Macbook Air with M2 was released last week and has received very positive reviews in the press, but during the week, a couple of negative sides of the computer have also been discovered. One of these is that the computer becomes noticeably slower during prolonged heavy tasks, as the heat development means that the processor cannot run at maximum power for long periods of time.
Tests have so far shown that the computer seems to last upwards of five minutes at full speed, and that heat-based throttling of the chip only becomes a “problem” for, for example, long renderings in video and 3D programs.
The YouTube channel Max Tech is one of those who have done several intensive tests of the computer, and has now also found a daring way to increase the performance of this type of persistent heavy work.
In a video shows the channel’s Vadim Yuryev how he opens the bottom of the computer and places a cheap cooling pad on top of the motherboard, so that the heat from the M2 chip is better transferred to the chassis and cooled by the air in the room. The result is quite striking: Exporting 50 large images with Adobe Lightroom goes from 2 minutes and 55 seconds to 1 minute and 56 seconds, and the processor goes from a maximum of 108 degrees to 97 degrees during the test.
Of course, we can not recommend that regular users open their newly purchased Macs and modify them in this way, but the test shows that Apple could potentially increase the Macbook Air’s performance for this type of task with fairly simple and inexpensive means.