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How hot does m2 get?
- Thread starter Foxdog175
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Also interested to know this. I have heard/read/seen different adjectives used – warm, hot, fairly cool – but they're all subjective.
After owning one of the 2017 MBPs I do not underestimate how warm machines can get, nor will I underestimate how much heat people will tolerate from a machine which is supposedly a "lap" top that could burn through your thighs.
My work would undoubtedly cause some throttling – which I'm ok with – but I'm not ok with it if it means I can't do occasional work from the sofa.
After owning one of the 2017 MBPs I do not underestimate how warm machines can get, nor will I underestimate how much heat people will tolerate from a machine which is supposedly a "lap" top that could burn through your thighs.
My work would undoubtedly cause some throttling – which I'm ok with – but I'm not ok with it if it means I can't do occasional work from the sofa.
Our best friends from Max Tech have temperatures covered (EXSUM: it gets HOT):
apparently the 10 core GPU throttles so much it scores lower in a shadow of the tomb raider benchmark than the 8 core GPU model of M2
Greg is trying to create controversy. What happened with the 10 core is completely logical and normal. Greg even spoke about it and then went right back to his over the top hyperbole. In his previous video, he praised the base M2 for staying cool during export. The guy is playing the YT game.
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Ok could be but does it not prove you should stick with the base 8 core GPU on the MacBook Air?
I’m not saying it’s a bad laptop. It’ll be great for most people
I’m not saying it’s a bad laptop. It’ll be great for most people
If a person's work entails sustained use of the CPU for video rendering and other CPU intensive tasks where time is money, said person should not be using an M2 Air. One the other hand, if a person does exporting and file transport albeit not continuously, the M2 will do just fine with that and a lot more.
Agreed, but said person should probably not pay the extra for the more powerful version of the M2 and maybe spend the money on extra storage or memory instead
It seems for the conclusion on the actual question, lap hotness, the answer is kinda no. The bottom part gets to about 33 Celcius. I'd say this is quite alright.
But as usual the bottom aluminium plate is actually insulated against transferring the bulk of the heat from the internal components. It will be interesting to see Max Tech and others do the thermal pad mod to turn the bottom of the laptop into an extended heatsink. Did that to my i9 MBP (for helping the VRM specifically in that case) and the performance gains were quite drastic.
I love that all Youtubers cover two scenarios: Full GPU usage benchmarks and... editing video!
It makes sense as that’s what they know. I’m interested in whether my knees will toast from some web development tools - Docker, Webpack, nodejs.. etc. I have no idea whether an M2 chip will take that kind of thing in it’s stride as tests have shown it will with Final Cut Pro. The cynic in my suspects that the video editing capabilities of Apple Silicon might be purely so that Youtubers will give rave reviews.
It makes sense as that’s what they know. I’m interested in whether my knees will toast from some web development tools - Docker, Webpack, nodejs.. etc. I have no idea whether an M2 chip will take that kind of thing in it’s stride as tests have shown it will with Final Cut Pro. The cynic in my suspects that the video editing capabilities of Apple Silicon might be purely so that Youtubers will give rave reviews.
The real question should be: "what is your use case"
The maximum thermal envelope here is clearly going to be lower than the Pros. If your life is editing videos and heavy GPU intensive tasks, it will get very hot. It will throttle. Based on reviews, it will be uncomfortable to put on your lap if you're wearing shorts. But remember, these YouTube reviewers are really pushing it - multiple 4k feeds, 20 min videos, etc. This is their livelihood.
And even then, after deciding you're not going to get a Pro for whatever reason, are you really going to sit it in your lap for a full 10-15 min render time? Just drop it on a $20 active laptop cooling pad, and go do something else for 15 min. Those of us that dealt with hot Intel MBPs had all sorts of creative solutions.
However, if this level of demand you only casually do (you might edit a 5-10 min video periodically, spend time in Lightroom on some photos, play a game or two), and you spend most of your time on cloud apps, productivity apps, and watching videos, it will be warm at most. I'd hedge the majority of folks will fall into this bucket.
The maximum thermal envelope here is clearly going to be lower than the Pros. If your life is editing videos and heavy GPU intensive tasks, it will get very hot. It will throttle. Based on reviews, it will be uncomfortable to put on your lap if you're wearing shorts. But remember, these YouTube reviewers are really pushing it - multiple 4k feeds, 20 min videos, etc. This is their livelihood.
And even then, after deciding you're not going to get a Pro for whatever reason, are you really going to sit it in your lap for a full 10-15 min render time? Just drop it on a $20 active laptop cooling pad, and go do something else for 15 min. Those of us that dealt with hot Intel MBPs had all sorts of creative solutions.
However, if this level of demand you only casually do (you might edit a 5-10 min video periodically, spend time in Lightroom on some photos, play a game or two), and you spend most of your time on cloud apps, productivity apps, and watching videos, it will be warm at most. I'd hedge the majority of folks will fall into this bucket.
Yes, stuff it in a drawer while it’s resale value dimishes and scowl at it from time to time whenever said drawer is opened.
“The hottest point on the bottom of the notebook measured 39.5 degrees Celsius (103.1 degrees Fahrenheit).”
www.tomshardware.com
MacBook Air (M2) Review: Thinner, Better, More Expensive
The first MacBook Air designed around Apple Silicon is here.
I wouldn't believe anything that MaxTech guy says. I've heard a couple of things from other YouTubers that directly and indirectly say he's full of crap and ran their own test. My understanding is it gets to be like maybe 104F which is far less than any Intel book I've used.
I had a 2017 MacBook Air - now replaced with 2 days usage of M2 Air. Doing the same things on old and now new machine. The old machine was hotter than the new one. So far no heat on lap problems.