4 ms·
I think the main difference (besides storage and peripherals) is active cooling. MBA's are passive cooled now (since the original M1) whereas MBP's have always
by chongli 4y ago
I think the main difference (besides storage and peripherals) is active cooling. MBA's are passive cooled now (since the original M1) whereas MBP's have always had fans. The M1 & M2 chips are so cool that they generally don't need any active cooling most of the time. Where it does make a difference is under heavy sustained compute workloads. The passively-cooled MBA's will start to throttle under these workloads whereas the MBP's will maintain full speed indefinitely by spinning up the fans.
- spideymans 4y ago> I think the main difference (besides storage and peripherals) is active cooling Haha, I read your comment, and my first thought was a dismissive, “who cares about active cooling”. Which really says something about how insanely power efficient these chips are. I’ve had the M1 Air since launch and I’ve yet to observe any thermal throttling under my workloads (I’ve yet to feel the machine even get hot)
- chongli 4y agoSame here. I have never seen any throttling on mine, even when playing games (although admittedly I don't play demanding games). I think the target market for the Pro's active cooling is rendering (3D and video). For programmers I see little reason to get a Pro, unless you're running large C++ or Rust builds.
- Tempest1981 4y ago> difference is under heavy sustained compute workloads How long can my compile be, before throttling begins? Say using 4 cores? 2 minutes? 5 minutes?