The 2020 i7 MacBook Air is cooler?

[Techno Pirate]

As most of you are probably aware, there have been tons of posts about the i5 reaching temps near 100°C doing very basic tasks. However, most of these complaints have come from people who have the i5 in their 2020 MacBook Air. I started going through forum posts on here and reddit and found that more people with the i7 were commenting that they surprisingly weren't having temp issues at all. This is interesting.

So I thought it would be helpful to have people who have an i7 comment on weather they're having any similar complaints or issues with heat and temps on your new Airs. It would be nice to know if the i7 version really isn't suffering from the same heat issues.

 

[KennethS]

I have the i7/16/512 and have experienced no temp issues.

 

[reacher]

I think the most people buy i3, than i5 and at the end i7. If someone bought i3, probably have not read anything about it. When temp issues came up, he/she start reporting it here. Most of the people who bought the i5 do it consciously, to get the best performance for the cheapest price. Now they pushing their Airs to the limits so they are getting hot. Previous revisions had only 2-cores, so maybe someone was avoiding it and got base pro instead (like me, now I sold the pro, and waiting for the Air with i5).

The more units with i3 and i5, the more heat issues with this specs.

 

[Techno Pirate]

I think the most people buy i3, than i5 and at the end i7. If someone bought i3, probably have not read anything about it. When temp issues came up, he/she start reporting it here. Most of the people who bought the i5 do it consciously, to get the best performance for the cheapest price. Now they pushing their Airs to the limits so they are getting hot. Previous revisions had only 2-cores, so maybe someone was avoiding it and got base pro instead (like me, now I sold the pro, and waiting for the Air with i5).

The more units with i3 and i5, the more heat issues with this specs.

I understand that logic but I haven't seen anyone with an i7 complain about heat yet, which strikes me as interesting. You would think a more powerful cpu in the same enclosure would cause issues if there were already reports of the i5 heating up too much.

 

[deeddawg]

As most of you are probably aware, there have been tons of posts about the i5 reaching temps near 100°C doing very basic tasks. However, most of these complaints have come from people who have the i5 in their 2020 MacBook Air. I started going through forum posts on here and reddit and found that more people with the i7 were commenting that they surprisingly weren't having temp issues at all. This is interesting.

So I thought it would be helpful to have people who have an i7 comment on weather they're having any similar complaints or issues with heat and temps on your new Airs. It would be nice to know if the i7 version really isn't suffering from the same heat issues.

I have an i5 and haven't seen any issues with heat or fans. My MBA behaves exactly as I'd expect it to. I'm very pleased.

There are plenty of other i5 owners have posted similar lack of issue, perhaps you've missed those posts?

 

[edubfromktown]

The i7 has been fine during the past 2+ weeks of typical use plus large data transfers of Lightroom images and other I/O and CPU intensive tasks. The same is true for many i5 users as stated above too.

Based on comments in the massive Air 2020 heatsink thread (search for kinchee87's post), it appears as though the heatsink configuration is somewhat different in the i7 as compared to the i3 and i5's. This may explain some of why an i7 model may run a bit cooler but I would not base a purchasing decision solely on that one factor.

 

[kinchee87]

You can take a look at the heat sink pictures in posts 966 and 1003.

For my (modded) i7 the bottom of the case doesn't feel particularly hot during sustained 100% load. The aluminium strip above the row of function keys does get quite hot, but this is also true of my work 2018 MacBook Pro 13".

 

[JPack]

The vast majority of MacBook Air customers are buying i3 or i5. The i7 option starts at $1,249 and most customers would opt for MacBook Pro 13" at $1,299. There are fewer i7 Air reports to begin with.

 

[throAU]

The i7 will still get hot make no mistake. I think perhaps those buying the i7 (such as myself) may have more realistic expectations for the performance of a 13" low power machine.

i.e., its probably running at the same/similar temps, but the complaints are less because the owners perhaps had less unrealistic expectations going in...

100C is not an issue "just because" it is running 100C.

