2016 15" fan noise ?

[washikanto]

It's super weird that I can hear the fans spin on 15" but not on the 2015 13"...


Can you hear the fans in idle in a quiet environment if you put your year close to the laptop?

Hmm, I just tried on my 15" 2016 MBP and in a quiet room I can just barely make out the left fan if I put my ear almost touching the keyboard. And by "barely" I mean I can hear an extremely faint whirr that I almost missed. From your description of your fans, it seems like you're hearing more than I am. This was done after ~1 hour of light browsing and the fans showed 2160rpm/2000rpm.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I haven't been able to get the fan to turn on yet fortunately.

 

[monkeydax]

This is getting really weird - can anyone else with a 2016 MBP tell us if they hear the fans at all in idle please ?
edit : I've changed the name of the thread to reflect the new discussion

It should be pretty inaudible, when at idle speeds. Even if you put your ear there.

 

[kwandrews]

Hey guys can you check on your 15inch 2016 models if you can hear the fans slowly spinning even without the laptop actually doing anything ( on the desktop with no programs open ) ? I can only hear them in a quiet room but I wanna know if it's everybody's 15inch or just mine... I hear the fans from the left side of laptop near the USB-C ports

Yes, I have to hold it to my ears though. Not concerned.

 

[MH01]

No, I don't hear anything. The thing is dead silent. Why would it be strange? It runs very cool. CPU temp sensor doesn't exceed 40 degrees Celsius under light use. Fan is not broken by the way, I have seen it spinning up under heavier load.

Only that I expected the fan to also was be on if present. It's just my expectation

 

[ManuCH]

In a dead silent room at night with no cars outside, I can discern a very faint whirring noise from the fans of my 15" MBP.

As soon as there is even the slightest ambient noise, I can't hear the idling fans anymore without holding my ear to the laptop.

 

[kis]

The 13" TB MBP doesn't seem to do this, while the 15" does. My best guess is that it's the fan of the dedicated GPU we're hearing. On the upside, the 2016 model really stays very quiet even during CPU / GPU intensive tasks. The previous model sometimes sounded like a vacuum cleaner.

 

[Ovedius]

According to Notebookcheck, the fans in the 2016 are slightly more noticeable than the retina Pros:

"Subjectively, they are very quiet and only audible in very quiet environments at a distance of less than 50 centimeters. Even though the frequency is very convenient, it is still a clear step back. Almost all Apple notebooks so far were silent without load."