Chrome overheated my M1

[slooksterPSV]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

 

[bobcomer]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

91C is well within the tolerances.

My M1 MBA has been over 108C and no adverse effects.

 

[leman]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

Your M1 can run at 91C literally for years without any adverse effect...

 

[jerryk]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

I used to run my 16" MacBook at between 95-100c for days training Machine Learning models. Never had any issues. Apple likes to let their machine run hot to stretch as much performance as they can from them.

 

[macsound1]

Also, as someone who understands tech, you installed an app that monitors temperature.
There's no way a typical consumer would do something like that so you MUST believe Apple did tests to ensure the cpu would throttle if it got too hot.

 

[deeddawg]

So two questions...

#1 - Why do you feel that 91C is hot enough to cause damage given that CPUs are commonly spec'd to run at 100C or even a bit higher? I don't think we've seen a specifications guide for these CPUs showing the temperatures they're okay up to, have you found one?

#2 - Do you think Apple's engineers for some reason forgot to build in throttling controls to slow down (or halt) the CPU if it ever gets near the maximum safe temperatures, as has been common practice for years?

 

[mi7chy]

What were you doing with Chrome that reached such high temps? Playing 8K YouTube?

Even if high temps don't immediately have an effect it does shorten life over the long run. Some people have even reported kernel panic and their M1 devices burning out. Don't trust companies that claim otherwise since they have nothing to lose beyond warranty period and the end user ends up footing the bill to buy a replacement device.

In general, I like to keep my temps around 60C and get concerned as it gets into the high 70s where I start countermeasures with either better cooling or reduced frequency.

 

[macsound1]

There are lots of webapps that are total CPU hogs. Squarespace editing is one. After 20 minutes of webpage editing you'd think I was exporting video considering how the fans spin up and my MBP gets blazing hot.

 

[slooksterPSV]

What were you doing with Chrome that reached such high temps? Playing 8K YouTube?

Even if high temps don't immediately have an effect it does shorten life over the long run. Some people have even reported kernel panic and their M1 devices burning out. Don't trust companies that claim otherwise since they have nothing to lose beyond warranty period and the end user ends up footing the bill to buy a replacement device.

In general, I like to keep my temps around 60C and get concerned as it gets into the high 70s where I start countermeasures with either better cooling or reduced frequency.

Flutter 2 Development *smh* it won't debug in Edge or Safari (though Edge is Chromium-based and works to debug on Windows). It must have crashed a few times but nothing ever appeared for the crashpad helper app.

So two questions...

#1 - Why do you feel that 91C is hot enough to cause damage given that CPUs are commonly spec'd to run at 100C or even a bit higher? I don't think we've seen a specifications guide for these CPUs showing the temperatures they're okay up to, have you found one?

#2 - Do you think Apple's engineers for some reason forgot to build in throttling controls to slow down (or halt) the CPU if it ever gets near the maximum safe temperatures, as has been common practice for years?

Intel's I get they run hot, my MBA i3 ran at 95C often. However, heat can shorten a CPU's lifespan.
The M1, I haven't looked up thermal specs. Where its a MBA, it has not active cooling and was sitting on a desk in a cool room - asleep - however, I only noticed as the system itself wasn't cool when I was shifting it around this morning. The temps, after getting a fan on it, dropped to 30C pretty quickly (within 2 min.).

The performance was still snappy and I wouldn't have known anything was wrong except for feeling the heat of it. I've seen people crunch videos multiple 4k videos on an M1 and it barely go above 67C let alone 91C!?!?!?!?

 

[GrumpyCoder]

However, heat can shorten a CPU's lifespan.

Does it really matter if your CPU works for 49 years instead of 50? Or 24 years instead of 25?

If it gets too hot, it will throttle. If it *really* get's too hot, it will shut down. These temperatures are well within specs and won't have any realistic impact on lifetime. By the time this could become an issue, Apple went through another two CPU architecture transitions. If you're still in doubt, visit you local university and take a course in semiconductor / integrated circuit design.

That being said, if you can, avoid Chrome at all costs. It's an absolute piece of junk of software.

 

[Toutou]

I've seen people crunch videos multiple 4k videos on an M1 and it barely go above 67C let alone 91C!?!?!?!?

