TechNirvana
This video is a gaming and graphics performance comparison between the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro. The main aim is to get to the bottom of whether the M1 MacBook Air thermally throttles in gaming scenarios; and if it does then by how much?
Interesting Tidbits (AKA things I forgot to mention in the video!):
– The MBP’s fan was basically silent throughout all this testing. It was hard to tell whether it had fired up at all – I think after around 10 minutes of a sustained workload, the fan does start up but even when pressing my ear against the machine’s chassis, I could barely hear it. It’s nothing like the Intel MacBook’s of yesteryear (which generally sound like a jet engine within a couple of mins after applying a sustained load)!
Limitations (of methodology)
– The Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark was run consecutively without any breaks between runs. However, the loading screens when the benchmark is loading / unloading potentially serve as a “rest” for the SoC and allow it to cool down somewhat so this test may (potentially) be an overestimate of the sustained performance of the MacBook Air as there aren’t usually loading screens so frequently (if at all) when playing a game normally.
– We were experiencing a heat wave in the UK at the time of filming and we don’t generally have AC in our houses here so ambient temps were on the high side at 27°C. I don’t think it would have made any difference to the MBP’s performance but may (potentially) have impacted the MBA’s sustained performance in a negative way.
Links
How To Thermal Mod Your M1 MacBook Air:
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
00:17 – Shadow of the Tomb Raider Benchmark
01:49 – World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Benchmark
03:35 – 8 GPU Core MacBook Air Performance Simulation
04:30 – MacBook Air Modding Discussion
05:26 – Conclusion