MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Is the cooling sufficient?

[Yebubbleman]

For those that own one, do you find that the passive cooling system in the M1 MacBook Air is sufficient? Or do you believe that it runs warm and/or warmer than desired? Am also curious if people who had the 2020 Intel version and then upgraded to this version enjoy better thermals on average.

Sorry, but your preferences for 100% silent operation aren't relevant here as I'm strictly asking about how hot this thing gets under whatever load you put it through and whether it seems sufficient. Similarly, I don't need to hear the "if you need sustained performance, go with the Pro" argument as (a) I already know that and (b) that's also irrelevant and beside the point here (which is to evaluate the M1 Air's thermals, not compare it to the M1 2-port 13" Pro).

 

[CheesePuff]

Theres been countless discussions and YouTube reviews of this topic already... it gets warm to the touch after pushing it hard, and after 8-10 minutes of 100% CPU usage it begins to throttle. If that is your use case, then the Air would not be for you.

 

[PilotWoo]

Intel Air frequently got hot - uncomfortably so on your lap. M1 Air hasn't got above mildly warm yet.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Theres been countless discussions and YouTube reviews of this topic already... it gets warm to the touch after pushing it hard, and after 8-10 minutes of 100% CPU usage it begins to throttle. If that is your use case, then the Air would not be for you.

I was asking for subjective responses based on the experiences of people who own one. I've read those discussions and threads based on what some YouTube reviewer says and I know the drill. Again, I know that if the throttling bothers me the Air isn't for me. If you actually read the OP, you'd know that I know that already.

I'm trying to find out what M1 Air owners who have since used this thing daily feel (especially those that can directly compare it to its direct Ice Lake predecessor.

Intel Air frequently got hot - uncomfortably so on your lap. M1 Air hasn't got above mildly warm yet.

This is good to know and the type of feedback I'm looking for here!

 

[rulymammoth]

Frankly, to me it feels like an iPad. And that's why I like it. I've been installing a bunch of apps, have multiple browser tabs open, listening to music. Cool to the touch. Feels like an iPad.

 

[prism]

For those that own one, do you find that the passive cooling system in the M1 MacBook Air is sufficient? Or do you believe that it runs warm and/or warmer than desired? Am also curious if people who had the 2020 Intel version and then upgraded to this version enjoy better thermals on average.

Sorry, but your preferences for 100% silent operation aren't relevant here as I'm strictly asking about how hot this thing gets under whatever load you put it through and whether it seems sufficient. Similarly, I don't need to hear the "if you need sustained performance, go with the Pro" argument as (a) I already know that and (b) that's also irrelevant and beside the point here (which is to evaluate the M1 Air's thermals, not compare it to the M1 2-port 13" Pro).

I really dont understand your question considering that in all circumstances it is going to be running cooler than its intel equivalent!

 

[BootLoxes]

So far its been pretty chill on my end. I was worried about the fanless design but apple really pulled off something special. I am glad this is my first mac.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I really dont understand your question considering that in all circumstances it is going to be running cooler than its intel equivalent!

My question is "does anyone WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THIS COMPUTER" hate the thermals given their specific use. I thought I was pretty clear about that.

 

[edhchoe]

Mine is always too damn cold to put it on my lap.

 

[downshiftdre]

I modded my M1 MBA with a thermal pad. Doesnt throttle anymore under very high cpu use and has M1 MBP performance. It stays cool under normal use (combined zoom, music, safari, email) but still has the thermal capacity for even higher cpu use then designed.

See my M1 specific thermal pad mod thread on this forum.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m1-air-with-thermal-pad-mod.2272939/

 

[Robbosan]

My question is "does anyone WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THIS COMPUTER" hate the thermals given their specific use. I thought I was pretty clear about that.

Good topic, i sold a 2020 air as it was too hot, so would like to know from those who updated.

 

[obamtl]

I can't answer your question directly, given that I have the MBP rather than the Air, but I'm seriously considering returning this and getting the Air because not once since I got it around launch day, have I heard the fan kick in, so I'm left to believe that unless you're doing something really intense like rendering 4K video, the M1 will handle it without the need for active cooling. This experience with the MBP has actually left me confident enough to go with the MBA.

 

[DeMagguz]

I also had the MBPM1 and after 2 weeks the fan never kick it except in one Cinebench test I did to check if the fan is working
Returned it and bought a MBAir M1 as its more than enough for me and 300€ cheaper... love the fact, that there is no mechanical fan inside and it never gets hot. But I use it only for web browsing, e-mail and online meetings... but even this is putting the fans on in my MacBook Pro 13 2018 from work... wish I would have for work also a new MacBook Air with M1 chip.

 

[anubis1980]

My 2015 fully specced MBP when using it, the fans would drown out everything. I redid the thermal paste and still sounded like a jet engine. When OSX updated, it would be red hot. In Comparison my base MBA is amazing. I managed to get it slightly warm playing some games .

My flat is freezing and in some ways I miss the old MBP heater ha. My legs are now cold.

