new 16" M1 MBP and it used 10% of the battery per hour. It was amazing. Tonight, it wasn't.

 

[dmccloud]

Yeah, I think that's when it happened to me as well. I don't think it immediately followed the Tahoe install, or I probably would have noticed that.

By the way, I moved all my work tabs from Chrome to Firefox, and shut down Chrome. My laptop hasn't gotten hot since I did that a few hours ago.

This sounds similar to the issues Chrome had when the M1 Macs were first released. Chrome would not only spin up the fans but also contributed to the battery depleting faster then expected. I think it was six months before Chrome was updated to address those issues.