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How hot does your m2 MBA run? Doing what?
source link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-hot-does-your-m2-mba-run-doing-what.2356187/
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How hot does your m2 MBA run? Doing what?
Apr 2, 2022
How hot does the M2 MBA get? What kind if work is it doing when it gets hot?
Do you find rhe heat annoying or tolerable? Or hardly noticeable?
Do you find rhe heat annoying or tolerable? Or hardly noticeable?
Reactions:
samuellavoie
fisherking
Suspended
Jul 16, 2010
9,577
4,333
ny somewhere
barely noticeable. here, sometimes when streaming a tv show or something. mostly, it's not warm at all...
mrmister
macrumors 6502
Dec 19, 2008
Mine is so not hot I literally feel like it isn’t a computer in the traditional sense. I also do basically nothing computationally stressful, but that’s my experience. It was NOT my experience on intel MacBooks!
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samuellavoie, mr_jomo and dustin_
fisherking
Suspended
Jul 16, 2010
9,577
4,333
ny somewhere
your air is running hot? what apps are you running? & worth checking activity monitor, see what might be 'stressing' your air...Mine is so not hot I literally feel like it isn’t a computer in the traditional sense. I also do basically nothing computationally stressful, but that’s my experience. It was NOT my experience on intel MacBooks!
Reactions:
DavidChoux
mrmister
macrumors 6502
Dec 19, 2008
I said it is not at all hot. It’s very cool.
Reactions:
mr_jomo and fisherking
fisherking
Suspended
Jul 16, 2010
9,577
4,333
ny somewhere
ha, missed 'not'.... 🤪I said it is not at all hot. It’s very cool.
mine does not not run cool... at all....
Reactions:
Tagbert
Haven’t noticed any heating. I do most of my work on a web browser or on LibreOffice, but I occasionally do some work on Photoshop and Illustrator as well.
I come from a 2019 MBP 15” that felt like a burning stove only from being connected to an external display. My MBA now uses that display.
I come from a 2019 MBP 15” that felt like a burning stove only from being connected to an external display. My MBA now uses that display.
Reactions:
samuellavoie
Chateaunole-du-Pape
macrumors regular
May 25, 2022
I finally got it to get slightly warm by flying X-Plane for an hour or so. It never got more than slightly warm, and the graphics performance of the simulator continued to be clear and smooth, even with some fairly detailed scenery turned on.
Reactions:
samuellavoie, Tagbert and fisherking
Mine is very cool. Two web browsers with over 50 tabs open. Music playing. Youtube videos. Time Machine backups. My former i5 MacBook Air would be howling with fan noise.
Reactions:
samuellavoie, mr_jomo, dustin_ and 2 others
So cold that I have to turn the A/C down...
Reactions:
samuellavoie and ndouglas
appltech
macrumors 6502a
Apr 23, 2020
The fact that your Mac is without an active cooling system should explain that.
Still, you may add some fan (internal or external if it's convenient for you) to prevent overheating
Still, you may add some fan (internal or external if it's convenient for you) to prevent overheating
My runs cool until I load up Civ3 via Wineskin then it gets hot like a cast iron skillet. For regular tasks there are no issues. I haven't run Adobe software, yet.
Reactions:
samuellavoie
Tdude96
macrumors regular
Oct 16, 2021
After an hour or so of gaming it gets just barely above lukewarm, otherwise it stays cool to the touch.
Reactions:
samuellavoie and Chateaunole-du-Pape
mikedude86
Contributor
Sep 2, 2010
never heats up for me
Why would you do that ridiculous mod when your MBA is NOT overheating?The fact that your Mac is without an active cooling system should explain that.
Still, you may add some fan (internal or external if it's convenient for you) to prevent overheating
Reactions:
samuellavoie, LinusR and ignatius345
A fan in a laptop cooler isn’t that ridiculous if you do very intensive CPU/GPU things occasionally. They are inexpensive and can definitely help cool a passively cooled notebook.Why would you do that ridiculous mod when your MBA is NOT overheating?
Last edited: Aug 30, 2022
Reactions:
appltech
I just bought a $15 $20 laptop cooler with a couple of fans. When I get it I'll run some tests to see if it reduces or eliminates the M2 MBA throttling. The only conceivable use for me though would be some sort of game. I really don't run many games but if No Mans' Sky is actually released for macOS, I might pick that up.Why would you do that ridiculous mod when your MBA is NOT overheating?
