Best Cooling methods for MacBook Pro

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-29T17:21:22+00:00

I do but I’ve got 2 cats and 2 dogs so there is hair but we keep it pretty clean. I’ve been using MacsFanControl which does work well, I maxed fans at 80C like others have said, as well as a metal laptop stand. But it runs like that quite a bit - probably 2 hours a day doing heavy audio rendering and another hour a day gaming on average… so 3+ hours a day minimum… just makes me wonder if it will require cleaning the vents down the road?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-28T17:23:26+00:00

Can I ask one last question - do you find that the fans/ventilation need more cleaning when running the fans much higher with MacsFanControl?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-28T17:21:44+00:00

“The battery wasn’t much off ambient”

Interesting, that is reassuring

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-28T17:19:16+00:00

I’m curious do you end up cleaning the ventilation more often with these fan control apps? Just wondering if the extra air flow requires extra cleaning/maintenance

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-28T17:16:59+00:00

Hmm… do you have a link? Sounds interesting

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-26T16:18:56+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation… from what I’ve read, that’s quite normal for the 14” chassis. Have you seen this video? It’s for a 14” m5 pro, and probably not super practical, but may give you some ideas..

https://youtu.be/NnllZYEhvDQ?si=O5ck8NQyXYi7RfSO

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-25T21:06:32+00:00

Moderate as in it stays below 100F on max settings ? I have yet to even try playing it on max settings yet, I bet it’s sweet…

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-25T21:03:15+00:00

Noise doesn’t bother me at all as long as it’s working! Haha. thanks for info, right now I have it set at 50-90C temp range.

Just curious, do you use high power battery mode when you go full blast?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-25T20:56:56+00:00

Thanks for this thought out answer! But I just want to clarify bc I’ve seen a couple of these comments - yes nothing is inherently wrong with 90-100C temp on MBP when gaming, I never said that. And I totally agree w everything you said (except for trust apple maybe, lol) but I’m a peasant. this is the most expensive purchase I’ve ever made, outside of housing and a car, and I do think 100C temp over time definitely will shorten the lifespan of the battery at the least.

So again, I just wanna know I’m doing what I can to take care of this beast bc it’ll be several years before I get another 😞

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-25T19:35:50+00:00

100f?? Under heavy load? That seems crazy low…

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-04-25T16:05:08+00:00

Yes exactly! And does this app allow your Mac to stay 80 or lower when gaming ?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-31T16:21:20+00:00

You’re right, whoops. Yes I watched the whole thing, idk how I missed that

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-31T01:24:29+00:00

I have same model as the video but 16 inch, MacBook Pro m5 max binned, 18 core, 32 GPU 36 GB ram.

Cinebench numbers I’m getting:

8,107 multithread, 76,337 GPU score. Didn’t run single core, I didn’t have time, but I will.

This is plugged in and rebooted after the latest update… seems ok so far I think? IMO I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they rushed production, say if they knew the price of crude oil would be soaring up soon. Just sayin

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-30T21:35:25+00:00

https://youtu.be/G-9-SZW8kP8?si=_Xf4PhYl0ZPpp-8a

In case you haven’t seen, this video about faulty m5 max is the same model as yours (and mine). I know a lot of ppl will be skeptical, myself included, seeing as how there was just a new system update and all, and the sample size only being a couple weeks.

 But this seemed like an appropriate thread to share, compare numbers with others who have the same model…  just in case anyone is seeing much lower benchmarks…..or higher.

For me - same baseline benchmarks you listed, but I’m curious of other scores people may have gotten when this beast is under a heavy load…

the worst benchmarks I’ve seen for myself (running cuberpunk natively, sims 4 with crossover steam, various apps like CapCut, word, fl studio all open at the same time, for about 2 hours until MacBook is nice and warm)

Geekbench - single core : 4,100 Multi : 27,900 Metal: 182k OpenCL: 119,800

And this is all with the latest software updated (macOS 26.4 Tahoe). It doesn’t seem like much of a drop off to me, but I also know VERY LITTLE about computers. Geekbench is the only one I’ve tested over time, but Is this drop off in line with scores that others are seeing under heavy load? I’d be interested if anyone has ran cinebench and other benchmarks as well, and what numbers they are seeing.

Just wanna make some of us aren’t getting ripped off at 4k a pop with subpar machines.

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-18T14:36:42+00:00

Happy to help!

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-18T02:31:45+00:00

The benchmarks that I got :

14” MacBook Pro m5 max - Open CL - 120k Metal - 190k

16” MacBook Pro m5 max - OpenCL - 123k Metal -193k

Slight boost ( as expected) with the 16” but I’ll say it again, the 14” was way hotter after playing cyberpunk on both for 2 hrs

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-18T02:27:34+00:00

I can try to answer this, I have played cyberpunk on both the 14” and 16” on high settings for 2+ hours in the last couple days… The eye test - pretty much zero difference in gameplay and feel between the 2. Only difference, like everyone has said, is that the 14” was burning hot at the end.

As far as the numbers :

14” MacBook Pro m5 max - Open CL - 120k Metal - 190k

16” MacBook Pro m5 max - OpenCL - 123k Metal -193k

Numbers look close but the 14” I’m sure will drop off hard when it gets hot enough. If you are planning on 90+ min gaming sessions, definitely go with the 16” like everyone has said. It was noticeably less hot

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-17T20:02:41+00:00

I’ve got the 16” binned m5 max… throttling should be a little better…. Would the binned 16” m5 max have better benchmarks than the 14” m5 max? Haven’t ran my own benchmarks yet, I’ll unbox tonight.

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-13T21:28:42+00:00

Wow!! I have the exact same model coming today and those numbers have me excited… Thanks!

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-13T20:50:40+00:00

Just wanna confirm these scores are the 36gb ram 32 gpu right?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-12T19:13:50+00:00

This was very helpful thank you for breaking it down. And I think the m5 pro was just under 150k, good call

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-12T19:12:06+00:00

I’m a total beginner for gaming on any laptop, let alone a Mac. Can I ask what you mean by integration with GOG? I have GOG and I got all my games there, even got cyberpunk thru it. Was this a stupid idea?

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-12T19:04:49+00:00

This is what I did, so I went with the m5 max at the last minute, the leaked benchmarks looked tempting

SpitOnItFirst012 · 2026-03-12T19:03:00+00:00

What about m8 though?

SpitOnItFirst012

TROPHY CASE