2012 MBPs noise level?

[ShuQi]

Hi,

I have a 13" MBP (2010), where I've replaced the primary HDD with a SSD.
For work the noise level is basically non-existing. The only time the fan starts spinning is if I'm running some heavy cpu intensive process over a longer period of time or when I run games on it.

I've been thinking about upgrading to one of the new 15" models, but I was wondering how their noise level compares to my existing machine.
Seeing the beefier specs, I would assume that the fans are sometimes spinning even while not being under heavy load?

Any feedback on the noise output from the new models would be appreciated.

 

[barredfreak]

I'd expect the noise level of the fans to generally be lesser, but it's sometimes hard to say. It all depends on what you're going to be doing with the computer.

 

[Trey M]

Hi,

I have a 13" MBP (2010), where I've replaced the primary HDD with a SSD.
For work the noise level is basically non-existing. The only time the fan starts spinning is if I'm running some heavy cpu intensive process over a longer period of time or when I run games on it.

I've been thinking about upgrading to one of the new 15" models, but I was wondering how their noise level compares to my existing machine.
Seeing the beefier specs, I would assume that the fans are sometimes spinning even while not being under heavy load?

Any feedback on the noise output from the new models would be appreciated.

I think you're referring to the new Retina models so I'll answer it that way. I too assumed part of the reason they showed off the new fan noise feature was because the display would drive the hardware components harder. However, the fan noise is basically non existent when not under heavy load. I have 3 browsers open as well as 2 mail clients, spotify, etc., and the fans are not making any noise whatsoever. It's when you do something like a game or a memory-intensive process that you notice the fan noise, but it's quieter than models of the past. I was surprised to see that everyday apps such as chrome, safari, itunes, spotify, outlook, etc. didn't drive the fans to make any noise.

 

[shurcooL]

It all depends on what you're going to be doing with the computer.

A fair comparison would be to do the same task on the newer machine.

I don't have first hand experience, but my educated guess is that the new one should be at least equally as quiet doing the same non-intensive tasks, and when you do intensive ones it should also be roughly the same noise levels (perhaps slightly better due to the rMBP's asymmetric fan blades), but the task would be done much quicker.

 

[barredfreak]

A fair comparison would be to do the same task on the newer machine.

I don't have first hand experience, but my educated guess is that the new one should be at least equally as quiet doing the same non-intensive tasks, and when you do intensive ones it should also be roughly the same noise levels (perhaps slightly better due to the rMBP's asymmetric fan blades), but the task would be done much quicker.

I agree. I hope the asymmetric fan blades help in keeping my MBP quieter in doing tedious tasks.

 

[ShuQi]

Thank you for all the feedback

Basically most of the time I have Safari, Sparrow and Parallels or XCode running on it, where the fan would only start spinning if XCode starts parsing a larger project.

When I read about the new fan changes, I assumed that it would maybe have to work more compared to the older models, due to the higher specs.
But this doesn't appear to be the case then, based on your responses.

Overall it sounds like it's basically the same with the new models then, so might actually consider upgrading.

 

[shurcooL]

When I read about the new fan changes, I assumed that it would maybe have to work more compared to the older models, due to the higher specs.
But this doesn't appear to be the case then, based on your responses.

The newer CPUs fit in in the same power/heat envelope, so even though they're faster, that is not achieved by throwing more power at the problem - it's achieved via higher efficiency of the new Ivy Bridge architecture. So everything else being equal, a newer MacBook with newer CPUs would be exactly the same in terms of noise/heat (it might be slightly better if the newer CPU architecture is more power efficient).

Overall it sounds like it's basically the same with the new models then, so might actually consider upgrading.

Yep, it should be the case. Apple pays a lot of attention to the noise levels of their laptops, so you can bet that a newer model should not get worse than an older model in this respect.

You could check out a display model at a local Apple Store and see how it sounds.