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The only difference between the current Pro and Air is that the latter can thermal throttle. I got the Air and I have managed to make it throttle while running

by lucian1900 5y ago

The only difference between the current Pro and Air is that the latter can thermal throttle. I got the Air and I have managed to make it throttle while running x86 games. However, it wasn’t by much. The games remained playable. Overall, it’s great. Very fast and entirely silent.

qwerty456127 5y ago
You mean Pro can not throttle even when you want it to? It sounds nice to have a full power at my disposal when I actually want it but most of the time I want a laptop to run near its minimum power to prevent heating, avoid noise and save battery. Even when I run a computation-heavy task I still want to be able to force it to run slowed-down and take its time. Is this not possible with Pro? Even with 3-rd party tools?
- lucian1900 5y ago
  Based on what people that have both say, when the Air would throttle the Pro’s fans become slightly audible. I also prefer the design of the Air, so it was an easy choice for me.
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    I see. I personally am a PC user and I have a habit of controlling the throttle manually (it's not necessary but easy and handy). I have been doing this for almost 20 years, using handy 3-rd party panel applets and system's (both Linux and Windows) built-in tools. So I'm surprised to learn MacBooks still don't allow manual throttle control. I usually prefer to keep my thermal regime below of what the vendors pre-define.
    - lucian1900 5y ago
      All intel MacBooks I’ve used allowed controlling the fans manually, at least. It’s not relevant for the M1 Air since it has no fans, of course.
      - qwerty456127 5y ago
        I don't mean controlling the fans. I mean voluntarily throttling down the frequency of the CPU (and telling it it should not up-throttle even when the load goes high) so the computer actually stays cold even without the fans.
        lucian1900 5y ago
        Sure, you could do that too at least on Intel ones. Generally it makes sense to do it indirectly with the fans. It’s really not needed on the M1. The only time my Air got warm was in a game.

qwerty456127 5y ago

You mean Pro can not throttle even when you want it to? It sounds nice to have a full power at my disposal when I actually want it but most of the time I want a laptop to run near its minimum power to prevent heating, avoid noise and save battery. Even when I run a computation-heavy task I still want to be able to force it to run slowed-down and take its time. Is this not possible with Pro? Even with 3-rd party tools?

lucian1900 5y ago
Based on what people that have both say, when the Air would throttle the Pro’s fans become slightly audible. I also prefer the design of the Air, so it was an easy choice for me.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  I see. I personally am a PC user and I have a habit of controlling the throttle manually (it's not necessary but easy and handy). I have been doing this for almost 20 years, using handy 3-rd party panel applets and system's (both Linux and Windows) built-in tools. So I'm surprised to learn MacBooks still don't allow manual throttle control. I usually prefer to keep my thermal regime below of what the vendors pre-define.
  - lucian1900 5y ago
    All intel MacBooks I’ve used allowed controlling the fans manually, at least. It’s not relevant for the M1 Air since it has no fans, of course.
    - qwerty456127 5y ago
      I don't mean controlling the fans. I mean voluntarily throttling down the frequency of the CPU (and telling it it should not up-throttle even when the load goes high) so the computer actually stays cold even without the fans.
      - lucian1900 5y ago
        Sure, you could do that too at least on Intel ones. Generally it makes sense to do it indirectly with the fans. It’s really not needed on the M1. The only time my Air got warm was in a game.