Fan noise MacBook Pro 16

[avkam]

I would like to know what experience people have with fan noise in the new 16 inch MacBook Pro.
So far I have the 13 inch MacBook Pro from 2016 which very rarely uses the fans at all using safari, office and low power use in general.
I don’t expect the computer to be silence at all during heavy load, but will casually browsing safari in the night, watching movies or writing documents make the fans start and noisy?

My quick test with my new 16" (2.4/8Gb5500M/64Gb) using couple of audio softwares (pretty big projects with Nuendo and Logic). Fans definitely are audible, but because this isn't my studio computer, I can live with it. But with Bootcamp and Pro Tools, fans are blowing very hard. Somehow Bootcamp doesn't handle cooling very well. So it depends. Sometimes they are loud, sometimes not.
But no fan noise during web browsing or Youtube etc. Total silence. (No external monitor).

 

[PROFESS0R]

It is not a terrible design, it is physics. These CPUs dissipate significant power at idle, and cooling is necessary to remove the heat. yes, there are other quieter ways to dissipate heat, but these techniques have trade offs of their own (size, weight, complexity).

Joe

Really? Just doing simple daily tasks is causing them to get heated? That seems like a terrible design. I have a 13" macbook pro and the only times I ever hear the fans is when it's doing something fairly intensive. For just chilling on reddit or working on spreadsheets or even basic youtube stuff it's whisper quiet.

Are you telling me that these new models are actually audible and making noise during simple tasks like this? That's not good.

 

[kmahmood]

It is not a terrible design, it is physics. These CPUs dissipate significant power at idle, and cooling is necessary to remove the heat. yes, there are other quieter ways to dissipate heat, but these techniques have trade offs of their own (size, weight, complexity).

Joe

Maybe it is a trade off, but personally I wouldn’t mind a MacBook twice it’s thickness if it improved cooling and fan noise was minimal.

and surely in 2020 there must be scientific techniques to achieve better cooling using liquid cooling or some other way that can do it silently or with minimal noise. I wouldn’t mind paying extra for a silent MacBook Pro.

 

[topcat001]

My Alienware is literally more than twice as thick and is louder. A friends new MSI gaming laptop is huge, well cooled but louder. I don't think it's easy. However, maybe Apple will come up with something.

 

[lietsche]

I have never tried one either, but it would allow getting the unit away from you such as under a desk

I have a Blackmagic eGPU. Dead silent, very big fan like the old Mac Pro trashcan.
If you connect the external display directly to the eGPU it is actually the eGPU driving it and dealing with the heat. Your MacBook's GPU is relieved from this task and should act as being without external monitor fan- and heat wise. I am receiving my 16" this week and can test it.

 

[impulse462]

why have people in this thread bought a ~3k computer with a dGPU who don't want to use the dGPU?

 

[lietsche]

why have people in this thread bought a ~3k computer with a dGPU who don't want to use the dGPU?

Being on the go, working with the Laptop without external screen.
Being in your studio, hooking up external monitors, external disks, TV, Loudspeaker, needing a lot of processing power for your creative work while wanting to work in a noise sensitive environment.

 

[impulse462]

Being on the go, working with the Laptop without external screen.
Being in your studio, hooking up external monitors, external disks, TV, Loudspeaker, needing a lot of processing power for your creative work while wanting to work in a noise sensitive environment.

all i can say is this computer has a 6 or 8-core cpu in it, and if you expect to adequately address all your needs, it requires a lot of power which heats it up. i really dont know what people expect from a computer that is so (relatively) thin but has an 8 core cpu in it.

 

[Axel Tasler]

I have some serious fan issues with my new i9 MacBook Pro 16.
On an external monitor the fans kicks in direkt after the start of Ableton Live, without starting any plugins or projects. Fan speed are about 3200U/min (Macs Fan Control/CPU Heat is about 68C).
The activity monitor its showing barely any CPU usage (~12% on an intensive project) - and using 9-12gb of 16gb in ram.
The fans are so loud, that I can't concentrate on making music and stay on all the time until I quit Live.
I had a phonecall with apple. They let me do some resets of the machine and a reinstall of Catalina, nothing works.
Ihm very close to returning the MacBook and buy an ultra silent PC Workstation for my studio.

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

Reading about these issues is making me reconsider my plans to use the 16” mbp as my studio computer. Maybe I should just get an iMac or a mini....