100C is the intel CPU spec. The machine is set up to run as quiet as possible (i.e., not run the fan until it has to) and as fast as possible for as long as possible. If you throw a lot of load at any of these MacBook Airs (or the MacBook Pros for that matter) they will run up to 100C if the load is sustained long enough and then down-clock and/or ramp the fan up to accomodate.

The Airs are more likely to throttle than the Pros, because they're not intended for sustained high throughput workloads. They're intended for bursty, typical end user workloads that only require high CPU use for short term bursty workloads.

 

[superamit]

MacBook Air 2020 i7/16GB/1TB. No heat issues, rarely hear the fans, never too hot to have in my lap. Runs like a dream.

 

[typ993]

I haven't noticed any heat issues with my i7. I haven't used it too much after getting it set up, but when I was setting it up, I transferred my Parallels VM over and ran a bunch of updates on that. Two processors were pegged by the VM, fans ramped up, but top and bottom of case seemed fine to me. I've seen some other mentions that Zoom teleconferences caused fans to ramp up, but not seeing that here.

 

[cvconde]

MacBook Air 2020 i7/16GB/1TB. So far the only time I have heard the fans really kick in is when running Parallels. Seems something on the Windows VM was causing this, because once I rebooted the VM, it stopped. Since then, no fan at all running Parallels. On 5-8 Zoom calls per day, and no fan ever.

Had been waiting and thinking about the MBP 13" 2020, but the MBA seems just as good at a lower price.

 

[Techno Pirate]

MacBook Air 2020 i7/16GB/1TB. So far the only time I have heard the fans really kick in is when running Parallels. Seems something on the Windows VM was causing this, because once I rebooted the VM, it stopped. Since then, no fan at all running Parallels. On 5-8 Zoom calls per day, and no fan ever.

Had been waiting and thinking about the MBP 13" 2020, but the MBA seems just as good at a lower price.

Doesn't that Air price come to over $1800? What about the Air do you like over the 13 inch pro?

 

[Loog]

MBA 2020 i7/16GB/1TB, too hot too noisy and I sent mine back. Coming from the MBA 2018 i5 which is near silent all the time this was quite a disappointment. Am I a Pro user? I'm certainly not, asking too much of the device, I didn't think so, I used this in the same way as my 2018. I'm pleased to see there are more people without issues on this thread.

 

[Techno Pirate]

MBA 2020 i7/16GB/1TB, too hot too noisy and I sent mine back. Coming from the MBA 2018 i5 which is near silent all the time this was quite a disappointment. Am I a Pro user? I'm certainly not, asking too much of the device, I didn't think so, I used this in the same way as my 2018. I'm pleased to see there are more people without issues on this thread.

what were you doing when the laptop was getting too noisy and hot? I guess you are a pro user now.

 

[Loog]

what were you doing when the laptop was getting too noisy and hot? I guess you are a pro user now.

I was just using MS teams during lockdown, I reverted back to my 2018 MBA. See the screen shot 30 mins into my call, the only app running, 16% CPU, temp 90deg+ and fan howling at 8000 RPM. Perhaps mine was faulty ... either way I don't get the same experience from the 2018 so I reverted back.

 

[interessiert]

As most of you are probably aware, there have been tons of posts about the i5 reaching temps near 100°C doing very basic tasks. However, most of these complaints have come from people who have the i5 in their 2020 MacBook Air. I started going through forum posts on here and reddit and found that more people with the i7 were commenting that they surprisingly weren't having temp issues at all. This is interesting.

So I thought it would be helpful to have people who have an i7 comment on weather they're having any similar complaints or issues with heat and temps on your new Airs. It would be nice to know if the i7 version really isn't suffering from the same heat issues.

This is the typical Apple-quality staircase – you'll have to buy the most expensive device ?

By the way: My MBA Mid 2017 (previous model) works at his best

 

[NeonIbis]

I have the i7/16/512 MBA 2020 (I didn't need or particularly want the i7, but I wanted the 16/512, and this one was in stock in store, vs weeks wait for a custom order). For the first couple of weeks I was a bit disappointed with the heat/fan noise, especially when syncing Dropbox (fans on max) but also pretty consistent heat and fan noise during Zoom meetings, despite relatively low CPU load. It was especially noticeable as I was coming from a fanless rMB 2015. And yes, syncing/indexing had well and truly finished, but the Zoom/fan situation continued. I don't know the actual temperatures as I don't have an app that measures them.

