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M2 Air Disappointing Thermal Design

M

MK500

Contributor
Original poster
Aug 28, 2009
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This is what the heatsink looks like for the fanless M1 Air:

B825B19C-E271-4C79-9F39-237A6C667914.jpeg
photo from iFixit

And this is what the heatsink looks like on the fanless M2 Air:

517288AC-D1A1-40E8-889D-11CFDD7D27FD.jpeg
photo from Max Tech (YouTube)

Clearly the amount of thermal mass of the M1 heatsink is several times greater than that of the M2.

It is disappointing that Apple chose to reduce the heatsink thermal mass between the old Air design and new Air design. The M2 and M1 produce a similar amount of heat at ~20 watts.

EDIT: iFixit is like, “Where’s the heatsink?”. M2 Air teardown:


EDIT: Thoughts on “throttling” by @vadimyuryev:


I removed my opinion on the reason Apple did this because, as @Apple_Robert pointed out, I don’t have any facts to back it up. Thanks Robert. It’s better to stick to facts in this situation than to speculate on why Apple did this.

 
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MK500 said:
To me this is evidence that Apple originally hoped the M2 would ship on a smaller process node with lower wattage, and when it did not they continued with the chassis they had been working on for many years without updating it for the higher thermal needs.
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That's certainly possible. It's also just as possible that Apple determined the thermals in the M2 MBA were acceptable given the average use case of the machine. We'll probably never know for sure, but my guess is that the heat produced by stressing the M2 was not unforeseen, but rather an accepted tradeoff for the passively-cooled new case design.
 
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EastHillWill said:
That's certainly possible. It's also just as possible that Apple determined the thermals in the M2 MBA were acceptable given the average use case of the machine. We'll probably never know for sure, but my guess is that the heat produced by stressing the M2 was not unforeseen, but rather an accepted tradeoff for the passively-cooled new case design.
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Maybe. But what an incredibly small trade-off it would have been to increase the heatsink thermal mass to a similar size as the M1 heatsink. It looks to me like it would have fit; or at worst added 1mm or less to the thickness of the case.

I realize people care a lot about thickness on the Air, but I am having a hard time imagining making this engineering choice. I love fanless designs (my 2015 12” MacBook is a prized possession), and appreciate the trade-offs necessary; but there had to be a way to engineer in a tiny amount more thermal mass here.
 
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erckrns said:
The idea that the current M2 SoC design was just pulled out of a hat at the last minute, without any time to tailor other components to it, is hilarious!
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Definitely not last minute. I’m assuming they worked on the Air replacement design for many years (possibly before the final M2 thermal characteristics were fully known). The Air is one of their most important products, and held its previous design for how many years?

I just get the sense that the chassis design team and processor design team may have gotten a bit out of sync at some point.
 
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Salty Pirate said:
Why not go to the 14 MBP if you run the machine that hard that you even need to think about thermals?
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Because people just make up stupid garbage so they can moan on the internet. Some people get angry they can’t run Crysis 3 with raytracing on a sub-notebook instead of doing the rational thing and using the correct system for that.
 
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Salty Pirate said:
Why not go to the 14 MBP if you run the machine that hard that you even need to think about thermals?
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This is an underrated point.
ponzicoinbro said:
Because people just make up stupid garbage so they can moan on the internet. Some people get angry they can’t run Crysis 3 with raytracing on a sub-notebook instead of doing the rational thing and using the correct system for that.
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Also this. The issue, I guess, is that the M1 MBA is just so dang capable. With the new design, it appears that the Pro line matters when it comes to heat.
 
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Salty Pirate said:
Why not go to the 14 MBP if you run the machine that hard that you even need to think about thermals?
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A lot of people do hardcore work on MacBook Air but don’t want/require the CPU/GPU performance and weight of the 14”. My wife has hundreds of tabs open in multiple browsers, MS Office apps, and email all open on her 2013 Air, and gets a lot done. I prefer my 14” Max for my needs because I do more GPU intensive tasks and don’t move around as much.

Even with a nice OWC SSD upgrade 2 years ago, her 2013 Air is needing a replacement in the next year or so. That’s why I’m considering the M2 Air — and will still possibly buy a 512 one next year. Although I think I would also do the thermal pad mod.

If there is anything the M1 Air should have taught us; it is that you can have a lightweight fanless laptop while still having the power to meet the needs of most users.
 
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MK500 said:
A lot of people do hardcore work on MacBook Air but don’t want/require the CPU/GPU performance and weight of the 14”. My wife has hundreds of tabs open in multiple browsers, MS Office apps, and email all open on her 2013 Air, and gets a lot done. I prefer my 14” Max for my needs because I do more GPU intensive tasks and don’t move around as much.

