The Apple Silicon revolution began in 2020, and for a while, these machines could handle their existing cooling solutions. However, the arrival of the M5 Max has proven that Apple needs to switch over to a vapor chamber, as a MacBook Pro owner says that running taxing workloads such as LLMs has resulted in display discoloration of the machine.
Isolated incident may not warrant any additional investigation from Apple, but it shows that a revamped cooling design is now mandatory for the MacBook Pro lineup
What’s interesting about this display coloration is that the panel area that’s affected only covers the outlet part of the MacBook Pro. Normally, hot air vented from the chassis wouldn’t harm the display if the lid is opened, but “B00TK1D” Redditor states that whether the MacBook Pro is opened at a 90-degree angle or fully, the distortion is the same. This sort of change can happen if the display is exposed to excessive heat, which can transpire if the lid is closed, but nowhere has this been mentioned.
“I got an M5 Max MacBook Pro a couple months ago, and recently noticed that if I run it at full load (for local LLM hosting for example), after a couple minutes of it heating up and the fans running at max speed there are two very faint areas on the lower screen right above the fan outlets that are just slightly discolored.”
Keep in mind that despite Apple moving to the Fusion Architecture, which involves the CPU and GPU blocks being placed separately over a single die to enable better efficiency and lower temperatures, the M5 Max can get pretty toasty when taxed, as it’s able to reach more than 100 degrees Celsius. These kinds of temperatures are excessive, and while the Redditor has not admitted to running any LLM workloads running with the lid closed, we have a hunch that’s what may have happened.
To remind you, the M5 Max is cooled by a single heatpipe solution along with two low-profile fans, which is fine for short bursts, but fire up a sustained workload, and you’ll quickly run into scorching high temperatures, which can make the MacBook Pro extremely uncomfortable to place on your lap, and if the lid is closed, not to mention reducing the display’s lifespan. At this stage, an isolated incident isn’t going to catch Apple’s attention.
Fortunately, if the Redditor has AppleCare+, he should immediately opt for a replacement. As for a remedy, moving to a vapor chamber for the M6 MacBook Pro lineup appears to be the only step, not to mention switching to a more effective thermal application material like PTM7950.
News Source: Reddit
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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