Those who have been following my posts know that I’ve been running Folding at Home COVID-19 routines on my Macs over the past 2 months. This is about as taxing as physically possible on CPUs, so I’ve gotten some great insight into the 8th Gen MacBook Pro i5, 10th Gen MacBook Air i5, and 10th Gen MacBook Pro i5 chips. The MacBook Pros (either generation) easily top the MacBook Air. But I had an 8th generation with the 1.4GHz 15W chip (that boosts up to 25W), and now the 2.0GHz 28W chip. I ran both MacBook Pros under normal conditions, and on top of an “ice pack” for shipping. Here are my observations on the Pro models:
- The 1.4GHz model, when placed on top of an ice pack, quickly turns off the fan, but stays at roughly the same speed. So the main benefit is that it runs cooler.
- The 2.0GHz model, by contrast, increases its speed and power consumption (from 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz, and from 31W to 36W). The fans remain running.
The bottom line is that it seems that Apple has programmed the base models to reduce temperatures when given more-than-adequate cooling, while the higher-end models push maximum performance given the thermal environment.
I wouldn’t recommend long term usage on an ice pack (too much risk of condensation), but it seems that in a pinch, an ice pack turns the Ice Lake i5 into the equivalent of the i7, or perhaps better.
- The 1.4GHz model, when placed on top of an ice pack, quickly turns off the fan, but stays at roughly the same speed. So the main benefit is that it runs cooler.
- The 2.0GHz model, by contrast, increases its speed and power consumption (from 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz, and from 31W to 36W). The fans remain running.
The bottom line is that it seems that Apple has programmed the base models to reduce temperatures when given more-than-adequate cooling, while the higher-end models push maximum performance given the thermal environment.
I wouldn’t recommend long term usage on an ice pack (too much risk of condensation), but it seems that in a pinch, an ice pack turns the Ice Lake i5 into the equivalent of the i7, or perhaps better.
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