I'm pretty sure you haven't. Apple Silicon CPUs run under the same thermal "regime" (for lack of better words) as Intel or AMD CPUs. M1 idles at basically room temperature plus maybe five degrees, but when hit with proper multithreaded load it reaches 90+ degrees in less than a minute. The huge heatsink inside is able to soak and radiate the heat for a few minutes, but after a while even that is not enough, the CPU throttles back noticeably and basically reaches equilibrium between heat radiated and heat produced. At that point the bottom cover is hot and the top part especially above the keyboard is hot. Not scalding hot, but it's not like there's some magic at work that dumps the heat into Narnia.

It's okay, it's designed to do that and you shouldn't be worrying about the temperature alone.
Feel free to worry about runaway processes spinning the CPU for no reason.

 

[GSWForever8]

First things first, chrome just doesn’t make your computer run hot, it also sucks up RAM. I wouldn’t be too concerned, after all my intel MBA also got that hot and so far no problems. You can always run diagnostics to check for damages.

 

[deeddawg]

However, heat can shorten a CPU's lifespan.

I consider this to be one of those "everyone knows that..." sort of things that simply isn't born out by any real evidence of it occurring to people with older laptops in the time since cpu makers started adding throttling to keep chips from going beyond their design spec.

As you say, the intels tend to run "hot"* yet there's a dearth of reports of Intel macs suffering from cpu failures? I've been on MR for years and can't remember seeing any reports of this occurring. If you can point me to these shortened-lifespan CPU failure threads, I'd love to see the reports and discussion.

(*) though since they're spec'd to run at 100C, that'd mean they're within their design temperature range, which doesn't match the implication of saying they run hot.

 

[masochist]

I consider this to be one of those "everyone knows that..." sort of things that simply isn't born out by any real evidence of it occurring to people with older laptops in the time since cpu makers started adding throttling to keep chips from going beyond their design spec.

As you say, the intels tend to run "hot"* yet there's a dearth of reports of Intel macs suffering from cpu failures? I've been on MR for years and can't remember seeing any reports of this occurring. If you can point me to these shortened-lifespan CPU failure threads, I'd love to see the reports and discussion.

(*) though since they're spec'd to run at 100C, that'd mean they're within their design temperature range, which doesn't match the implication of saying they run hot.

Does it really matter if your CPU works for 49 years instead of 50? Or 24 years instead of 25?

If it gets too hot, it will throttle. If it *really* get's too hot, it will shut down. These temperatures are well within specs and won't have any realistic impact on lifetime. By the time this could become an issue, Apple went through another two CPU architecture transitions. If you're still in doubt, visit you local university and take a course in semiconductor / integrated circuit design.

That being said, if you can, avoid Chrome at all costs. It's an absolute piece of junk of software.

I love how threads like this are always started by folks who see a number and assume it's bad with no understanding, whatsoever, of what they're talking about.

 

[slooksterPSV]

I love how threads like this are always started by folks who see a number and assume it's bad with no understanding, whatsoever, of what they're talking about.

If it were an AMD or Intel chip, this would be a completely different story. Since the M1 is new, new architecture, new design, I don't know what it can overall handle. Yes high numbers can be detrimental to hardware. Its not just the CPU that can be damaged but surrounding components if they're not rated to run or hit certain temperatures at extended periods of time. Consider how people utilize liquid cooling, why? A fan works just fine? Well its for performance and longevity of their CPU.

 

[GiantKiwi]

Consider how people utilize liquid cooling, why? A fan works just fine? Well its for performance and longevity of their CPU.

Nope. It's to open up the possibility to do substantial overclocking without hitting cpu throttling. Anyone using it for base clocks is just an idiot or trying to show off.

 

[xraydoc]

The CPU cannot "overheat" itself baring some catastrophic malfunction (which would be covered under warranty). Overheating implies that the cooling system as failed and the CPU will damage itself. Virtually all modern CPUs, including the M1, will throttle its clock down if temperatures reach maximum safe level. Particularly true for a CPU as new as the M1. There's simply no way you can damage your machine by running any app, regardless of how hard it works the CPU. If it gets too hot, it'll slow down until it's within parameters. That the case is warm to the touch implies the heatsink is radiating away the heat. But a case that's warm, or even hot, to the touch does not in any way indicate the machine is on the threshold of a Chernobyl-style meltdown.

Higher performance machines like the M1 MacBook Pro will have an active cooling system (i.e., a fan) to radiate heat away faster so the machine can run longer/harder without throttling down. But again, having the fan kick on at maximum RPM doesn't indicate "overheating" -- it indicates it's working as intended.

