Hi

I have an Intel MacBook Pro - 2,4Ghz - 8. core - i9 - 64GB - 2TB , so I use this for Ableton. The damn thing keeps overheating and Apple comments that it is an Intel chip issue so to bad!
Thinking of getting myself an M4 but any of you know if my plugins from the sister site keep working?
This Intel machine is hard to work with even with Bitwig it keeps overheating a lot!.

Thanks in advance

 

hard to tell without mentioning the plugins,
as a general rule, if a Mac release has "U2B" (=universal binary) or "ARM", then it will work in a DAW running natively on Apple Silicon,
"legacy" Intel plugins may work if your DAW will run in Rosetta2 (emulation) mode,

you'll definitely love how new Apple Silicon Macs aren't overheating and being noisy, just carefully do the research on what to buy, there's tons of opinions and reviews all over the internet

 

99% work well with ARM chips.

 

Some of your plugins you may need to get updated versions of from sister site as some are intel-only or ARM-only releases. But otherwise you should be fine. It's more dependent on which operating system you choose to use than which chip model you're using. I'm on M1 and perfectly content over here

 

Your laptop is It's full of dust that clogs the cooling system. What you can do is open it and clean it. You could bring it in assistance to do that, take into consideration that Apple Store won't accept vintage machine, so better choose a different assistance

 

a new cooling solution would be much cheaper. a different heatsink, a better fan, new thermal paste, all would cost less than 100$.

 

also they sell laptop coolers which are a pad with fans built in to move more air over the bottom of the device to pull away the heat. If it was built (engineered) to work, and its not working properly now, it needs maintenance, not a landfill.

 

I have the exact same computer as yours, it's a unusable laptop, my worst mistake was to buy this crap.
And bitwig just by opening without nothing it start to overheating.
I already cleaned inside and nothing changed.
I just use my windows pcs. And this laptop don't has any value anymore. Just a waste of money.

I'm on the same doubt about going to m3, m4 macs or give up from macs.

 

Unless a plugin was discontinued, haven’t the vast majority been updated to work with Apple's new chips by now? I’m also getting a new Mac soon and believe I will have to download the latest cracks of the plugins I use.

 

Yes, i buyed this machine used and never get used to it. It stays turned off on my table since i buyed because of this, small projects start to crack sounds. It's a nightmare. i'm used to windows but also would like to get used to do everything on a laptop nowadays. And maybe with a Arm based mac will be possible.

 

@Arjan Did you have the fans and the board cleaned at least once since you have it ? Did you replace the battery at some point ?

I'm on a mid 2014 MBP, Changed the battery for the first time in November 2024 and had everything cleaned, had some overeating issues during 2 month before that before that, now it works flawlessly.
I have this machine since March 2015.

2,2 GHz Intel Core i7 quad core
16 Gb Ram
250 Gb HD

My machine can still run tracks with multiple instance of Serum, Boost, K Clip 3, Kick 2 and anything Fabfilter.
I will buy a M4 in the next 6 months so I understand your choice but I'm wondering if you really need it right now given your specs.

 

I'm noting down my own real life test times. I have plugin chain going on processing large audio files In Isotope RX. I used the same thing on 3 Macs . MacPro 2008 = 1 hour 17 minutes / iMac 21inch 2017 = 46 minutes. MacBook Pro M3 = 16 minutes. And the only time I did't hear a fan was on the M3

 

if you do not truly need a laptop for production, mac or pc; don't get one.

 

2019, the last intel i9 version, 64gb ram. This one has this problem of overheating, maybe the i7 can handle music production.

 

1. Yes, most of your plugins should work - some require ARM specific versions, those should be available as well.
   
   
2. If the laptop is more than 3 years old, take it to a shop, have them clean it thoroughly and while you're there get a new battery.
   Also, if possible financially, consider getting a new logic board and double or quadruple your SSD capacity. Disk swapping causes a lot of heat issues - make sure you never exceed 70% of disk capacity for optimal performance.
   
   
3. Stop gap: there are cooling packs and fan packs you can buy and slide under your laptop, but also, you can turn off your VPN and WiFi and close all your browsers (lots of sucking your cookie data going on with every tab you leave open, especially YouTube).
   

 

I had the same lappy as you. I did all the tricks available to try to cool it down. It helped some - but not enough.
Picked up an M4 MacBook Pro. Friggin unbelievable. I've tossed so much at this machine and I've only heard a fan come on once in the 4 months I've had it. It's been a dream machine for low-latency audio and for pretty much anything else I throw at it. I hope your plugs work out because, if so, you won't be disappointed.

 

For serious production use laptops are not the answer - doesn't really matter which platform. You're always going to get better performance from a desktop machine - especially in regards to the upgrade/expansion and physical operation parameters.