Any current Apple laptops NOT temperature-limited?

macswe wrote:

Does Apple make a laptop Mac that doesn't essentially brick itself at 82°F?

My current MPB (2015) is getting long in the tooth. But I'l be hanged if I'm going to buy a new machine that pinwheels and spins and goes autistic at normal regional summer temperatures like my last three have. 

Do I have any choice in the current laptop line, or do I break a 35-year loyalty streak and go for a ruggedized Windows box?

Why not try a "ruggedized Windows box" and compare your results, if you have issues with Mac...

Last 3 ...(?)

Yours is the first complaint I have heard alone these lines...maybe that points to a specific issue with your current box(?) You are not the only one living in a hot climate.

Sounds more like an isolated issue with add ons or third party apps if issues with "like my last three have."

I think that is what I would look into.

If you said every Mac user on my block has temperature issues then I might reconsider(?)

I would at least Try resetting the SMC How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

on an Intel Mac for temperature management.

Keep your Mac notebook within acceptable operating temperatures

Keep your Mac notebook within acceptable operating temperatures - Apple Support

All electronics are temperature limited except for maybe those on space missions. But even then, they do have limits ... just more encompassing ones.

You might want to look for Arizona user groups or check profiles in communities and ask there of people in hotter climates.

Our Summers regularly reach 100F, but then I realize that's not Arizona. But then we have whole house air cooling so it's not a worry the vast majority of the time.

Apple products, in my computer using experience starting in 1978, do as well or better than most others. You do have to be judicious in extreme temps, but then that's true with everything.

I am facing the same issues. The macbook does NOT have a problem but it does when working out in the desert.

Kernel task increases its cpu usage and it makes impossible to work, again, outside, over 100F.

In my case in the desert in California.

There is a profile you can delete to avoid the OS to increase the cpu usage, although I haven’t tested it yet.

Leroydouglas, there are many of us facing that issue, I have found plenty of other colleagues but besides the workaround I mentioned, none have found another “solution”

and no, the macbook doesn’t have a problem at all.

the increasing of cpu usage by kernel task is a protection set on Mac OS, which is very annoying!!! My temp shown by 3rd party app was showing 140F inside the system and that’s totally fine (60C) as all cpu’s face 170-180F (80F).

The systems cited on this thread so far are all Intel based Macs. These have always had small problems, but the 2019 16-in model takes the cake. It gets hot, especially with external displays connected.

Since Intel's Power*Performance curve has been so problematic, Apple has walked away from Intel processors, preferring to use their own Apple Silicon processor-on-a-chip called M1. Several models are available, as well as some impressive desktop systems..

If you go with a ruggedized PC, you are re-entering the Intel camp that Apple has said goodbye to.

We are not talking about Intel facing issues, it’s the Kernel Task from the OS increasing the cpu usage when it gets hot.

M1 processors can handle better temperature but what we both mention is Mac OS X triggers a task to increase cpu usage when the temperature is over the recommender work temperature by Apple (50F-90F).

Still, Intel cpu’s can handle way more than 90F, the cpu laptops accept without damage 160F.

And for some tasks, M1 processor won’t work properly even using Rosetta, so still stuck with Intel processor in my case.

When kernel task spikes, your Mac is trying to cool itself further usuing software "tricks". When you see the kernel task taking over, it is running a low-power loop, deliberately hogging processing power in a way that reduces overall temperatures in the CPU and excludes higher-powered tasks from doing foreground processing that will add a lot more heat.

The fans in most Macs are fail-safe at maximum speed, and the system management controller measures temperatures at various points inside the computer and turns fan speeds down from maximum, typically several times a second.

Several versions of the MacBook Air have no internal fan, and use the kernel task trick as their main cooling technique. Most 13-in MacBooks have one cooling fan, and use Both the fan and the kernel task trick to cool off. Most 15-in and larger MacBooks have two cooling fans, and manage to cool themselves effectively with fan power, and only resort to the kernel task trick when the fan cooling is inadequate.

when you have cooling issues, it is important to be sure that warm air is blowing out the back, just under the hinge area, to make sure your fans are working. There are RPM sensors in the fans, so a fan that is not spinning fast enough will get its power boosted. Failed fans can be detected by the diagnostic.

I know desert heat. In the summer the people take tougher hikes after the sun sets. The direct sun heats the outer shell of metal objects (the outer door of the restrooms at trailheads are a perfect example) which could add too much heat for fans to expel.. The archaeology tents in "Jurassic Park" have canvas roofs.

While "hard shells" are in general a bad idea, something to deflect direct sun-contact from the non-vent area of the shell could help, while leaving the open vents I am not sure of the form, but any white-paper templates in the shapes of areas to cover would be a good start, I think, because they are inexpensive to try and white reflects sun ... there is even a new VERY-white paint recently developed to protect homes in high-sun areas.

I have a lunch-bag to carry fluids and other heat-sensitive in the car during the day during the dog-days. It has a sealed ice-pack on either side of the bag and does a very good job of keeping fluids in the bag refrigerator-cold for 3-4 hours (on-the-shelf at Target, not a special purchase). Those ice packs can be purchased and have a few ready to use while other refreeze, using plastic covers and placing them under the MBP to let any condensation drip down-away.

Others will give dire-warnings about condensation, and I agree, so plan for as much contact as possible without letting condensate flood where the MBP sits.

Specifically ... "arctic zone" "ice wall", which may be a freezable gel instead of water inside.

When Readers looked hard at fan noise in the 2019 Intel 16-in models, a few interesting "stealth" heat generators were revealed.

The drive in this computer is more than 100 times the typical speed of computers a decade older. If you have installed software that wastes computer resources on a regular basis, but used to be drive-speed limited, such as speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, Virus Scanners, third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive, or a VPN, it will do busywork at previously-impossible speeds — heating up at a ferocious rate.

Some of the best advice is to install Turbo Boost Switcher and turn off CPU Turbo Boost. This reduces the huge sudden overheating brought on by Turbo Boost, that simply does not translate into real-world performance gains.