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13" 2020 macbook fans are on all the time

Scott6666

Scott6666

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 2, 2008
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New i5/16GB/1TB 13" macbook pro. 2nd day now. Fans are on 80% of the time at 4300-4600 rpm which is pretty noticeable. Just have mail up and a few Chrome browser windows.

Keyboard is nice but I don't think this noise is going to go away. If you want a quiet machine the new 10th gen intels may not be it for you. Fair warning.

Steve would not have liked this...
 
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Scott6666 said:
New i5/16GB/1TB 13" macbook pro. 2nd day now. Fans are on 80% of the time at 4300-4600 rpm which is pretty noticeable. Just have mail up and a few Chrome browser windows.

Keyboard is nice but I don't think this noise is going to go away. If you want a quiet machine the new 10th gen intels may not be it for you. Fair warning.

Steve would not have liked this...
Click to expand...
i agree, dual fans, 16gb faster memory, 2 extra thunderbolt ports worth $300 imho.
 
Strange, you'd have thought with newer 10th gen 10nm chips and dual fans it would run significantly cooler and quieter than the 8th gen model? Especially when there's nothing much running in the way of apps.

I have a fanless 12" Macbook I'm looking to replace so have grown accustomed to the sound of silence.....and the warmth of the 12" Macbook on my fingers.....!
 
Weird. Is it just non-video web browsing on your two Chrome tabs? I have multiple Chrome tabs open with one of them streaming 1080p60 video and typing this post within Firefox and the bottom of the laptop is warm, but the fans have not kicked in, or if they have, not to an audible level. I have the base 10th gen model.
 
steakeyes said:
Weird. Is it just non-video web browsing on your two Chrome tabs? I have multiple Chrome tabs open with one of them streaming 1080p60 video and typing this post within Firefox and the bottom of the laptop is warm, but the fans have not kicked in, or if they have, not to an audible level. I have the base 10th gen model.
Click to expand...

Non video. Just a couple of news sites. Of course those have plenty of video ads these days. I’ll try Safari
 
As a counterpoint, I've been using a new 10th gen 13" MBP for a few days now and its whisper quiet. After initial setup, the only thing that's put the fans on so far have been games and Windows updates in a VM.

Mail and a few Chrome windows? There's either an issue there or there's something going on in Chrome.

12 apps including two VMs open and there's not a peep from the fans...
 
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Check the activity monitor (or "top -o cpu" in terminal). It could be that the new laptop is still encrypting stuff, sorting out photo/music libraries or whatever iCloud crap it likes to do on a new install.
 
I have the same machine - the fans have only spun up and stayed running when I was exporting an iMovie project and doing some bootcamp gaming.
 
hungryghosty said:
Strange, you'd have thought with newer 10th gen 10nm chips and dual fans it would run significantly cooler and quieter than the 8th gen model? Especially when there's nothing much running in the way of apps.

I have a fanless 12" Macbook I'm looking to replace so have grown accustomed to the sound of silence.....and the warmth of the 12" Macbook on my fingers.....!
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you are talking about as I am also coming from a (silent...fanless) 12" MacBook. I've been so impressed at how it can drive a 4K display and still stay pretty cool. It's only when I start running some intensive applications that the things will warm up.. Moving to a machine with a fan (again) may be a hard adjustment. I think it should be a good trade off for the additional processing power.
 
It occurs to me that I turned on FileVault on a whim. Any chance the encryption / decryption is driving some of the heat / noise?
 
Scott6666 said:
It occurs to me that I turned on FileVault on a whim. Any chance the encryption / decryption is driving some of the heat / noise?
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Likely. Whenever I get a new MacBook, I turn off power saving and leave it plugged in for 2-3 days to make sure all that indexing/iCloud crap get's done. I dim the screen to not prematurely wear out the backlight as macOS does warn you about premature screen death if the screen is left on permanently...
 
Took delivery of a similar machine yesterday. Mine did the same for about ~30 mins while spotlight indexed (for the record I do not have filevault on).
 
Scott6666 said:
It occurs to me that I turned on FileVault on a whim. Any chance the encryption / decryption is driving some of the heat / noise?
Click to expand...
This won't be causing your issue.
SSDs in Macs with the T2 chip are always encrypted. Enabling filevault just protects the encryption key with a passphrase; that's why encryption only takes a few seconds - rather than hours - after enabling filevault on a T2 mac.
 
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ascender said:
As a counterpoint, I've been using a new 10th gen 13" MBP for a few days now and its whisper quiet. After initial setup, the only thing that's put the fans on so far have been games and Windows updates in a VM.

Mail and a few Chrome windows? There's either an issue there or there's something going on in Chrome.

12 apps including two VMs open and there's not a peep from the fans...
Click to expand...

Same here!
 
Most of the time my fans are off and the few times that they have come on, they really aren't that loud. Just a low hum.
 
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