MacBook Pro M1 gets way to hot when processing in video AI.
Is there a way to process it different where the processor not gets to hot.
This way it kills the Computer
TVAI has a “Low Power Mode”. It’s supposed to reduce power draw and thus heat, but at the cost of slower processing. To activate it:
- Open TVAI
- Select from the top bar
Topaz Video AI -> Preferences - Go to the
Processingtab. - Enable the
Low Power Modesetting and save it.
If this isn’t enough, then Apple has their own low power mode. Once again to reduce power draw, thus reducing heat, at the cost of slower performance. To activate it:
- Open the Settings app (the macOS settings app)
- Go to the
Batterysection. - At the top there will be an option called
Low Power Mode. Change it to a mode that suits you.
If after all that, things are still getting hot, then it’s likely not the TVAI that’s causing the issue, but Apples design.
Apple has tuned the fans inside their MacBooks to try and be quiet. As such the fans only spin as fast as is needed for the current workload to maintain a processor temperature of 90C or lower (90C was picked at random, the value might be different).
This means that when your processor is in low power mode and processing videos, it’s 90C. But the fans are quiet.
When it’s in high power mode and processing videos, it’s 90C. But the fans are “loud”.
If all you care about is processor temperature being low, and not being quite, then there are some apps you can download on your Mac that allow you to set a custom fan speed. And you can use this to increase the fan speed to decrease the processor temperature.
does it not have to do with the difference in rendering?
I use Gyroflow to stabilize GoPro shots, in the software I can use GPU encoding or software encoding.
when I use software encoding the Mac get way to hot, when I use GPU encoding the Mac is cold!.
Just a thing I did see with Gyroflow, will this work if we have the option in Topaz Video AI ?
Vincent
When applying an enhancement in TVAI, it uses the CPU to decode the original video, CPU for some things and the sheduling of some work, and the GPU and neural engine (?) to enhance the video, then the media engine or CPU to encode it.
A lot of different parts are being used in TVAI to do all the work required to process your video, and they’re being relatively well utilized, and that’s resulting in the Mac drawing quite a bit of power which is resulting in it heating up.
There’s not much Topaz Labs can do to reduce the power draw other than to make processing run slower. And the “low power” modes I mentioned do just they, they slow down the computer, which slows down processing and reduces power draw.
No, most of the power draw comes from the “enhancement” section, not the encoding section. So changing encoder won’t help.
Also, most of the encoders you can pick in the app use the “GPU”
M1 Max 64GB 14’’ here. When I used it for topaz video ai (gaia + chronos), I would have to:
- use istat menus to set the fans to 100% before I started
- have fans blowing directly at the bottom.
It still got very HOT. I have since moved on to a 4090 pc setup for this workload. 
strangely ffmpeg for ProRes to h265 via videotoolbox (various apps do this) used to run best on the m1 max but Sonoma messed it up and crf acts all wacky with multiple apps that use it (ex: shutter encoder). I used to encode at 150MB-300MB/s when encoding on the network but I would have to use APFS shares to do it (sigh.). Now using ffmpeg on sonoma I can only encode at 150MB/s via SMB and doesn’t seem to abide by CRF settings / I get wacky bitrates in the output file
I have now moved both the rendering and the encoding to h265 to my pc build.
the m1max is still great for resolve stuff on the road though.
