A simple modification to the dissipation system of the new MacBook Air with M1 processor can offer up to 20% more performance. This is demonstrated in the Linus Tech Tips channel and other users who have replicated the idea as well.
Improve the performance of the MacBook Air M1 with this simple hack
Along with some other detail such as the maximum brightness of the screen or the Touch Bar, the big difference between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with M1 chip is in the heatsink system. The first opts for a passive solution and the second for an active one, as it also does the Mac mini M1 that we already analyzed, however with a simple modification you can get a performance with the new Air with Apple Silicon that would equal or even exceed that of the Pro model. Yes, as you are reading.
Linus from the Linus Tech Tips channel posted a video showing how he got a improvement of up to 20% on performance issues with the new MacBook Air M1. To do this, all he had to do is improve the dissipation. This was done in a very simple way and within the reach of anyone, since it does not require any tank of liquid nitrogen or other stories that we have already seen on occasion to force the overclocking of some CPUs.
Linus's solution was to simply place a heating pad or thermal pads, a thermal silica gel material that improves thermal conductivity by allowing more efficient heat transfer between two elements. And be careful, best of all, these types of heating pads are very cheap.
So, using a Thermal pad like Thermalright of 0.5mm and that costs only ten euros, the MacBook Air performance improved notably when doing long tasks over time and demand more from the new processor. Because that is where the difference between the Air and Pro model is.
By having a passive ventilation system, even though the processor is the same, the MacBook Air will see its performance reduced as soon as it has to perform tasks that take up a lot of time. With this simple modification the case is further used as a passive dissipation system and hence the lesser impact on performance. Because of course, if the processor takes longer to reach temperatures that force it to resort to thermal throttling, the longer you can go at full power.
Up to 20% more performance
After the Linus Tech Tips video and some others, many users started to carry out this simple hack as we say. Because basically you only have to remove the cover that gives access to the different components of the equipment and apply said pad. There is no need to dismantle heatsinks or anything like that.
Well, some benchmarks show that around 20% more performance can be achieved depending on what type of tasks. This means that there are times when it even outscores the values ​​obtained by the MacBook Pro that does have a fan for heat dissipation.
Cinebench R23 Multi Core
In the Cinebench multi-core test there is not a big jump, but there are some extra points.
- New MacBook Air: 7527
- New modified MacBook Air: 7795
Geekbench Single and Multi Core
In Geekbench, the results obtained by another channel (Created Las) are the following:
- New MacBook Air: 1495 and 6612
- New modified MacBook Air: 1519 and 7723
8K video rendering in DaVinci Resolve
Rendering a video at 8K resolution in Resolvedlas the performance increase reaches 31%:
- New MacBook Air: 36:13 minutes
- Modified new MacBook Air: 26:42 minutes
Modded MacBook Air M1 vs MacBook Pro M1
In the case of the comparison with the MacBook Pro, here either the same performance is obtained or it is improved and that is already much more striking:
For example, in Blender the modified Air M1 reaches 1017 points while the factory Pro M1 stays at 975 points. This is data from tests performed by Linus.
In Cinebench the Air M1 with Thermal Pad reaches 7795 points as we have seen and the Pro M1 stays at 7696 points. It is true that they are minimal differences, but they are there and they are indicators of this drop in performance when certain temperatures are reached.
You can see the full video here and it is true that many of those who have purchased the new Appple equipment will not, at least while the warranty lasts, but it would be something to consider for those who want to get the most out of it or improve it from now on. later with a solution within everyone's reach.
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