Apple Mac Studio Dual-Blowers Fans Heat Cooling

The Mac Studio offers performance greater than massive PC towers, yet Apple's M1 Ultra chip is remarkably cool and efficient, a new video shows. With the Mac Studio, Apple managed to fit powerful technology into a very small case, raising concerns about heat build-up. Apple processors typically run cooler than competing chips from other manufacturers, but the Mac Studio is capable of drawing over 200 watts of power and that generates heat.

The thermal design was clearly a primary focus when Apple's Mac Studio was being designed. Made from a single aluminum enclosure which is excellent for heat conduction, the Mac Studio features large, double-sided blowers that direct airflow through vents on the back and bottom enclosure. For the M1 Ultra models, a large copper thermal unit rapidly draws heat away from the logic board to keep the system running at full power. At least half of the space within the case is dedicated to cooling.

Related: Mac Studio Vs. Mac mini: Do You Really Need That Much Power?

The Mac Studio was recently put through a thermal stress test by the Max Tech YouTube channel. In the test, CPU and GPU benchmarks were run over an extended period to see if high performance would eventually lead to heat build-up and throttling. The CPU held at about 60 degrees Celsius and the GPU reached only 40 degrees Celsius. This is incredibly cool for a high-performance computer. Trying to push it further, the CPU benchmark was run again until the 60-degree peak temperature was reached, then the GPU test was run as the CPU test continued. The GPU climbed to 44 degrees and held, while the CPU temperature increased to 61 degrees. The fans ran quietly, slightly faster than idle speed throughout the stress test. This indicates thermal throttling might never be a concern with Mac Studio. An interesting point made by the video is that the GPU never seemed to reach maximum capacity, running at a maximum of 75 percent according to the app used to measure it. So far, there is no explanation of why this would happen.

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Apple's Mac Studio manages to keep its cool under heavy workloads, at least under intensive benchmark testing. Some might be wondering how this compares with CPU and GPU temperatures found in powerful Windows PCs? It's well-known that CPU temperatures for high-performance chips from AMD and Intel often surpass 80 degrees Celsius, while the top GPUs from Nvidia and AMD regularly climb past 100 degrees. For reference, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius and hot tap water is about 60 degrees.

It should be noted that chips from competing manufacturers are designed to run at those high temperatures so that isn't a problem, but it could shorten the lifespan of components compared to how long a Mac Studio will last. Apple's more efficient design also means that it can use a smaller, lower-capacity power supply, allowing the high-performance Mac Studio to take up less space than a gaming console.

Next: Is The Mac Studio SSD Upgradable? Here's Everything We Know

Source: Max Tech/YouTube