Does the 2020 MBA's fan run a lot? How hot is the laptop?

[deeddawg]

I think I am the only person round here who hasn't had a problem with thermal on these Airs. I have a i5/8/512 and since the .5 update its not gotten hot at all. Aside from the dent I put in the top its been an awesome machine.

You’re not the only one. Mine is great. Cool and quiet. I also didn’t buy it as a work computer - at most I use the occasional Zoom or FaceTime call and it does those without any fuss or heat even sitting outside in Georgia US summer weather. Nor do I insist on using a browser / video source that forces software video codec processing.

Hammers and screwdrivers.

 

[Jack Neill]

You’re not the only one. Mine is great. Cool and quiet. I also didn’t buy it as a work computer - at most I use the occasional Zoom or FaceTime call and it does those without any fuss or heat even sitting outside in Georgia US summer weather. Nor do I insist on using a browser / video source that forces software video codec processing.

Hammers and screwdrivers.

Yeah, I have my i7 Hack and MBP for heavy lifting.

Steak knives and butter knives. Some times you just need a knife.

 

[stjohnswell]

I have the 2020 base spec MacBook Air and yesterday the fan died after only 90 days. Not impressed with the MBA thermal design at all. Returning for repair and then will probably move on.

 

[NewBench]

I posted my review in the user review thread, but honestly the base (i3) 2020 MBA in my opinion is Apple's best Air yet. I used it for two hours web browsing, watching Netflix/YouTube, word processing etc, multiple tabs open in Safari. Lukewarm temperature at worst, cool 90% of the time, didn't hear fans kick in once.

 

[synicalx1]

I'm hopefully grabbing an i3/8GB next week some time (tax man willing...), mostly just for light/general purpose use like browsing, streaming etc. Very occasionally will be screwing around with some coding but that will just be in vim so I don't anticipate much of an impact until compile time.

My trick is going to be running the MBA on a cooling pad - I'm hoping the fans on it will be able to trim some heat and stop it from throttling too aggressively. They're adjustable so I'll play around with different positions for them but by the looks of it I'll probably get the best results by just aiming them directly at roughly where the CPU/GPU is since it's little heat sink appears to be pressed up against the chassis. I'll post back here with some results in a week or so if anyone is interested.

EDIT:

The tax man, in his generosity, let me get the i5 instead (may have something to do with that model being the only one in stock as well...). I'll chuck it on my dock tonight and run it through some testing.

EDIT2:

The i5 scored a 2918 Multi-core with no cooling, and 3274 while being cooled by a CoolerMaster MasterNotePal Pro. So around 12% increase I think. The fan also didn't go above 3.5k RPM on the cooling pad but hit 4.5k without it which was definitely more noticeable. Very happy overall with that result - seems like a good option to have when running more demanding stuff.

 

[Quotenfrau]

The fans constantly running after Ventura upgrade. Very loud!

 

[Tagbert]

The fans constantly running after Ventura upgrade. Very loud!

Have you restarted since upgrading? Someone else reporting their Air was getting warm. A reboot cleared it up. Processes can get stuck in a loop.

• First, check Activity Monitor to see which process is using excess CPU.
• Then reboot and see if that clears it up.

 

[Quotenfrau]

First, check Activity Monitor to see which process is using excess CPU.

Yes, my problem solved after disabling stage manager