The MacBook Air with Apple M3 does not have a fan at all, and the passive heatsink is also relatively small. If you run the notebook under load or use it with two external monitors closed, you will lose a lot of performance due to throttling. An external heatsink can provide a remedy, as a test shows.https://www.notebookcheck.net/External-heatsink-helps-MacBook-Air-with-Apple-M3-achieve-significantly-better-performance.814308.0.html
Wouldn't it be easier and more practical to run a pad with active cooling/fans underneath the notebook, close to exhausts for example, than having to extend the passive heatsink with another heatsink via some spin doctor magic to connect the two?
On the other hand, your MBA is overheating because you're trying to use it for demanding use cases, it's a light notebook without a fan for a reason.
Quote from: Julian M on March 18, 2024, 13:40:34your MBA is overheating because you're trying to use it for demanding use cases, it's a light notebook without a fan for a reason.
A manufacturer intending to design such a notebook ought to limit the TDPs so that overheating cannot occur.
Quote from: Julian M on March 18, 2024, 13:40:34On the other hand, your MBA is overheating because you're trying to use it for demanding use cases, it's a light notebook without a fan for a reason.
Jesus, what backwards way of justifying horrible product design. I thought Apple products "just work"? In the meantime everyone else takes TDP into account and doesn't design something that slowly cooks itself to death.
Quote from: Swizzy on March 18, 2024, 15:42:25Quote from: Julian M on March 18, 2024, 13:40:34On the other hand, your MBA is overheating because you're trying to use it for demanding use cases, it's a light notebook without a fan for a reason.
Jesus, what backwards way of justifying horrible product design. I thought Apple products "just work"? In the meantime everyone else takes TDP into account and doesn't design something that slowly cooks itself to death.
Read the whole comment.
Apple makes a fanless MBA based on an old chip, the M1 was cooler than the overcharged M3 that is essentially the same but overclocked (and thus putting out more heat) - let the MBA burn/melt and have customers sue their asses to admit their lazy approach to cooling.
Even better yet, vote with your wallet and DON'T buy the M3 MBA.
Hold on... the big selling point of Apple Silicon over x86/x64 is that it's high performacne without needing a fan. You can't now turn around and say 'well, ok - it's a demanding task, you need an external heat sink and a fan if you want performance.'
I can run an x86/x64 laptop without a fan if I don't need high end performance.
I mean what's next, an external CPU with cooling for REALLY high performance tasks?
x86 laptops have fans but they only come on when you ARE doing high performance, so... what's the actual difference here?