Proper running temperatures for laptop

sgtaylor5

sgtaylor5

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I'm not going to post this on MR because they'll probably say "buy an M1" which I cannot afford.

So I know what kind of workflow I have, and a 2017 MacBook Air with an i7 2.2/8/128 is perfect for what I need to do. Been waffling between Mojave and Monterey. Mojave obtains a lower working temperature in the 40-50s C, but Monterey is going to work better in the ecosystem with an iPhone. Monterey runs in the high 40s to high 50s, with bursts in the 60s -70's.

Is this going to be a problem? Thanks.
 
sgtaylor5 said:
I'm not going to post this on MR because they'll probably say "buy an M1" which I cannot afford.

So I know what kind of workflow I have, and a 2017 MacBook Air with an i7 2.2/8/128 is perfect for what I need to do. Been waffling between Mojave and Monterey. Mojave obtains a lower working temperature in the 40-50s C, but Monterey is going to work better in the ecosystem with an iPhone. Monterey runs in the high 40s to high 50s, with bursts in the 60s -70's.

Is this going to be a problem? Thanks.
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what is your concern about temperature? Are the temperatures you are reporting the die junction temperature or something else?

Generally there is no reason to worry about temperatures with Macs, other than if you can’t stand the fan running or your case is getting too hot for your lap or something. The CPU will be fine even over 100C, and in a MacBook Air there’s no spinning hard drive to worry about getting overheated. I don’t know how close the battery is to the CPU, but presumably Apple has put enough distance in there that the battery won’t get overheated. Not much else to worry about.
 
CMaier beat me to it, but I've typed too much to give up now!

Really, anything around 80C under a heavy workload is perfectly fine. I wouldn't even begin to worry unless it starts lingering around 100C for extended periods of time.
 
CPU PECI is what Macs Fan Control is measuring.

I'm only concerned because I know nothing about the real durability of modern processors, and I was counting on an answer from forum members like @Cmaier and @Renzatic. You all have the theoretical experience I don't have.

I have the answer I was looking for.
 
sgtaylor5 said:
CPU PECI is what Macs Fan Control is measuring.

I'm only concerned because I know nothing about the real durability of modern processors, and I was counting on an answer from forum members like @Cmaier and @Renzatic. You all have the theoretical experience I don't have.

I have the answer I was looking for.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the real problem was in the early 2010’s, there were some issues with solder joints, particularly with GPUs, in apple laptops. The solder gave out long before there were any problems with the CPUs or die themselves. For a 2017 machine, we’d know by now if there was any sort of systematic solder issue, and there don’t seem to be any reports. So you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

That said, I’d save up for an M1 :)
 
After the clutch needed to be replaced on the Kia and then I drove over a pothole and I had to replace the right side wheels and tires (so four tires instead of two), it'll be a while :)

Saving this thread.
 
if you're worried about temperatures or they're uncomfortable, later versions of macOS can run in power save mode, which does reduce power consumption (and thus temperature and fan noise) significantly.

Not sure if that's hardware dependent or not.
 
throAU said:
if you're worried about temperatures or they're uncomfortable, later versions of macOS can run in power save mode, which does reduce power consumption (and thus temperature and fan noise) significantly.

Not sure if that's hardware dependent or not.
Click to expand...
Low Power Mode is hardware dependent. Mine's too old.
 
sgtaylor5 said:
Low Power Mode is hardware dependent. Mine's too old.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's a shame. Sucks that Apple didn't implement it for all Intel models (figured some later intel machines should have had it); they clearly do thermal management for boost, etc.

CPU etc. should be fine running hot, but the component that will degrade more with heat is the battery as per above. Third party fan control apps can help here; apple's standard fan curve seems to be focused on being entirely silent with the fan OFF and waits until it gets quite hot and needs to ramp the fan way up. I found with my older intel machines that having the fan ramp up much earlier but to a lesser degree helped keep temps a lot better outside of sustained heavy workloads.
 
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