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PSA: Coil Whine on MBP 16
- Thread starter milhous
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I've got the i9 2.3 ghz base model, 1TB SSD, and 64GB RAM -- so far touch wood, no coil whine, and also really pleased that the fans have been behaving themselves even under load.. definitely much quieter compared to my 2015 MBP.
Hello from Russia!
I also have got i9 2.3 ghz base model, made in January 2020, and it had coil whine. I returned it, and got the same one, but produced March 2020. And its also have the coil whine, but as I think little bit silent. But that sound still drives me crazy, when I am working at night. Don't know what to do with second Mac, return or not. Otherwise I like everything else in it (
I also have got i9 2.3 ghz base model, made in January 2020, and it had coil whine. I returned it, and got the same one, but produced March 2020. And its also have the coil whine, but as I think little bit silent. But that sound still drives me crazy, when I am working at night. Don't know what to do with second Mac, return or not. Otherwise I like everything else in it (
Coil Whine - Model - MacBook Pro 16, Intel Core i7-9750H. Told about it on apple forum maybe the company's representatives will pay attention.
The coil whine appears when there is a sharp high power supply to the processor.When the turboboost is turned on, the power is jumped to 80 watts and the squeaking is heard. If you turn off the turbo boost and run the test, the power will not rise above 40 watts and the coil whine will not be heard. For the load testing was used Geekbench. For power measurement, the Intel Power Gadget was used. Turbo Boost Switcher was used fo turn on/turn off turbo boost.Below images with measurement.
With turboboost on
![switcher.png]( "switcher.png")
With coil whine - turbo boost on
![turboost_on.png]( "turboost_on.png")
Without coil whine - turbo boost is off
![turboboost_off.png]( "turboboost_off.png")
Test
![measurment.png]( "measurment.png")
The coil whine appears when there is a sharp high power supply to the processor.When the turboboost is turned on, the power is jumped to 80 watts and the squeaking is heard. If you turn off the turbo boost and run the test, the power will not rise above 40 watts and the coil whine will not be heard. For the load testing was used Geekbench. For power measurement, the Intel Power Gadget was used. Turbo Boost Switcher was used fo turn on/turn off turbo boost.Below images with measurement.
With turboboost on
With coil whine - turbo boost on
Without coil whine - turbo boost is off
Test
Return it. I had EXACTLY same situation like you. I’m waiting for Apple to release 14” model, it might be better
I am noticing a high pitched, constant, whine sound when my system is stressed and fans spin up. It seems correlated directly with the fans, and it's not the classic stuttery, morse code-like sound that I know is typical coil whine. Could this be another type of coil whine as well? Could it just be how the fans normally sound? It's kind of stressing me out.
Hi! And what will happen with Mac if you disable the cpu turboboost? It will work slower?
The same problem here.
MacBook Pro 16" 64GB RAM, 5500M 8GB, 8th core i9 2.4(up to 5.0), 2TB SSD.
And yes, it is connected with the turbo boost(without the noise still is coming, but not so loud).
Not sure what to do. I asked my friend to make a mic record of the geekbench CPU test, and he said that he doesn't have such a problem.
We need somebody that says I don't have this pitch to record and send us audio/video to approve. We must be sure that we have defective MacBooks and that it doesn't happen on all of them. I didn't notice that anybody did it.
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The strange thing is that I didn't find any case when someone made a replacement and the new MacBook doesn't have coil whine. I am just concluding that we have sensitive ears or coil whine in our cases is too loud.
That's why we need video/audio recordings to make some conclusions.
If your friend/familiar has MacBook Pro 16, could you ask to make the recording?
MacBook Pro 16" 64GB RAM, 5500M 8GB, 8th core i9 2.4(up to 5.0), 2TB SSD.
And yes, it is connected with the turbo boost(without the noise still is coming, but not so loud).
Not sure what to do. I asked my friend to make a mic record of the geekbench CPU test, and he said that he doesn't have such a problem.
We need somebody that says I don't have this pitch to record and send us audio/video to approve. We must be sure that we have defective MacBooks and that it doesn't happen on all of them. I didn't notice that anybody did it.
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The strange thing is that I didn't find any case when someone made a replacement and the new MacBook doesn't have coil whine. I am just concluding that we have sensitive ears or coil whine in our cases is too loud.
That's why we need video/audio recordings to make some conclusions.
If your friend/familiar has MacBook Pro 16, could you ask to make the recording?
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Hey! I am from Russia too. Could you send me your email/tg(or write to me) for the future cooperation? My tg is @quolpr
it will wok slower in single core mode. So programs which in some places of execution(or they just constantly use one core) can switch to one core will work slower. Example with turbo boost off - geekbanch show nears in single core mode 650 points, but with turboost is on - 1050 points so big difference for single core mode. But we can admit that many programs use single core mode - if we can hear sound - with the turboboost on, so turn off turbo bust is not an option because it reduces performance by almost half for one core.
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The strange thing is that I can hear coil whine even when the turbo boost is off ?
Btw, on MacBook 15 2016 with the same watt consumption, I don't hear coil whine at all
Even if turbo boost is off the coil whine still present but it is not so loud. I also have had macbook pro 15 inch 2017 without coil whine
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Depends, your score may lower but does it actually affect the system's performance for the tasks you do? Like in a noticeable way?
That multicore score still rivals the competition, and yes single core is lower, but it's all relative to what you're doing with it.
This is my second one with coil whine - so i don't know - i think to return again and agian is not an option - i think more people must be involved with same problem to make apple somehow solve this problem.
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yes for me it is critical i cannot just disable turboboost. As example my IDE and tools use single-core mode many times.But it is not about me it is about that apple can't sell these notebooks with such coil whine
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Also simple example - you can hear coil whine during reloading page in chrome)))
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I did a little more research into the problem. The coil appears when the frequency jumps sharply from small(1000Mhz) to very large(3600 or 4000 Mhz) and the greater the difference, the more you can hear the coil whine. Why this happens - apple puts poor quality inductors that produce vibrations
The main question is what to do. We need to return ours with coil whine, or all models of MBP 16" have poor quality inductors?
I don't know, maybe get the money back. I plan to exchange again(3 times) if the same situation then just return the money and wait for a new mac generation and buy the previous generation (I had a MacBook before 15 2017).
I am thinking of buying the MBP 16" and wonder, at what point will Apple stop taking returns if there are thermal and coil whine issues -- can you keep returning them until you get a non-defective one?
Very strange question ask Apple tech, when I was making refund. He asked what color of mbp 16 I got? I have space gray, and he suggest to try silver color. It's very strange, because coil whine doesn't depend of color, but different colors may be in different batch?