Do MBP 15 (2015) have a lot of fan noise?

[jerryk]

Hi,

I am looking at a 2015 MBP 15 with dgpu. I have read stories of these generating a lot of fan noise when they get hot from gaming. Do they also get hot and loud when you doing more normal tasks such as watching a youTube video, running an emulator in Xcode, recomputing a spreadsheet?

If so, is this a function of the DGPU? That is, do the base models also make a lot of fan noise?

 

[CE3]

From my experience, doing basic everyday tasks in average room temps = no fan noise at all. When I'm first loading and viewing RAW images on my SD card in Adobe Bridge & Camera Raw the fans will kick in. Working with big projects in Logic usually keeps the fans on low. Rendering in Final Cut or Premiere will kick things into high gear. I don't use my Mac for gaming, but anything that demands a lot of gpu and cpu power will produce fan noise from time to time. But even when working with big software apps, I find the fans will often kick in, cool things down, and then get quiet again.

Coming from an HP laptop where I could always hear the fans running, it's a big improvement.

 

[jerryk]

Coming from an HP laptop where I could always hear the fans running, it's a big improvement.

Thanks for the info. My reason for asking was a Dell XPS i7 I bought 4 or 5 years ago that had the same issue. I am sensitive to noise and after a few weeks of using it I just put it away and never used it again. I tried everything, fan control software, new thermal paste on GPU and processor, etc. Still sounded like an airplane every time you did a layer in Photoshop or change brightness Lightroom.

My old MBP 13 was pretty silent with Photoshop and Lightroom and I hope the MBP 15 can be that way also.

Laptops are like children, meant to be seen, not heard.

 

[CE3]

Thanks for the info. My reason for asking was a Dell XPS i7 I bought 4 or 5 years ago that had the same issue. I am sensitive to noise and after a few weeks of using it I just put it away and never used it again. I tried everything, fan control software, new thermal paste on GPU and processor, etc. Still sounded like an airplane every time you did a layer in Photoshop or change brightness Lightroom.

My old MBP 13 was pretty silent with Photoshop and Lightroom and I hope the MBP 15 can be that way also.

Laptops are like children, meant to be seen, not heard.

I can't vouch for Lightroom but Photoshop is usually quiet.

 

[JackieInCo]

I don't do anything to heavy but in just browsing the net sometimes, the fans will kick on and won't spin down to 2000/2160 until I close whatever browser I am using. I have the 2015, 16GB, 512GB 15". Scrolling down a graphics heavy FB or Instagram page will get them going every time. Even sometimes using SABNZB to download from usenet, the fans will spin up. There are plenty of people who have mentioned the fan noise being loud on the 2015.

I bought a 2012 13" non retina a month after buying the 2015 and there are times I prefer to use it because it is always so quiet.

My computers are mostly used for internet so I don't use Photoshop or anything like that.

 

[kevinkyoo]

I honestly think it was an OS X issue. Before the update, I had the fans turn up while I was just browsing the web. Now, it's silent. Funnily enough, after playing games heavily via BootCamp (Which will prompt the fans to turn up), and restarting into OS X, the fans will kick on for a tiny bit - I'd say less than a minute - regardless of what I'm doing. However, they'll stop and not turn back on unless it's necessary.

 

[jerryk]

I honestly think it was an OS X issue. Before the update, I had the fans turn up while I was just browsing the web. Now, it's silent. Funnily enough, after playing games heavily via BootCamp (Which will prompt the fans to turn up), and restarting into OS X, the fans will kick on for a tiny bit - I'd say less than a minute - regardless of what I'm doing. However, they'll stop and not turn back on unless it's necessary.

I bet it heats up while playing games above normal OSX trigger limits.. Then when OSX comes up it checks the temps and decides they are too high and speeds up the fans. That cools that machine and the fans are slowed down until something running in OSX causes the unit to heat up.