Thermal Performance of Apple Silicon MacBook Pros

[Kronsteen]

Hello everyone

I’d appreciate hearing some experiences of how Apple Silicon MacBook Pros behave when the GPU is heavily loaded, potentially for tens of minutes at a time.

Background:

I have a 2019 16” Intel MacBook Pro which I use for Lightroom (with quite large HDR files) and GPU development (currently OpenCL-based, intending to experiment with Metal soon). I also have a 2013 Mac Pro D700 on which used to do the GPU development (and still use if I want to drive the GPU hard). The main thing I don’t like about this Intel MacBook Pro is that it can very quickly get surprisingly hot, with the fan running quite hard (this is true with both Lightroom and my GPU code). I’d like to retire the Mac Pro soon, certainly no later than when Monterey security updates cease, probably within the next year.

My plan had been to buy an M3 Mac Studio, most likely the higher-tier Ultra, when available. But I now have reservations about that, for two reasons. The additional cost of the higher-tier Ultra (assuming that the M3 will not be significantly cheaper ….) would push the price over UKP 5,000 (possibly even 6,000, with more memory). Secondly, I use Lightroom quite frequently when away from home, so would also like to have an 16” Apple Silicon laptop (I’m assuming that Lightroom will be *much* faster and that the machine will run cooler).


So the thought just occurred to me: given my unhappiness about the price of the higher-tier Ultra (okay, that’s just stinginess on my part), a better option is perhaps an M3 Max 16” MacBook Pro. That would allow me to do everything on one machine (much more convenient), accepting 40 rather than 80 (most likely) GPU cores but saving at least £1,500 (after trading in my 2019 laptop) vs. an M3 Ultra Studio — plus the cost of a lower spec M3 laptop. The GPU performance would still be *way* better than both of my current machines.

Hence wanting to hear about experiences of heavily loading the GPU on an M1 or M2 MacBook Pro. My impression is that the power efficiency of Apple Silicon is such that I shouldn’t be too concerned — but I’d hate to spend this much on an M3 MacBook Pro only to find that it still gets stressed if I push the GPU too hard. That said, so long as it’s materially better in this regard than the 2019 laptop (which is, I appreciate, a rather subjective statement), I think I’ll be happy.

Any thoughts you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks …. Andrew

 

[diamond.g]

I can't speak for the 16" folk, but my 14" has the fans spin up (more if they were off). I am not quite sure what you mean by stressed though. I don't notice any real difference in responsiveness while the GPU chugs away at SD image generation.

 

[Kronsteen]

I can't speak for the 16" folk, but my 14" has the fans spin up (more if they were off). I am not quite sure what you mean by stressed though. I don't notice any real difference in responsiveness while the GPU chugs away at SD image generation.

Thanks for the quick reply!

And apologies for what was clearly a rather vague and ill-defined question. By 'stressed', I was meaning: does it get rather hot and start running the fan hard?

I've been somewhat unimpressed by the fact that my current (2019) MacBook Pro is very quick to heat up and to spin up the fan, with relatively little provocation. So I would hope that, by contrast, with Apple Silicon, it might be possible to do something like merging three 50 or 60 megapixel RAW images in Lightroom without that happening.

Of course, if I run the GPU at, say, 50% utilisation (easier said than done with my code!) for several minutes, it would not be unreasonable for it to start warming up. But -- at the risk of making yet another hopelessly subjective statement -- I'd hope that it would behave rather better than my current Intel-based laptop in this regard.

 

[diamond.g]

Thanks for the quick reply!

And apologies for what was clearly a rather vague and ill-defined question. By 'stressed', I was meaning: does it get rather hot and start running the fan hard?

I've been somewhat unimpressed by the fact that my current (2019) MacBook Pro is very quick to heat up and to spin up the fan, with relatively little provocation. So I would hope that, by contrast, with Apple Silicon, it might be possible to do something like merging three 50 or 60 megapixel RAW images in Lightroom without that happening.

Of course, if I run the GPU at, say, 50% utilisation (easier said than done with my code!) for several minutes, it would not be unreasonable for it to start warming up. But -- at the risk of making yet another hopelessly subjective statement -- I'd hope that it would behave rather better than my current Intel-based laptop in this regard.

Ah, yeah the 14" fans get audible. Maybe a 16" owner can chime in for that. Heat wise I don't think it gets too hot.

 

[Adult80HD]

The thermals on the 16" are much better and Apple slightly throttles the 14" because of this. Coming from a 2019 MBP you will be absolutely blown away by the new Apple silicon. That said, OpenCL has long been deprecated and the performance is massively lagging so the sooner you move to Metal, the more advantage you'll see.

I have owned the 2019 Intel 16", the M1 and M2 Max and it's just worlds better on Apple silicon. I push it hard with Lightroom doing noise reduction and massive exports and it's almost impossible to get my fans to ever spin up, and the laptop rarely gets more than just warm.

