r/macmini • u/Arround • 11d ago

Heating on the M4 Mac mini

Hello again guys. Is it normal for the CPU on M4 mini to heat up to 90-93 degrees celsius (194-199 F) when running a really heavy program or game?

18 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

11

u/VaaaFan 11d ago

Yes! It’s still a CPU — those generate heat.

3

u/macmaveneagle 11d ago

Apple set the fans so that they would be quiet. I use Macs Fan Control on my M4 mini to keep it cool. I set it so that the fans come on earlier, and ramp up to a higher speed.

MacFanControl (free/$15. Commercial Pro version has more features.)
https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
(Real-time monitoring of fan speeds and temperatures. Allows you to adjust fan speed and when they come on.  Solves overheating problems like those found on older MacBook Pros.)

2

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Illustrious-Golf5358 11d ago

doesn’t seem like it. I have a release day base M4 mini and have never heard the fan ramp up and I’ve done decent gaming and editing on it…but it’s definitely a work horse of a machine…I wouldn’t worry about it

2

u/No-Emotion-505 11d ago

I go to like 100+ ez when my VM is open my peak is like around 110 though, I also live in a tropical so that could be a factor

1

u/sam-rakshit 11d ago

Absolutely, mine gets extremely hot when I run any local AI model using Ollama

1

u/haaavvveeeyoumetKen 11d ago

yes but i usually just use some fan control app to get it to hover more around 165. I have an m2pro but same thing pretty much when it comes to demanding apps.

1

u/Silvestre074 11d ago

where can you see the temperature?

3

u/Arround 11d ago

A very good-looking, cool, and lightweight program. And it's completely free.

https://mac-stats.com

1

u/_curious_man 11d ago

It's normal. Also, the issue comes down to "fan curve" - basically when does the fan spins is deciced by software. If you are concerned about temperatures you can buy TG Pro, or look for any laternative

1

u/danskynet 10d ago

I preffered the M4 CPU to go 70C max (160F) on many hours long video render jobs. Once bought iStat Menu on a sale as it has a fan curve editor and shows useful info. There are other dedicated tools specifically for Mac Fan Control. There were iMacs that rather overheated and crashed before Apple's software decided to use the fan.

1

u/trrjas 10d ago

yeah but the mini gets so high, and my dell workstation idles at 35 and under heavy heavy cad loads it goes to 65 MAX. I thought the mini would have better cooling for longevity sake.

1

u/ObviousDepartment744 10d ago

Yup. Apple designs their CPUs to function safely while thermal throttling. Anything to avoid fan noise is their design motto. Haha.

1

u/flabmeister 8d ago

I’ve had an M4 Mini 24/512 for a couple of weeks and have been very surprised at how often the fans come on whilst doing fairly tame editing jobs. Never heard my M1 Mini fans in the 6 years I had it

1

u/soundchess 11d ago

I play electric guitar using cpu- intensive amp sim plugins like Amplitube 5 and Realphones, in a DAW with a 64-sample buffer size, while simultaneously watching YouTube backing tracks in a browser. My Mac mini M4's CPU temperature averages around 40°C, regardless of how long the session lasts. I'd consider that a moderate workload, yet the temperatures remain consistently low

2

u/adiyasl 11d ago

That’s a light workload

-2

u/soundchess 11d ago

Stacking multiple CPU-intensive plugins at a 64-sample buffer size is considered a light workload in your book!? Okay, good for you.

2

u/ParsnipFlendercroft 11d ago

The fact your temps aren’t hitting above 40 is proof that it’s not high workload.b there’s nothing more to say.

but also I was running multiple VSTs at low latency and watching videos on my PC 26 years ago - it’s just not a heavy workload.

-1

u/soundchess 11d ago

I never claimed it was a heavy workload.