Even with a nice OWC SSD upgrade 2 years ago, her 2013 Air is needing a replacement in the next year or so. That’s why I’m considering the M2 Air — and will still possibly buy a 512 one next year. Although I think I would also do the thermal pad mod.

If there is anything the M1 Air should have taught us; it is that you can have a lightweight fanless laptop while still having the power to meet the needs of most users.
Click to expand...
good luck -- insides of your M2 Air will melt after a year or so
 
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I am surprised by the amount of backlash against the M2 MacBook Air. Granted there was never going to be the shock that the M1 MacBook Air brought simply because that was a step change in Apple computers forever. But, I think the 256GB SSD complaints and overheating issues feel a bit overblown. I will say, my M1 MBA has never felt warm, no matter programs or how many apps or Safari/Chrome tabs I've had open.

As a side, I was on shift in the hospital last night from 5pm-5am on 100% charge, and by 5am, my MBA was still at 67%. Sure I was only running EMR/EHR software and browsing internet, it only lost 33% in 12 hours. Apple silicon truly kicks ass.
 
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This may be hard to believe, but the engineers at Apple know a lot more about the dynamics of heat than a YouTube channel.

A thermal pad would just transfer more heat to the bottom of the laptop causing discomfort and maybe even skin burns if somebody falls asleep while using the laptop. It would also spread the heat to the other components, making it degrade faster. At least M2 can throttle to regulate its own heat, other components can’t. If you have workloads that cause throttling, then get a Pro.

A 10 degree reduction from the thermal pad is hardly worth it.
 
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Shevlin said:
This may be hard to believe, but the engineers at Apple know a lot more about the dynamics of heat than a YouTube channel.

A thermal pad would just transfer more heat to the bottom of the laptop causing discomfort and maybe even skin burns if somebody falls asleep while using the laptop. It would also spread the heat to the other components, making it degrade faster. At least M2 can throttle to regulate its own heat, other components can’t. If you have workloads that cause throttling, then get a Pro.

A 10 degree reduction from the thermal pad is hardly worth it.
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Sustained workload usage that causes throttling will damage the insides, get a Pro. Those things are pretty much indestructible.
 
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flapflapflap said:
Would this void warranty? M2 Air is a POS device
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Thank you for letting everyone know you don't own one.

I bought mine fully expecting to return it for a pro instead but this machine surprised the heck out of me. I have been hammering it hard since I got it on Friday and it is significantly more powerful than people peg it for.

I have ran Houdini simulations, worked with 4k video in Final Cut, made songs in Logic with 20 tracks (I didn't go higher because I got bored testing it), played video games on it, animated and rendered in Blender, worked on Xcode projects on it and more and it handled all of it like a champ and barely, and I mean barely got warm, even when doing renders.

These tech YouTubers are borderline click bait with their claims as of late.

If anyone is curious the specs on my machine are: M2 MacBook Air, 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16 gigs ram, 1TB hard drive.

Again, I fully expected to return this for a MBP but am keeping it instead. It performs incredibly well.
 
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flapflapflap said:
Sustained workload usage that causes throttling will damage the insides, get a Pro. Those things are pretty much indestructible.
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That’s just false. Will it wear out the CPU a bit faster than another laptop with a fan system would? Sure.

But thermal management exists to prevent any damage. The whole point of throttling is stop the increase of heat to the point where it causes damage.

Not only that, the majority of people’s workloads don’t require a Pro. That’s what the MacBook Air is for.
 
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flapflapflap said:
Would this void warranty? M2 Air is a POS device
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Nope, it shouldn't void the warranty because taking the bottom case off won't void the warranty. You can easily remove the pads later before selling if you'd like.

The bottom of the laptop will heat up more, so keep that in mind. But the heat will mostly build up during long renders and exports. During this time, you can just set it down on a tabletop if it's too hot for you until it's finished.
 
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Shevlin said:
A 10 degree reduction from the thermal pad is hardly worth it.
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What an increased thermal mass does in a fanless design is regulate the temperature over a period of time. So instead of shooting up to the thermal limit in 30 seconds, it takes much longer. So you might have several minutes of full performance before performance must be reduced. This can have a substantial effect on your work throughout the day if you ever run sustained processes (video/photo/compiling/etc).

So it’s not about just dropping the temp; it’s about smoothing out the temperature curve.

I completely agree that Apple employs top notch engineers. But their thermal designs have not always been up to snuff; and there is nothing wrong with being critical when this happens. That’s how we get them to improve their future products.
 
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I don't understand why folks here are bashing people for picking one model over another, or bashing a particular model as being crappy. Much like when I advise members of my extended family: get what works best for you. Even if that means you are more productive on Windows OS, MacOS, etc. Go with what works for you.

With that said, what I find works best for me is the MBA.
 
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Bet this is Jony Ives fault….

Anyway as others have said buy the computer that suits the use. It’s quite obvious what the air is for vs pro machines.
 
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