I have the New MBA 2013 11inch and the CPU seems to be always in turbo boost mode. (according to transluscent lite) and I also tried to play some games on it (Lego Batman) and the computer overheated, the fans were running at over 5000rpms and the cpu was at a hot 142 degrees farenheit. Is this a known issue on the new MBA's? or should i take it back to apple?
MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
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The MacBook Air isn't a Mac designed for games. It has got little space inside, so heat gets accumulated inside it and fans have to work harder, getting speeds of 5000 rpm that can damage your Mac in the future.
If you can, I recommend you to return it and get a MacBook Pro (a 15-inch one, if possible) or an iMac which will give you better performance, but if you are really a gamer, get a PC with the best graphic card you can. Macs in general aren't good for gaming
142°F is not overheating. Maybe if it got to 205°F that would be near it's Max Temp.
Really? I've rendered 3D animations\ and video on Airs for a couple years. The heat doesn't seem to be a problem. If the fans are running how does the heat get trapped? I don't think it's a problem. My MacBook Retina 15 gets just as hot.
High fan speeds for a very long time may damage the fans in the future. That's the reason why you shouldn't do that type of tasks with a MacBook Air. Also, it's not a computer designed for those tasks, which is the opposite case of the MacBook Pro with Retina display
Your MBA is functioning well within operating perameters. My 15" retina macbook regularly gets up to 103ºC (~218ºF) when I'm doing 3D renders or working with large videos in FCP, and even those temperatures are completely safe for the CPU (for almost everything else, my CPU stays between 42–70ºC). If you really were hitting the thermal limit, the CPU would start throttling and you'd definitely notice the computer being laggy, and if it was overheating, the computer would shut itself down to avoid thermal damage. I'm sure your CPU can safely operate at least at the same temperatures as mine, and maybe the even higher since you have a Haswell chip, so there's no need to worry unless you're getting into at least the 220ºF range.
Also, its completely fine for your fan to spin at 5000 RPM: the fan is powered by a brushless AC motor, which spins without experiencing mechanical wear.
Oh and if its getting that hot when all you're doing is reading emails or other things that should be easy for the computer, it may help to check the activity monitor and see what's taking up a lot of CPU time. If you have chrome on your computer uninstall it, and I guarantee that it'll be noticebaly faster and significantly cooler.
New MBA 2013 overheats?