 

[Coyote2006]

I wonder what happens when a 16" MBP is running a Pro Display XDR.

 

[jerryk]

I have a Blackmagic eGPU. Dead silent, very big fan like the old Mac Pro trashcan.
If you connect the external display directly to the eGPU it is actually the eGPU driving it and dealing with the heat. Your MacBook's GPU is relieved from this task and should act as being without external monitor fan- and heat wise. I am receiving my 16" this week and can test it.

It good to know the Blackmagic eGPU PS fan is quiet.
Thanks for offering to test it. I look forward to seeing your results.

I assumed the GPU cards in the eGPU would do the graphics work. And most of those are pretty quiet because they large diameter fans turning at relatively low base RPMs. In my case I cannot hear my RTX 2070 and GTX 1070 in my deskside computer.

I also cannot hear the computer's CPU fan, even though the 9900K can run hot. Sticking a 3 pound heat sink on the CPU lets me cool the thing is a large fan turning a 500 or less RPM.

There something to be said about using a deskside computer in noise critical environments.

 

[Fravin]

all i can say is this computer has a 6 or 8-core cpu in it, and if you expect to adequately address all your needs, it requires a lot of power which heats it up. i really dont know what people expect from a computer that is so (relatively) thin but has an 8 core cpu in it.

Exactly. Fans are supposed to blow air. They are designed to "kick in"...

If you don't want a fan in your laptop, try the Macbook. No fans at all!
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Reading about these issues is making me reconsider my plans to use the 16” mbp as my studio computer. Maybe I should just get an iMac or a mini....

Actually booth of them has loudy fans in it...
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There something to be said about using a deskside computer in noise critical environments.

You can't hear it, because it is far from you. Even a "super-silent" PC will heave at least 3 fans in it. All spinning on at the same time. As it isn't in front of you, as a laptop, you won't notice it noise. But try to be close of it as the same distance you keeps from your MBP.

Using your MBP in clamshell mode and moving it away from you, will turn it almost silent.

But ate the end of the day, you will be driving a desktop computer anyway.

How I tackle it? Headphones!!!!

 

[lietsche]

I received my MBP 16", i9, 32GB, 5500 8GB yesterday and did some testing.
I am an editor (FCPX) and the machine is indeed really fast. Everything works as expected, even quiet within FCPX for normal playback, the speakers and keyboard are nice. Everything's great... until... I plug in an external screen. Then the fans kick in all the time to cool down the GPU which heats up because it has to deal with the external monitor (in my case the 23,7 "Apple" LG 4K via TB3).
Very annoying. I was hoping to get a replacement for my MacMini 2018 (with Blackmagic eGPU) which is very silent, but the MBP is too loud for me. I really wanted to like this machine. And no, no Photo optimisation or other system tasks were going on like indexing because I did not import anything. 0-1% CPU on idle.
To test I tried hooking up the external display via the Blackmagic eGPU connected then to the MBP and as expected, the MBP is silent again because it is now the eGPU which is dealing with monitor now.

It is a great computer when you are on the go or don't need external screens directly connected, and here I mean real work like image or audio editing applications, no webbrowing or email, there the computer was more quiet even with external display.

All together this computer is not for me, I will stick to my mini+eGPU.
Will send it back.

 

[M3Jedi77]

I wonder what happens when a 16" MBP is running a Pro Display XDR.

This was going to be my plan, until I found this thread. Really a bummer about those fans... It'll be screaming when connected to the XDR.

 

[TimothyJohn]

About the fan noise - recording instruments is exactly the problem for me. I have a home studio and I stand right in front of my computer when I mic up my acoustic guitar to record. A good microphone picks up every sound from around the room and even sounds from outside. The fan noise is a total deal breaker.

I’m still recording on a base model 2011 13” MacBook Pro (with some definite limitations but still pretty capable believe it or not - this goes to show that audio isn’t all that processor intensive compared to other things )
Fan noise is minimal on my old MacBook Pro so I’m hoping when I upgrade to the 16” I can get the benefits of all that extra power without losing the ability to record right next to my computer.

Heat issues and fan noise issues are important to people who work sound. As is connectivity, if one needs to be work in the field...100% mobile. Fan noise is distracting at best, work inhibiting at worst. I too am very interested in heat issues and fan noise...

 

[jerryk]

You can't hear it, because it is far from you. Even a "super-silent" PC will heave at least 3 fans in it. All spinning on at the same time. As it isn't in front of you, as a laptop, you won't notice it noise. But try to be close of it as the same distance you keeps from your MBP.