Now, if your machine is supposed to be asleep and it's actually not, that's something else entirely, and can certainly run the battery down unexpectedly, but the above remains true about the CPU. And it will almost certainly happily run at 90ºC for the entire useful life of the machine and beyond.

 

[xraydoc]

Nope. It's to open up the possibility to do substantial overclocking without hitting cpu throttling. Anyone using it for base clocks is just an idiot or trying to show off.

Or, to be fair, to make the machine as quiet as possible, even under full load.

 

[cmaier]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

91C is not hot. CPUs are designed with a nominal junction temperature of 100C. They also are designed with circuitry that automatically shuts down the CPU if there is an actual danger of overheating. Relax.

 

[GiantKiwi]

Or, to be fair, to make the machine as quiet as possible, even under full load.

That would not be an accurate representation. The volume of a system is dictated by the fans, not the setup in which the cooling takes place. Unless you use excessive radiator capacity for your needs, they're more often than not, louder than traditional fin stack coolers.

 

[Bluetoot-]

I know it has been said 50 times but that's well within the tolerances for a CPU; surely you know this? There's no way you wouldn't know that. It's inconceivable that someone would be curious about the longevity of a relatively new application of cutting-edge technology. Please be familiar with the answer to your question before asking it. 🙄

 

[GrumpyCoder]

If it were an AMD or Intel chip, this would be a completely different story. Since the M1 is new, new architecture, new design, I don't know what it can overall handle.

This has nothing to do with AMD or Intel or new architectures. This is all about physics. Do you think Apple reinvented and changed physics? They didn't, so the same rules apply here.

Consider how people utilize liquid cooling, why? A fan works just fine? Well its for performance and longevity of their CPU.

Why they utilize liquid cooling? Because they're kids/gamers and don't understand how technology works. A good regular fan works just as well, you gain absolutely no advantage with a water cooler.

BUT, you need to make sure you have a good airflow in the system, the cool air coming into the case has to pass the components that need to be cooled (CPU/GPU) and from there the (now) hot air has to be blown out of the case. As long as that works, liquid vs air cooling doesn't make a difference.

Now if you have bad airflow in the case and that airflow doesn't go past the CPU/GPU, then a liquid cooling system can help if the radiator is placed in a good spot in the case where you have airflow. The pipes with the liquid transport the heat from CPU/GPU to the radiator, which is in the airflow and the heat gets blown out of the cases there.

Google a few benchmarks on reliable tech sites and check for yourself. Again, this is all relatively easy physics.

 

[dmccloud]

M1 reached 91C because of Chrome. I quickly killed the process and grabbed out cooling fan. I think its been like this for about 3 hours now. I didn't know a crashed was running in the background (3 of them) I downloaded a beta version of monitoring tools and saw 91C as the computer felt warm which was odd. I now have things back to around 30C.

Do you think there's any large damage done?

Dump Chrome and switch to Microsoft Edge. Since it's built upon the same Chromium engine, all of your settings, bookmarks, addons, etc. can work with it while not consuming excessive CPU cycles or raising CPU temps. 91C is within normal operating specs for any modern processor, and there's automated tools built in to throttle down a CPU in case it gets close to its max rated temperature. Regarding liquid cooling, that's done in order to be able to overclock a machine and squeeze every last bit of performance you can from the system. "Longevity of the CPU" does not even factor into that equation, since those users are intentionally running the system beyond its rated specs. There is a reason you see liquid cooling in gaming desktops and some high performance, high load server setups but not in a regular (non-gaming) desktop.

 

[Leon1das]

My findings with Chrome are just the opposite.
It works perfectly fine with no overheats, and energy wise I havent seen any differences between it and the Safari

 

[rJonze]

Why they utilize liquid cooling? Because they're kids/gamers and don't understand how technology works. A good regular fan works just as well, you gain absolutely no advantage with a water cooler...

Google a few benchmarks on reliable tech sites and check for yourself. Again, this is all relatively easy physics.

Maybe things have changed since I went to school, but I'm pretty sure that density affects thermal transfer. Water is a much more efficient medium for heat transfer than air. Thats why engines are water cooled. Apple made water cooled Macs in the PPC days. Water cooled systems are smaller, quieter and more energy efficient than air cooling for a given amount of thermal transfer.