 

[Malus120]

Compared to an Intel Mac any Apple Silicon Mac is ridiculously quiet even when fully loaded on both the CPU and GPU.
Does the fan get audible when I’m pushing my 14 M1 Max?
Yes, in the sense of “oh I can actually kind of hear the fan running now” in a quiet room vs under light load where it’s basically silent. Even at full tilt the fan is by no means loud or obtrusive, in fact most PCs make more noise idling.
Heat (as in the laptop becoming uncomfortable) is also a non issue on the MBPs.

 

[Kronsteen]

The thermals on the 16" are much better and Apple slightly throttles the 14" because of this. Coming from a 2019 MBP you will be absolutely blown away by the new Apple silicon. That said, OpenCL has long been deprecated and the performance is massively lagging so the sooner you move to Metal, the more advantage you'll see.

I have owned the 2019 Intel 16", the M1 and M2 Max and it's just worlds better on Apple silicon. I push it hard with Lightroom doing noise reduction and massive exports and it's almost impossible to get my fans to ever spin up, and the laptop rarely gets more than just warm.

Compared to an Intel Mac any Apple Silicon Mac is ridiculously quiet even when fully loaded on both the CPU and GPU.
Does the fan get audible when I’m pushing my 14 M1 Max?
Yes, in the sense of “oh I can actually kind of hear the fan running now” in a quiet room vs under light load where it’s basically silent. Even at full tilt the fan is by no means loud or obtrusive, in fact most PCs make more noise idling.
Heat (as in the laptop becoming uncomfortable) is also a non issue on the MBPs.

Thank you!

Those are both exactly the sort of perspectives I was keen to get.

(As it happens, Lightroom noise reduction is one of the specific things that causes my 2019 MBP to spin up the fans. Similarly, HDR merge and running my GPU code for more than a few tens of seconds.)

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I fired up my M1 Max 16 MBP to test that specific scenario.
Did 2 HDR's and 2 AI noise reductions.
I heard no fan.

 

[Kronsteen]

Ooh, that’s excellent. Thanks very much indeed for taking the time to do that. Much appreciated.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

If you want to test something particular I'll be glad to do it.
I have the latest Lightroom and Capture One 22.

 

[Kronsteen]

If you want to test something particular I'll be glad to do it.
I have the latest Lightroom and Capture One 22.

Very kind of you to offer. No need to do that, but I do have a couple of questions:

1. What size were the files on which you did the HDRs, and how many did you merge (Assuming that it was a merge that you did)?
2. How long did the HDR and noise reduction operations take?

Thanks!

(Ok, that was three questions … )

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Hello. I used Leica Q1 dng files which are 24mpx. 3 files merge. HDR Merge was very fast, preview + file generation around 6-7 seconds.
I only did nr on single files which took around 23 secs/ file.
I also have Nikon d810 files - 36mpx.
If you would like to test something specific, just ask.

 

[Kronsteen]

Hello. I used Leica Q1 dng files which are 24mpx. 3 files merge. HDR Merge was very fast, preview + file generation around 6-7 seconds.
I only did nr on single files which took around 23 secs/ file.
I also have Nikon d810 files - 36mpx.
If you would like to test something specific, just ask.

Perfect. Thank you!

 

[dmccloud]

Thanks for the quick reply!

And apologies for what was clearly a rather vague and ill-defined question. By 'stressed', I was meaning: does it get rather hot and start running the fan hard?

I've been somewhat unimpressed by the fact that my current (2019) MacBook Pro is very quick to heat up and to spin up the fan, with relatively little provocation. So I would hope that, by contrast, with Apple Silicon, it might be possible to do something like merging three 50 or 60 megapixel RAW images in Lightroom without that happening.

Of course, if I run the GPU at, say, 50% utilisation (easier said than done with my code!) for several minutes, it would not be unreasonable for it to start warming up. But -- at the risk of making yet another hopelessly subjective statement -- I'd hope that it would behave rather better than my current Intel-based laptop in this regard.

The warmest I've seen my 14" MBP (M2 Max) get was when running Cyberpunk 2077 via the Game Porting Toolkit. While the machine got louder, it wasn't a mechanical fan noise but just the sound of air being forced out of the chassis. As far as heating issues go, the only warming I noticed was where the 6, T, and Y keys are located, and that was enough to notice but not enough to even start being concerned about.

This machine handles everything I throw at it like a charm - 4k video editing/rendering, coding, web design, some gaming when I have time, and runs quieter and overall faster than the gaming PC I built last fall.

 

[Kronsteen]

The warmest I've seen my 14" MBP (M2 Max) get was when running Cyberpunk 2077 via the Game Porting Toolkit. While the machine got louder, it wasn't a mechanical fan noise but just the sound of air being forced out of the chassis. As far as heating issues go, the only warming I noticed was where the 6, T, and Y keys are located, and that was enough to notice but not enough to even start being concerned about.

This machine handles everything I throw at it like a charm - 4k video editing/rendering, coding, web design, some gaming when I have time, and runs quieter and overall faster than the gaming PC I built last fall.

Excellent. More good feedback.. Thanks!