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Unlikely. Historically Apple has always designed cooling with very narrow margins around suppliers TDP due to internal pressure to create smaller and smaller ma

by tomxor 5y ago

Unlikely. Historically Apple has always designed cooling with very narrow margins around suppliers TDP due to internal pressure to create smaller and smaller machines, which has often resulted in underclocking due to GPU vendors downplaying their TDP requirements. From the explanation it sounds like an artificial limitation. The chip is technically capable of being saturated with the current design given an optimal program, and fulfilling it's TDP, at which point the current cooling system design would be _entirely necessary_ for the current chip design. This is clear from the second tweet: > Mac Studio cooling system is OVERKILL in most apps My emphasis added (not all apps in theory - but practically)

nano9 5y ago
The Mac Studio is huge compared to the Mac mini. I don't think they cared too much about slimming it down.
- tomxor 5y ago
  > The Mac Studio is huge compared to the Mac mini True, but Apple generally do care about either size or quietness. Starting with the G5 cooling system they started to exchange a lot of the former for the latter in their large desktops. I expect that is the case here (i've not actually seen a picture of this thing) - However this doesn't mean they designed the cooling system extra large margins, that's just not their attitude, unlike PC vendors they control all the components they can be more exact (Saying this as quite the opposite of an Apple fan boy). Point is, the cooling system overcapacity is due to expected (but generally not fulfilled) TDP, rather than adding arbitrary large margins.
  - nicoburns 5y ago
    Yes, although it's worth noting that they seem to have rowed back on this a little bit in their recent designs. The new MacBook Pros are cooler due to the processor being cooler, but they also have feet to allow better airflow under the machine at the clean flat bottom of the previous models (IMO they still look great, but I can't see Apple of a few years ago making that decision).
    - tomxor 5y ago
      Their new CPU architecture certainly is more power efficient compared to x86s they replaced in many ways which means they aren't up against such a wall to compete on performance, perhaps a combination of circumstances have caused them to produce more thermally comfortable machines in recent years. I'm not sure how long this will last though... in that sense I'm sure they do have relaxed TDP margins, so i'm basically arguing about the subtlety of this not being an intentionally large margin... now I look like i'm splitting hairs :P but it's clearly a mistake from the analysis of the GPU.

by tomxor 5y ago

nano9 5y ago

The Mac Studio is huge compared to the Mac mini. I don't think they cared too much about slimming it down.

tomxor 5y ago
> The Mac Studio is huge compared to the Mac mini True, but Apple generally do care about either size or quietness. Starting with the G5 cooling system they started to exchange a lot of the former for the latter in their large desktops. I expect that is the case here (i've not actually seen a picture of this thing) - However this doesn't mean they designed the cooling system extra large margins, that's just not their attitude, unlike PC vendors they control all the components they can be more exact (Saying this as quite the opposite of an Apple fan boy). Point is, the cooling system overcapacity is due to expected (but generally not fulfilled) TDP, rather than adding arbitrary large margins.
- nicoburns 5y ago
  Yes, although it's worth noting that they seem to have rowed back on this a little bit in their recent designs. The new MacBook Pros are cooler due to the processor being cooler, but they also have feet to allow better airflow under the machine at the clean flat bottom of the previous models (IMO they still look great, but I can't see Apple of a few years ago making that decision).
  - tomxor 5y ago
    Their new CPU architecture certainly is more power efficient compared to x86s they replaced in many ways which means they aren't up against such a wall to compete on performance, perhaps a combination of circumstances have caused them to produce more thermally comfortable machines in recent years. I'm not sure how long this will last though... in that sense I'm sure they do have relaxed TDP margins, so i'm basically arguing about the subtlety of this not being an intentionally large margin... now I look like i'm splitting hairs :P but it's clearly a mistake from the analysis of the GPU.