Is it normal for my MacBook Pro M4 to reach 108°C?

Is anything close to the cold-air intake vents on the left and right side where the chassis meets the bottom plate?

The critical hot-air exhaust area is along the hinge. I make sure my M4 Pro's hinge is at least four inches (100mm) from any object on the work surface. Any blockage of that area can run the temps fast.

Are you using an external monitor? They commonly increase the workload. If you use an external and you close the M4's lid and place it vertically, such as on a shelf, the hinge side must be UP for proper cooling.

Have you installed any unneeded utilities like anti-virus or so-called "cleaning" apps? They generally cause more problems than they cure due to their interfering with Apple's built-in self-maintenance and security routines.

It’s pretty normal, but if you are concerned about overheating, there are some items you can purchase like this one, https://www.amazon.com/iHome-Mac-Cooling-Pad-IMAC-A300S/dp/B007X3VEUC that can cool it down!Hope this helps 😄

It is not unusual for the Mac to heat up beyond normal under especially demanding loads.

Typically, though, if the sensors detect that the temperatures exceed safe operating limits then the OS may shut down the computer until those temps drop to reduce the chance of permanent damage. Before a shut down becomes imminent, though, the os may throttle the processor(s) and reduce their capacity and heat production. You may notice this as a drop in performance.

You can find Apple's guidance for keeping your laptop running cool here: Keep your Mac laptop within acceptable operating temperatures - Apple Support

Well, it may not report temps "out of the box", but osx-cpu-temp can be added (homebrew, etc), as can any number of CLI utilities (fastfetch, macchina) or GUI utilities.

So there is clearly an API that can poll the temperature sensors.

% osx-cpu-temp -cgf
CPU: 72.8°C
GPU: 67.1°C
Num fans: 2
Fan 0 - Left side   at 0 RPM (0%)
Fan 1 - Right side  at 0 RPM (0%)

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself.

¿are you running anything like that?

Alexandrppp wrote:

My MacBook with the M4 Pro chip heats up to 108°C while rendering in Blender. I’m using it on a desk, and the Mac is new and not clogged with dust. Is it normal for it to get this hot?

The MacBook doesn't report chip temperature. I assume you are using some 3rd party hack tool. There is no way to tell if that information is accurate. Apple does not publish this information, so the developer is just guessing.

g_wolfman wrote:

Is that M-series SOC specific?

No. Apple has never reported temperatures with any chip or any system.

Because the Intel chips definitely do report temperature

Prove it.

I haven't tried any utilities like osx-cpu-temp on a M-series yet.

/tmp $ osx-cpu-temp
zsh: command not found: osx-cpu-temp

g_wolfman wrote:

Well, it may not report temps "out of the box", but osx-cpu-temp can be added (homebrew, etc), as can any number of CLI utilities (fastfetch, macchina) or GUI utilities.

So there is clearly an API that can poll the temperature sensors.

There is not. They are all just reading undocumented values from IOKit and making assumptions.

Is that M-series SOC specific? Because the Intel chips definitely do report temperature - although I haven't tried any utilities like osx-cpu-temp on a M-series yet.