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Almost every laptop in the world connects a block of fins to the CPU with a heat pipe.

I went to ifixit and clicked the very first laptop teardown I saw, it has one. https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/gnBU5dVYrIhInIXV.med...

Or, let's see, razer blade stealth, that's a 3 pound laptop. https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/nHPaankElOWQndsv.ful...

What's a light 15 inch laptop, XPS 15 7590? https://i0.wp.com/laptopmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01...

Acer swift 5 SF515, "lightest 15 inch laptop on the market" https://i1.wp.com/laptopmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01...

LG Gram https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/fFlFJB3PKThJs3TA.hug...




Apple is actually just really terrible at thermal design, simple as that. It's surprising, because you'd kinda expect them to at least be slightly competent (like they are in other areas), but they're just not.

They've gotten around it with M1 by building an entirely new chip that's power efficient enough that it practically doesn't need good thermal design to perform near it's peak. It's an impressive technical accomplishment, but it's also hilarious that Apple had to go this far to cool a chip properly.


Yes, we knew that design was common - that’s why that PC fan made the video picking it as a point of criticism – but that doesn’t tell us whether it’s as big a deal as being claimed. That would require some benchmarks running for long enough to see substantially greater thermal throttling, higher CPU core temperatures, etc.




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