Concerned Part-time Gamer

[tromboneguy3]

Hi, so for a while now, I was involuntarily given a MacBook Air 2017 for school. I figured out how to game on it until I could buy a Dell XPS 15. Here's my issue. My CPU temps regularly shoot up past 90 C and don't go down. Is there any way I could bring my CPU temps to below 80 C without buying a whole new computer? 

 

P.S. I am aware the desktops are superior in every way for gaming however I am not currently in a good enough living arrangement to buy/build a decent gaming PC. 

HWMonitor.txt

[Right Side Gone]

Never say never. If you really wanted you could sell the macbook air and build a pretty decent rig . Provided you live in a city with a decent market on used hardware. 

As for your temps 90c is kinda normal for laptops especially under full load. Unless it has a beefy cooling system which macbooks do not lol. Definitely sucks and i hope you srent thermal throttling . But i suppose you could tear it down and replace the thermal paste althought you'll probably only see a 5-10c max difference.  Other than that keep the laptop elevated . Like maybe some bottle caps or something. If selling and rigging up a desktop seems in your realm of possibility i would be glad to help. Unless you need the mobility of the laptop. 

[wasab]

macbook air is an ultrabook, not meant for heavy games. 

[Sorenson]

If you have a good internet connection you can try nvidia’s game streaming. You just have to sign up for their beta, I believe it is still free, and wait for a code. Otherwise you can try replacing the stock thermal paste in your laptop and cleaning out the dust. Some people have also had success with cooling pads.

[Right Side Gone]

2 minutes ago, Sorenson said:

If you have a good internet connection you can try nvidia’s game streaming. You just have to sign up for their beta, I believe it is still free, and wait for a code. Otherwise you can try replacing the stock thermal paste in your laptop and cleaning out the dust. Some people have also had success with cooling pads.

I second the nvidia game streaming option. My friend has it, its beta and its free. He also doesnt have an amazing connection. The res just drops . games dont lag traditionally. For OP id say its a nice temporary solution. Better than the macbook.

[GardeningWithSilicon]

For cooling, you could use a cooling pad / cooling dock. https://svalt.com/products/d1 

 

For improved gaming performance, you can use an external gpu - https://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Node-Thunderbolt3-Windows-Compatible/dp/B06XKKSNTS . Note that you will need to buy a graphics card as well. 

 

You can see what an egpu can do here (note this is a 2018 macbook air, but the performance should be similar) 

 

 

Finally, as others have noted, you will not experience an optimal solution by employing any of these tactics. Furthermore, by running the MBA so hot for so long, you may be shortening the lifespan of your device. Specifically, the keyboard may be susceptible to failure due to prolonged heat exposure. You can read more about that here: 

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/butterfly-keyboard-issues/

 

Note there is a reddit thread about this where a dude blasted a 2018 macbook with a heatgun for a few minutes and did not notice signs of failure. However, this is not a good test for this type of failure. YMMV. 

 

In short: yes you can, but you probably shouldn't. It's gonna cost a bunch of money to get it in a usable state. And if you don't do the necessary work to get it to a usable state, you could be risking device failure. 

[tromboneguy3]

So I tweaked with windows power plan settings and managed to alleviate it somewhat. I set my maximum processor utilization to 75%, turned the power plan to power saver and cleaned out some debris in the chassis. It managed to bring my temps way down, like 60-70C in medium-low graphics in Star Wars: The Old Republic. So far it has only spiked above 90C once, and it was when multitasking. There is the occasional frame drop, but I can live with that. As for the eGPU, any suggestion as for the card?