Nope. The fans in the deskside are large Noctua 120/140 mm turning at 150-200 rpm on the case. 300-500 rpm on the CPU. Quiet PCs use big diameter fans turning at low RPMs, or massive heat sinks and no fans. Overall the noise meter at 3 to 4 inches from the case shows 23db or less .

And having a BIOS that lets you tune the fan speed vs CPU, CPU ,etc heat helps a lot.

Quieter than a MacBook Pro at same tasks at same distance.

 

[kmahmood]

Heat issues and fan noise issues are important to people who work sound. As is connectivity, if one needs to be work in the field...100% mobile. Fan noise is distracting at best, work inhibiting at worst. I too am very interested in heat issues and fan noise...

Agree fully, and even for people who dont work with sound - loud fan noise is annoying and distracting, I've ended up not using my 2015 Macbook Pro to its full potential over a few years and reduced workload by closing VMs , apps, etc. just to stop it sounding like a jet engine taking off. But I didn't realise this loud fan noise in almost all cases was being caused just by the Turbo Boost feature in the i7 quad-core CPU until I discovered a utility yesterday to disable it, after which for the first time even on an old laptop I've been able to run multiple VMs, 4k Video streams and a Skype call -- simultaneously, with the fans just about silent.. to the point where I'm half suspicious that utility might have turned the fans off and might be malfunctioning or is it really that effective ?

Just based on the results from this utility, I've more or less decided to go ahead with the 16" MBP with top spec knowing that I probably will be able to use it to its full potential now.

 

[Fravin]

Heat issues and fan noise issues are important to people who work sound. As is connectivity, if one needs to be work in the field...100% mobile. Fan noise is distracting at best, work inhibiting at worst. I too am very interested in heat issues and fan noise...

Did you tried disabling Turbo Boost while recording?

Disabling it will give you a slower performance (most not noticeable) and will make the machine cooler.
I have been disabling it with my i9 15”. It’s fantastic. The machine runs cooler. 2000 rpm all day long. And with so many cores you won’t notice the lack of turbo.

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

I posted this in another thread last night... Yesterday I went to the Apple store and bought the 2.3 i9 base configuration.

Keyboard is great. Whoever was complaining about the screen being flimsy at Costco is tripping. I must be lucky because so far it seems very quiet. Seems to run nice and cool, played YouTube videos via hdtv on HDMI to usb c hub in clamshell mode for an hour to test it out and it’s still not hot or noisy. I’m guessing it’s 4K and better monitors that get it running hot. Hopefully not for me. Ran Geekbench 5 twice and beat the 2.4 i9 score on there. I don’t know if that means anything. The single core scores I got were 6000 something and would be #2 on the list. So it seems to be performing well. The fans aren’t even that loud and I don’t think they’ll fire up when I’m recording at all really. I was expecting it to sound like a blow drier after some of the stuff I read here, but turns out it sounds no louder than my old 13”.

So, I wish I spent less time reading people’s complaints here, the computer seems great. It seems to be running cool and quiet so far, I don’t think I made the wrong choice with this configuration. The only thing that worries me is I wonder whether I will need 32g ram

 

[Fravin]

The only thing that worries me is I wonder whether I will need 32g ram

What was your previous machine?

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

? A 2011 13” with 2.3 i5 and 16g ram

 

[Fravin]

lol

Have you ever had some kind of memory shortage?

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

Not really.

To test it out I just ran 55 instances of a sampler software instrument in logic, looped. This is like 2-3x as many tracks as I’d probably ever use in a song and I don’t use sampled instruments much at all. But I figured that would be a good test of the ram for my purposes - samples are supposed to use more ram.

Logic ram used went up from 1.3 gb in one of my regular projects, to like 3.5 with all the samplers, according to activity monitor. Now I was only looping one bar so maybe if each track had longer clips this would look a lot worse. I’ll have to experiment more. My total ram used remained under 12gb. Which feels close to the ceiling but then again I’ve read that the computer uses more than it has to at idle. So maybe it wouldn’t become a problem if I somehow used 10 gb of ram in logic alone? I have no idea.

Anyway it seemed like the bottleneck was one of the processor threads diming rather than running out of ram.

Might be nice to have 32 g so I don’t have to worry about it... but would rather not return and BTO unless I actually will need it

 

[jerryk]

delete