Apple’s M5 Can Lose Up To 40% In FPS Due To Passive Cooling, MacBook Pro’s Active Fan Remains The Superior Choice For Sustained Workloads
https://wccftech.com/apple-m5-loses-up-to-40-percent-in-fps-due-to-poor-passive-cooling/
Publish Date: 2026-04-03 07:02:00
Source Domain: wccftech.com
The Apple Silicon continues to be efficient enough to the point that chipsets like the M5 can be used in portable Macs like the newly updated MacBook Air lineup for the majority of tasks without worrying about performance drops. However, when it comes to sustained workloads, which matter greatly, like gaming, an active cooling fan continues to tower over those silent passive solutions because the latest comparison shows that titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and others can lose up to 40 percent in framerates because of the cooling design difference alone.
An active cooling fan gives Apple’s M5 sufficient thermal headroom to operate at more than 2x the power limit of the passively-cooled version
It is essential to remember that the lack of a heat-dissipating fan doesn’t make the M5 MacBook Air unusable, but Apple leaves a ton of performance on the table by using a passive cooler on its less expensive hardware. In a detailed review by YouTuber Geekerwan, we looked at some gaming figures and found that an M5 with insufficient cooling can lose up to 40 percent of its framerate, though this depends on the game being played.
Cyberpunk 2077 tested on the M5 (low graphics present, 1,920 x 1,200, upscaling disabled) / Image credits – Geekerwan
Cyberpunk 2077 tested on the M5 (low graphics present, 1,920 x 1,200, MetalFX upscaling set to quality) / Image credits – Geekerwan
For instance, Cyberpunk 2077, which continues to be one of the more visually demanding titles around, pushes the M5 to its limit, with the MacBook Air only able to operate at a power limit of 9W compared to the MacBook Pro’s 20W. As expected, the increased power limit enables the M5 to deliver higher framerates, but even at less than 10W, the SoC showcases impressive performance in the AAA game.
M5 MacBook Air and M5 MacBook Pro power limits when running Cyberpunk 2077 / Image credits – Geekerwan
