Hi. I recently installed Zwift on my new Macbook Pro M4 (upgraded to Tahoma) and as soon as I enter the game, the fan goes crazy and the laptop really overheats.
I used to run Zwift on a MacBook Pro M1 and had no issues.
Also, even with the battery saver set to medium, I start with a full charge and I’m at 5% battery after one hour, using an HDMI cable to the TV. Again, with the other laptop I could run it for 2 hours and the battery would go down at 70% so no problems.
Is this something related to the M4 chip, the Tahoma OS or something else? Any other tweaks I can try?
I’d like to avoid using the charger.
Zwift updated to the last version - currently 1.98.2
Check CPU temps and what is running in the background. In Windows it is Task Manager but I have no idea what is for a Mac. Run some diagnostics to see everything is functioning. If you live near an Apple store you can always take it to one of the Nerds for a check.
You could also try going to the Mac Display settings and reduce the refresh rate
The demands of the M4 can differ from the M1 depending on the details of the CPU in the M1 system. If it’s not an M1 Pro CPU or better it will not use the same graphics profile as the M4.
Keeping the laptop lid open will also help it cool off, as will a laptop cooling device.
So this is what I see in the Activity Monitor. %CPU always around 70% with a huge number of idle wake-ups (compared to the rest) - not sure what it means. Also pretty GPU-loaded.
Note I took this screenshot while I was just selecting a route, no actual game or route loaded. And the fan went crazy.
It’s “normal” (though I wouldn’t say “good”) that frame rates will go nuts on the home screen. That happens on PCs as well. If that causes problems, limiting the frame rate in display settings should help.