However (touch wood!) it seems to me that something has changed. The last couple of weeks there has been much less heat/fan noise, even in Zoom (and I spent 6 hours on Zoom on Friday). Maybe low fan, but not enough to hear it over the Zoom call. Occasionally the fan will spin up for a few seconds (e.g. launching a big application, and sometimes web content seems to go off the rails), but mostly it runs silently and much cooler to touch. I saw a couple of people on the heat sync thread recently reporting the same experience. So, has something changed? Software update? I haven't done anything differently or modified anything...

 

[PluckinTones]

I have an i7/16/256 2020 Air and it is much less noisy than my old 2013 i7 Air or my wife's Thinkpad.

I can edit 1080p videos without it breaking a sweat. The fan kicks in when rendering 4K videos, but editing is pretty smooth. Export times are also surprisingly short.

You can read more about it here:

2020 MacBook Air i7 and 4K Video Editing, how well does it handle it? — Classical Guitar Tones

The omission of a (for some) proper heatsink on the 2020 MacBook Air has created a lot of "heat" on the internet, as many claim that the new Air is crippled down on purpose not to compete with Apple's Pro line of MacBooks. 4K video editing is more than an average worklo

www.classicalguitartones.com

The fan starts spinning when loading a heavy app, or when rendering, but it gets silent quickly enough and remains silent most of the day.

I have a very quiet studio, I record with very sensitive condenser microphones 1 meter away from the MacBook, but the noise has never been a problem. On the other hand, the bottom chassis does get warm, so it wasn't so nice to use it as a lap-top during the heatwave.

 

[nobackup]

So sorry to break the news ... but just wait till Big Sur hits ... now on Beta 6 and completely different on temps and fans to Catalina... cool and quiet. Was peaking out on temps under 10.15.6. under same workload ... netflix VLC + safari+ M$ (Actual Doing Work) + Mail .... 10.15 95-100C. 11 Beta 55-65 C .... i5/8/512 ...

 

[fokmik]

if under Big Sur, the device runs cool and quiet, then why you are sorry ?
Or it is vice versa?

 

[nobackup]

if under Big Sur, the device runs cool and quiet, then why you are sorry ?
Or it is vice versa?

Because all the back and forth in the 19 posts ... lot of energy being expended when I would guess the air was launched before its time ..

 

[fokmik]

Because all the back and forth in the 19 posts ... lot of energy being expended when I would guess the air was launched before its time ..

Again, under beta Big Sur your i5 macbook air runs cool and quieter than under Catalina?
I guess it runs cooler since you say it was launched before its time
When you think the air should had been released?

 

[nobackup]

Again, under beta Big Sur your i5 macbook air runs cool and quieter than under Catalina?
I guess it runs cooler since you say it was launched before its time
When you think the air should had been released?

Under 11 cool and quiet ... buts needed 11 so it was launched and now the OS is catching up... or another way to look at it is the 10.15 was a hot mess (Kinda like Vista and 8 in the M$ World) and they have fixed it (Like 7 did the job for M$), looking forward to a relaunched 12 (ARM) soonest...

 

[fokmik]

Under 11 cool and quiet ... buts needed 11 so it was launched and now the OS is catching up... or another way to look at it is the 10.15 was a hot mess (Kinda like Vista and 8 in the M$ World) and they have fixed it (Like 7 did the job for M$), looking forward to a relaunched 12 (ARM) soonest...

i agree with you if this is the case...but if the Intel based Macbook air would have been release in this fall...who would buy the intel one when the apple own silicon chip was around the corner...and the price i would not expect to be so much different
If the i5 runs cool and quiet under Big Sur, think how the new one will run and how will the performance will be, and the battery life...

The Apple silicon based macbook will outperform the Intel one in every single way...cpu performance ,iGpu performance (even under Rosetta2), better battery life ( i personally expect around 14-15 hours), heat and noise level down an level