I still can return my MBA 15" M3 24/512 and get the new MBA M4 for basically the same price. But, I'm concerned M4 running warmer than M3 which always stays very cool, feature I really appreciate. I read reports about M4 MBP overheating and/or running substantially warmer than M1, 2, or 3 under the same workload. I curious about the MBA M4 average temps being higher than older MBAs, esp. since there's no fan.
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New MBA M4 running warmer than its predecessors?
- Thread starter jack&coke
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I wasn't clear enough. I'm thinking about the average temps of the coming MBA M4 vs MBA M3 when working under the same load, after hearing about cases when M4 chip in MBP runs warmer vs older M chips under the same workload. Since my MBA M3 stays cool pretty much all the time, I'm concerned that M4 in the same chassis might run warmer. There are reports about MBP M4 overheating, I wonder how it's gonna work in a fanless MBA chassis. Sounds a bit tricky to me.
There are always reports of everything new "overheating". Most of the time, it's overreaction to things that people don't fully understand.
Going all the way back to M1, every Apple Silicon MBA has had a chip which can generate far more thermal power than the MBA's passive cooling system can deal with. If you max out all CPU cores on a M1 MBA for several minutes, starting at about 30 seconds in, it will begin ramping CPU clocks down to reduce power and keep temperatures at safe levels. Once the computer is fully heat-soaked, which takes several minutes when starting from cold, M1 MBAs bottom out at about 60% of their cold-soaked performance. (In a room-temperature environment, in my personal testing several years ago.)
If that's what counts as overheating in your book, well, nothing is going to be different about the M4 MBA. Just like the M1, it is passively cooled, and if you try to run extremely high compute loads for minutes at a time, it will self-regulate to avoid overheating. Also just like the M1 MBA, at no point in time will its performance be bad, and its short term burst while cold is amazing.
Going all the way back to M1, every Apple Silicon MBA has had a chip which can generate far more thermal power than the MBA's passive cooling system can deal with. If you max out all CPU cores on a M1 MBA for several minutes, starting at about 30 seconds in, it will begin ramping CPU clocks down to reduce power and keep temperatures at safe levels. Once the computer is fully heat-soaked, which takes several minutes when starting from cold, M1 MBAs bottom out at about 60% of their cold-soaked performance. (In a room-temperature environment, in my personal testing several years ago.)
If that's what counts as overheating in your book, well, nothing is going to be different about the M4 MBA. Just like the M1, it is passively cooled, and if you try to run extremely high compute loads for minutes at a time, it will self-regulate to avoid overheating. Also just like the M1 MBA, at no point in time will its performance be bad, and its short term burst while cold is amazing.
I went from a 16" M1 MBP to a 14" M4 MBP and subjectively, I do feel like my M4 MBP runs warmer. In fact, one reason why I notice it is because my hands are always cold in the winter and one of the few things I missed when I went from an Intel MBP to the M1 was my hand warmer workstation.
That said, I've also encountered some bugs that were causing my M4 to eat up cycles and chew through battery. I haven't figured out what is causing it, but I do know that if I see unusual battery drain, I just reboot and my hand warmer isn't quite as cozy again.
That said, I've also encountered some bugs that were causing my M4 to eat up cycles and chew through battery. I haven't figured out what is causing it, but I do know that if I see unusual battery drain, I just reboot and my hand warmer isn't quite as cozy again.
I mentioned overheating just for a context. I'm really interested in the AVERAGE temps of MBA M4 vs M3 (and older) under the same load while doing some average/medium intensity stuff, like having many websites opened, some lighter photo/video editing, etc. It sounds realistic to me to expect M4 getting warmer in less time in the same chassis, but who knows now. I guess at some point packing more and more powerful chips will require some change in chassis/cooling system design. Another question would be which chip in MBA stroke the balance of performance and efficiency.