Limited fan control on some Mac models

On some newer Mac models, including some of M3-series, fan control is heavily dependent on the hardware settings. If the system’s hardware disables fan control, Macs Fan Control (or any other third-party fan control app) won’t be able to override this. This is the reason behind the message you’re seeing and why fan control isn’t available.

Currently it’s confirmed to happen on the following (Apple Silicon) Mac models:

• MacBookPro18,2 - 16inch, Late 2021 (Apple M1 Max)
• MacBookPro20,5 - 16inch, Late 2023 (Apple M3 Pro, 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU) [Mac15,7]
• MacBookPro20,6 - 16inch, Late 2023 (Apple M3 Max, 14-core CPU, 30-core GPU) [Mac15,11]
• MacBookPro20,7 - 16inch, Late 2023 (Apple M3 Max, 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU) [Mac15,9]

You can do limited fan control but only in ‘heavier’ loads, once CPU/GPU becomes warm enough so Apple decides to kick fans on. Apple seems to kick fans on near between the 60C-70C mark. When the system decides the system is cool enough the fans will be turned off.

We actively exploring potential solutions to bypass these limitations. However, it’s important to note that Apple’s design for these new models might restrict what third-party software like ours can do. We’ll keep investigating but want to be upfront about the challenges we face with these newer models.

Related Github issue