#Do I have a defective Mac Book Air M4

6 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

mental cave
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I just bought a MacBook Air M4 24GB RAM, 512GB of storage. Compared to my other M4, webpages load instantly, but with this new MacBook Air M4, it gets warmer and thermal throttles more and also feels less instant. Is that normal?

naive nacelle
# mental cave I just bought a MacBook Air M4 24GB RAM, 512GB of storage. Compared to my other ...

Yeah, that’s actually normal. Your new MacBook Air M4 with 24GB RAM can run hotter and throttle more than your older M4 even though it’s technically more powerful. More RAM lets macOS and apps use more resources simultaneously, which can make the CPU work harder and generate heat. The Air has no fan, so it relies entirely on passive cooling once it heats up, it throttles to protect itself, which can make performance feel slightly slower. New SSDs or a fresh system can also run background processes like indexing or iCloud syncing, which adds load and heat. On top of that, any extra apps, browser extensions, or background tasks compared to your other Mac can increase CPU usage. So, while it might feel less “instant” under light workloads, this behavior is normal for a higher-spec Airs, and occasional warmth or throttling isn’t a sign of a problem so I wouldn’t stress it.

mental cave
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My other Mac Book Air M4 had the same specs and felt more instant on webpages!

mental cave
meager halo
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Wait up to a week after you set it up to let it finish indexing

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In the meantime, make sure it's charging overnight, and make it sleep instead of shutting it down