 

[DeMagguz]

I can't answer your question directly, given that I have the MBP rather than the Air, but I'm seriously considering returning this and getting the Air because not once since I got it around launch day, have I heard the fan kick in, so I'm left to believe that unless you're doing something really intense like rendering 4K video, the M1 will handle it without the need for active cooling. This experience with the MBP has actually left me confident enough to go with the MBA.

Same reason for me, why I returned the Pro... if the fan does not start you can do everything on the MBA and save 300 USD/EUR... I like the Pro design more and also the Touch Bar but not worth the money.. will upgrade next year to a 14" Pro with new design.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

My question is "does anyone WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THIS COMPUTER" hate the thermals given their specific use. I thought I was pretty clear about that.

No. I think the thermals are fine.

 

[cstm]

Just got mine. Was a little worried about it. I had world of warcraft running at 60fps in windowed mode at native res, while having at the same time many documents and pictures open on the preview in fullscreen mode, 10s of tabs in safari, YouTube video/twitch running in the background and switching tasks all the time and all kinds of other stuff. I think the CPU showed that it had 40-50% or so in use. And I didn't even have it plugged in (ran on battery) and the fact that it is completely silent and I'm carrying/holding the laptop upside down or any way I feel like as if it was an iphone or an ipad is pretty weird.

 

[JLH81]

Mine is always too damn cold to put it on my lap.

Same here

 

[Robbosan]

Finally Apple make a laptop that doesn't get hot or even warm.

 

[mj_]

To give you some perspective on this: I've had mine (8GB/256GB) since the day they were available (Nov 17 I believe), and it replaced my previous 2017 12" MacBook (Core m3/8GB/256GB). I use it almost daily to run my business and do my job as IT Manager and IT Consultant (UNIX/Linux DevOps). On a regular work day, the applications I use all the time and have open simultaneously are Office 365 (Outlook, Word, and Excel; occasionally also PowerPoint and OneNote), Apple Mail for my non-Exchange email accounts, LibreOffice, Safari with various web apps, sometimes Chrome for those websites and web apps that are incompatible with Safari, Teams and occasionally Zoom for conference calls, 3CX softphone for regular phone calls, Apple Messages to communicate with my team when they are out and about, Microsoft Remote Desktop, a terminal with SSH, and last but not least a music streaming service such as Amazon Prime Music or Spotify in the background. There are various cloud services synchronizing their respective folders in the background (1x iCloud, 1x Dropbox, 2x OneDrive, various SMB and SSH shares via GoodSync), and some background tools and helpers such as Hazel, Haste, Deepl, Magnet, Enpass, KeePassX, and ChronoPlus.

On my previous m3 MacBook this particular workload would cause some major heat issues. I was unable to use the MacBook on my lap for more than maybe 30 minutes, after which it got uncomfortably hot. It didnt' overheat, throttle, and slow down by any means, it just got warm due to the non-idle nature of my workday. The base CPU load was always around 20% because there was always something going on in the background, and that kept the CPU from running at its optimal low and energy-efficient power states for any significant length of time. With the M1 Air I can barely feel the metal get warm. It chugs along happily, never breaks a sweat, and it feels cool to the touch even after several hours.

So, to answer your question: Yes, I find the M1 Air's passive cooling system to be more than sufficient for my particular needs and my particular workload.

 

[rulymammoth]

It gets about as warm as an iPad does. Which is to say not very warm at all. I'm just doing regular stuff on it, nothing crazy. Best Apple purchase I've made in a while.

 

[PilotWoo]

It gets about as warm as an iPad does. Which is to say not very warm at all. I'm just doing regular stuff on it, nothing crazy. Best Apple purchase I've made in a while.

I feel the same way.

Sold my iPad Pro 12.9 to go back to Mac after realising the iPad couldn't replace a laptop for me. The M1 Air has been the best Mac I have ever owned, especially when considering price/performance.

 

[matrix07]

My question is "does anyone WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THIS COMPUTER" hate the thermals given their specific use. I thought I was pretty clear about that.

I don't hate it but I love to watch 4K Blu-Ray and right now VLC is not M1 compatible and when I watch some 4K Blu-Ray (only some, not all - looking at you Westworld) the CPU is used to the maximum and the Air is extremely hot.
I still don't think upgrading to MBP is worth it since I will definitely buy M1 MBP in the future (or even M1 iMac) once my wife's MBP dies and I give this one to her.

Every day tasks though, it's not even warm.

 

[KPOM]

I was asking for subjective responses based on the experiences of people who own one. I've read those discussions and threads based on what some YouTube reviewer says and I know the drill. Again, I know that if the throttling bothers me the Air isn't for me. If you actually read the OP, you'd know that I know that already.

I'm trying to find out what M1 Air owners who have since used this thing daily feel (especially those that can directly compare it to its direct Ice Lake predecessor.


This is good to know and the type of feedback I'm looking for here!

Mostly as an experiment, I ran BOINC (UC Berkeley’s shared computing platform) for a day. It used all 4 high performance cores at nearly 90% the entire time. The M1 Air (16GB) got warm but never uncomfortably so.

 

[Zazoh]

I’ve been monitoring various tasks since launch on my Air. Cold. CPUs and GPUs thermals report slightly over room temps. It’s sister MBP would have been useless. And if Apple gets better at heat dissipation, fans will likely become obsolete.