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Extreme Temperatures Recorded

Recent tests have shown that the newly released M3 MacBook Air can reach unprecedented heat levels. The lightweight laptops include no fans, relying instead on passive cooling to provide a silent computing experience. A recent test performed by Max Tech confirms that the M3 systems are indeed very fast, but they also tend to experience some of the most extreme working temperatures recorded in the industry. The hottest core inside the M3 SoC reached up to 114 degrees Celsius on multiple occasions, while the CPU and GPU units in the chip reached up to 107 and 103 degrees Celsius under load. The external chassis hit 46 degrees at its hottest point.

Thermal Throttling and Performance Decline

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Laptop processors are generally safe to operate at higher temperatures under stress, but maintaining a temperature significantly higher than the standard boiling point of water is essentially unfeasible. The M3 MacBook Air did go into thermal throttling, reducing frequency and power consumption to return to a still high but safer temperature of around 100 degrees C throughout the test. MacBook Air models based on the M2 SoC had similar 'overheating' issues, but there is no evidence that they were able to reach the same extreme temperatures recorded on the M3 system. Max Tech compared the performance of the MacBook Air to an M3-based MacBook Pro laptop, which is designed to provide higher performance levels thanks to its active cooling system. Due to thermal throttling, the MacBook Air model experienced a steep decline in graphics performance (27 percent) on 3DMark Wild Life Extreme.

No Widespread Reports of Overheating Issues

So far there have been no widespread reports of overheating issues with the new M3 laptops. After all, the MacBook Air is designed for light computing tasks and is ill-suited for heavy workstation-like loads.