Reactions:
Tagbert
Scott-n-Houston
macrumors 6502a
Apr 27, 2008
Houston (duh)
😀
Mine hasn't broken 70C since I brought it home 3 weeks ago. This is even when running Windows 11 in Parallels, a server running a React app within Node, plus a local nosql instance. -- it just idles along and never gets much warmer than room temp on the bottom. And the battery lasts an entire 10 hour day with plenty to spare.
Reactions:
rmadsen3
eicca
Contributor
Oct 23, 2014
1,120
1,470
Gee, it's like the overheating issue is way overblown or something.
Reactions:
samuellavoie, LinusR, dustin_ and 2 others
1BadManVan
macrumors demi-god
Dec 20, 2009
2,180
2,021
Bc Canada
Mines barely ever gotten warm, and I use it most of the time on my lap or onto of a pillow on the couch. Something you can't due on most windows laptop unless you need a heater
DavidChoux
Suspended
Jun 7, 2022
With Chrome?Mine is very cool. Two web browsers with over 50 tabs open. Music playing. Youtube videos. Time Machine backups. My former i5 MacBook Air would be howling with fan noise.
How does the user know when throttling occurs? Is there a visual indicator such as a menubar icon or, perhaps, a notification? Is there a fixed threshold--for internal temperature--beyond which throttling occurs? Thank you!I just bought a $15 $20 laptop cooler with a couple of fans. When I get it I'll run some tests to see if it reduces or eliminates the M2 MBA throttling. The only conceivable use for me though would be some sort of game. I really don't run many games but if No Mans' Sky is actually released for macOS, I might pick that up.
Technerd108
macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2021
It really depends what you are doing. The device if throttling should be warm under the center of the laptop. The cpu will lower it's maximum frequency so that it doesn't heat up to a point that would cause thermal damage. You might notice a delay in the responsiveness of your applications and then again you might not even know it is occurring.How does the user know when throttling occurs? Is there a visual indicator such as a menubar icon or, perhaps, a notification? Is there a fixed threshold--for internal temperature--beyond which throttling occurs? Thank you!
I really think the throttling issue is way overblown on the M2 MBA. Of course if you run multiple pro level applications at the same time for an extended period of time or heavy gaming and multiple heavy applications then you are going to have the device throttle. It is not designed for that level of work. However a lot of YouTube reviewers have done just that and I think the most it will throttle after like an hour was 17-30%. You can as others have suggested get a laptop cooler and some people have reusable ice bricks with a towel and that will stop or reduce throttling.
If you don't want a 14" or 16" MBP then the 13" MBP with M2 is better slightly because it has a fan. You can check activity monitor and watch your cpu frequency. If after you are working a bit you notice said drop in frequency for a while then it could be throttling. I believe the temp is around 100 degrees Celsius or around that mark that throttling will occur.
With mine the only time it gets warm is when charging with the fast charger or when running a stress test or benchmark otherwise it is cool or at least not even warm.
Also in my experience for an m series processor having had the M1 13" pro and M1 Pro 14", M1 Pro 16" and M1 Max 16" the air feels just as fast and in some cases like web browsing faster.
Reactions:
LinusR, rmadsen3 and Tagbert
Apr 2, 2022
How do you find the m2 air to be faster than the m1pro when web browsing? I would have thought the pro-motion etc would have made the 14” feel superior? Do you get lag with 100s of tabs open on the m1pro but not on the m2 air? Is there lag when resizing windows or switching tabs?It really depends what you are doing. The device if throttling should be warm under the center of the laptop. The cpu will lower it's maximum frequency so that it doesn't heat up to a point that would cause thermal damage. You might notice a delay in the responsiveness of your applications and then again you might not even know it is occurring.
I really think the throttling issue is way overblown on the M2 MBA. Of course if you run multiple pro level applications at the same time for an extended period of time or heavy gaming and multiple heavy applications then you are going to have the device throttle. It is not designed for that level of work. However a lot of YouTube reviewers have done just that and I think the most it will throttle after like an hour was 17-30%. You can as others have suggested get a laptop cooler and some people have reusable ice bricks with a towel and that will stop or reduce throttling.
If you don't want a 14" or 16" MBP then the 13" MBP with M2 is better slightly because it has a fan. You can check activity monitor and watch your cpu frequency. If after you are working a bit you notice said drop in frequency for a while then it could be throttling. I believe the temp is around 100 degrees Celsius or around that mark that throttling will occur.
With mine the only time it gets warm is when charging with the fast charger or when running a stress test or benchmark otherwise it is cool or at least not even warm.
Also in my experience for an m series processor having had the M1 13" pro and M1 Pro 14", M1 Pro 16" and M1 Max 16" the air feels just as fast and in some cases like web browsing faster.
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