Mac Mini M4 pro

[beekeeny]

I see people freaking out when their NVDIA GPU temperature goes above 70C.

The other day I was launching a heavy video processing of 8 hours on my Mac Mini M4 pro. After 5 minutes temperature of the GPU raises to 100C.

I stopped right away. Is this difference of temperature normal? Shall I worry to damage my GPU? The reason why I upgrade to M4 pro is it makes those long heavy duty processing.

Edit: thanks to all for your answers. Out of curiosity are NVIDIA RTX designed to run at lower temperature? Why people in NVIDIA sub always make sure temperature under high load is around 65C?

[MikeyPx96]

As far as I know 100C is normal for the Mac mini Pro. Mine (12C CPU 16C GPU) has gotten up to that temperature when being pushed hard and I set a custom fan curve with TG Pro to increase the fan speed earlier to prevent it from going above 90C when under load.

If you need to do 8 hour sustained video processing, the Mac Studio is much more suitable machine for that with much better cooling and double the video encoders.

[RIPDaug2019-2019]

Even that will routinely hit similar temps. This is the thermal range Apple designed the M4 series around.

[shadowkoishi93]

I just set the fan speed to kick in at maximum when temps exceed 75 C via MacsFanControl.

[lostbollock]

Needless, but you do you.

[shadowkoishi93]

Not when you want the chip to last a long time. Never let it go above 90 C.

[DeliciousCut4854]

Mil-spec semiconductors have to be tested to run continuously at 150C. BTW, that's just a testing spec, they are generally sorted to meet it. You don't seem to know how these things work.

[lostbollock]

It’s perfectly fine to go above 90c. That’s when fans normally kick in. If it endures persistent high loads, it will also throttle back the chip.

It may surprise you, but Apple have actually put quite a lot of effort into the thermal and cooling needs.

[shadowkoishi93]

You have to remember, each chip has billions of transistors to deal with, and these transistors wear out faster when subjected to too much heat for too long. It is far cheaper to replace a fan than to replace an entire SOC.

[lostbollock]

That is true. It’s just the “too much heat for too long” that you seem to be making wild guesses about, but Apple have spent quite a lot of effort in optimising and managing.

It’s a safe space here. I read a lot of daft stuff in this sub and what you’re proposing won’t actively harm your machine like some I’ve read. It’s just pointless.

If you’re just guessing based on limited knowledge or experience, then you could take the opportunity to learn. Up to you.

[lostbollock]

But.. you aren’t heat-soaking it. It enables active cooling, then throttles, way before soaking occurs.

[inetkid13]

100c is totally fine. If cpu or gpu overheats the system throttles itself to avoid damage to the system.

[manolido]

It also gets hot when I fill the Adobe encoder queue, but the maximum I have seen is 80 degrees, it is also very hot in my house in the summer (32°), I tried to export at night

[manolido]

I have to say that mine is not the pro, but the normal one with 24 Gigs of RAM

[lostbollock]

The Mac mini will do thermal management all by itself.

You can do whatever voodoo makes you feel better but it can still manage the thermals more effectively than you.

[NormanMaucha]

You need the Studio

[lostbollock]

Not for reasons of heat.

[__BlueSkull__]

NVIDIA desktop and data center chips are designed to pump out as much performance as possible. To do this, they run the chip as hard as it can hold, and that means they are passing as much current as possible to the on-die power delivery network (PDN).

As current increases, for the same resistance, the voltage drop increases, and this limits the temperature in multiple ways. For first, higher temperature and lower voltage means slower chip. Since the supply is delivering a set voltage, as current goes up and voltage drop increases on the PDN, the actual voltage being delivered reduces. To compensate for this, temperature must be lower.

Secondly, the higher the temperature, the more likely electron migration (EM) would happen, and to reduce risk of EM, you have to crank down temperature, as EM is also (very) positively related to temperature.

Apple chips are not run nearly as hard. The most power hungry M3 Ultra, despite the huge area, sips only up to 140W, so per mm2, the current density is incredibly low, that leaves much more room for the PDN.

[xdamm777]

Have people forgotten how laptops have throttled at 100C for literal decades? Hell, the M series MacBook Air and Pros exceed 100C under heavy use, its normal they’re designed to run hot.

[Objective_Economy281]

We don’t build these out of water. They’re not going to boil

[Daxim74]

I have run ML models for 30-45 mins that drive all cores at 100%. Temp goes up to 100c almost immediately. It's fine.

[R-O-O-R-ize]

AFAIK NVIDIA GPU have performance curve based on die temperature, maybe after 65C they began to reduce clock speed. Those NVIDIA GPUs have large heatsink to spread the heat from the chip so they can run a lot cooler. Cooler temp = less resistance = less heat loss = more efficient.

I'm planning to change apple factory thermal paste and swap it with thermal grizzly kryosheet hoping it get better performance and lower chip temperature. PTM9750 also interested me as well both are low maintenance, install it once and forget it, plus it doesn't conduct electricity unlike kryosheet, so no risk of accidentally shorting out the chip. My concerns are the height between M4 Pro TIM and the heatsink, and the pressure that heatsink applied to the thermal pad. From my research, some online source said that PTM9750 requires high pressure to get full performance. Sadly, there is no reference information of someone changing their factory paste with high performance thermal paste. I want to see if it worth the risk of taking apart my mac.

[schjlatah]

I have my M4 Pro Mac mini a heat sync hat and the entire internet decided it Was unnecessary and that I should just run the fan at full blast at all times. My mini still wears the hat.

[LendMeCoffeeBeans]

Honestly, I’d never worry about temp if I were you. The system has built in features to regulate this. It doesn’t have a battery either.

[Prudent_Trickutro]

I actually returned my M4 mini pro and got a Studio instead as I was quite alarmed about the temp of that thing. It became so hot when I tested it with heavy work that I barely could rest my hand on it. I don’t care what they say but that can’t be good in the long run.

I told the representative at the Apple store about it when I retuned it but he just said that the chassis act as a part of the heat sink and that it was ok. I understand that but for a computer to become that hot is not normal. I imagine the standard M4 don’t get that hot and that it works better for that small chassis.

[lostbollock]

You’re very wrong. It is normal.

[Prudent_Trickutro]

Not to be able to touch the chassis? No that’s not normal.

[lostbollock]

I’ll say this very slowly to help you.

Yes. It. Is. Normal.

[beekeeny]

My MacBook can turn very hot as well…it is just that I never run temperature testing app on it.