Modded M3 MacBook Air outperforms the more expensive M3 MacBook Pro — supercharged cooling solution delivers big performance

It's no secret that Apple's speedy M3 Macbook Air runs hot, even hitting 114 degrees Celcius, which results in heavy performance throttling. However, YouTuber MaxTech discovered that the Macbook Air's performance problems can be easily remedied with just a couple of modifications (albeit expensive ones). By utilizing a DHCR cooling dock from SVALT in conjunction with thermal pads, MaxTech improved the M3 Macbook Air's performance by nearly 50% in select circumstances and outperformed the more premium (and much cooler) M3 Macbook Pro.

The DHCR cooling dock is a multi-purpose device explicitly designed to hold and cool a Macbook simultaneously. It features a "direct heatsink coupling" that has the laptop vertically. At the same time, the lid is closed and maintains surface contact around the bottom area of the computer where the M3 chip is located. The dock's cooling system functions by cooling the outer chassis, which keeps the M3 chip cool inside.

Max Tech found that the SVALT cooling dock can substantially increase sustained performance. In 3DMark Wildlife, the dock almost doubled the Macbook Air's performance, from 4,198 points in clamshell mode (lid closed) to 7,309 points, just 800 points shy of what the M3 MacBook Air can do in the same benchmark when not heat soaked. It is also roughly 600 points shy of the M3 MacBook Pro.

To get the M3 Macbook Air to Macbook Pro performance, Max Techsed a pair of thermal pads placed in between the M3's internal cooling solution and outer shell to boost performance. With these two modifications working together, Max Tech achieved 8,062 points of sustained performance, beating the MacBook Pro in the same test conditions by roughly 100 points.

Max Tech's discovery demonstrates how different the MacBook Air's cooling solution is from that of the MacBook Pro. Although both laptops share identical specifications, including the same M3 chip, the MacBook Air's fanless-cooling solution results in substantially lower sustained performance.

The good news is that users can modify their M3 Macbook Airs to get around this problem, as Max Tech has demonstrated. Even if you went with just the thermal pads, the M3 MacBook Air gains back most of its sustained performance loss. But SVALT's DHCR cooling dock is convenient if you use your Macbook Air as a desktop replacement — hooked up to one or two monitors. Another plus is that you don't need to modify the Macbook to use it. The only potential problem most people will have is its price, which totals $279.