It’s getting hot in here!
One of the most potentially useful features of the new M3 MacBook Air is support for two external displays when the lid of the laptop is closed (in ‘clamshell mode’), which is great news for those of us who prefer larger screens or multitasking – or at least, it should be.
We say that because some tech gurus have been running stress tests on the new machine, and the results suggest that you could see a drop in performance of as much as 50% in clamshell mode – making the dual-monitor setup far less appealing.
YouTube channel Max Tech put the M3 MacBook Air to the test, running several 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Tests for around 20 minutes.
These 3DMark benchmark tests are designed to put as much stress as possible on a laptop’s hardware and give each device a score that indicates how well it can perform. Max Tech ran the benchmarks on the M3 MacBook Air with two external displays connected, both with the laptop lid open and then in clamshell mode to compare benchmark scores.
The first test produced a promising score of 8,083; however, that dropped to 5,916 points with the lid open and the laptop resting on a desk, as it normally would be when hooked up to two monitors. This sort of drop is to be expected and is likely due to the M3 MacBook Air having a fanless design, instead relying on an internal heat sink to handle the brunt of heat dissipation.
