I have an Asus VivoBook with an Intel i5 processor from 3 years ago and when I run tools like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion directly on my computer, it gets unbearable. It heats up more than when I'm gaming. Is that normal or am I breaking the machine? Should I just stick to the online versions?
It's totally normal, those AI models are computational beasts and your i5 is gonna suffer because processing images with local AI burns resources differently than games do. Games are optimized for GPUs, but local generators like Stable Diffusion hammer your processor and RAM without mercy. Honestly, the online versions (Midjourney, Stable Diffusion's APIs) are way more practical for that laptop because the heavy lifting runs on servers, your notebook just handles displaying the interface. If you want to run local AI without your machine complaining, you'd need some serious hardware upgrades - dedicated GPU, more RAM - so for now just stick with the web versions and you're good.
What you're seeing is completely real and you're not breaking anything, but there's an important detail the previous answer missed: local generators like Stable Diffusion use the GPU very differently than games do. A game distributes the load evenly between CPU, GPU, and memory, but these AI models absolutely hammer the GPU continuously without giving it a break, and that creates concentrated heat that's much more intense. With a VivoBook from three years ago, the cooling system simply isn't designed to handle that level of demand for extended periods.
The most important thing is to check whether your laptop shuts down on its own after a while or keeps running. If it throttles (automatically reduces processor power) or restarts, that's a sign it's already at its limit. Sustained overheating does shorten the lifespan of components, especially the battery. Online versions like Midjourney or the Stable Diffusion website are much safer for your machine because they offload all the work to remote servers.
If you want to use local generators without losing your mind, at least use something lighter than Stable Diffusion and never run long sessions. And here's the thing a lot of people overlook: make sure your laptop's air vents aren't clogged with dust. Sometimes the difference between a tolerable setup and an unbearable one is just cleaning that out. But for frequent AI work, honestly, the cloud is your best friend.
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