Fans: MacBook Pro M4 with two external 4K displays

[Roberto1234]

Hi,
I would like to buy a new MacBook Pro M4 (base model) and use it with two 4K displays, lid mostly closed. I mostly use MS Office, Chrome, Safari, some image editing and these kind of stuff. Nothing realy intensive.
Will the fans be annoying in this scenario?

I currently have a Windows laptop and it already spins up and is loud with two screens connected without load. Apparently, the computing effort for the 4K screens is too high for it.

 

[G5isAlive]

Hi,
I would like to buy a new MacBook Pro M4 (base model) and use it with two 4K displays, lid mostly closed. I mostly use MS Office, Chrome, Safari, some image editing and these kind of stuff. Nothing realy intensive.
Will the fans be annoying in this scenario?

I currently have a Windows laptop and it already spins up and is loud with two screens connected without load. Apparently, the computing effort for the 4K screens is too high for it.

My MBP M3 max is silent with two 5k screens attached under normal use. Sometimes I hear the fans when really pushing it. Conversely, back in the day of my intel MBP two external screens would often ramp up the fans.

 

[danbalsh]

You won't hear the fans, they don't even really spin up unless you're doing something REALLY intense.

 

[Roberto1234]

But the new MacBooks are said to be much more susceptible to fan noise. Many YouTubers have already reported this.

 

[raythompsontn]

But the new MacBooks are said to be much more susceptible to fan noise

Perhaps on the base level M4 MacBook Pros as those machines only have one fan. I have the M4 Pro MacBook, which has two fans, and I maxed the CPU for 4 minutes. The fans came but I could barely hear the fans. I knew they fans were working as I could feel the warm air leaving the case at the back.

I think a lot of those YouTubers are just looking for something to report.

 

[JaredJenkinsDesign]

But the new MacBooks are said to be much more susceptible to fan noise. Many YouTubers have already reported this.

Even if they are more susceptible to fan noise, I can't see the fan noise being a problem with the tasks you listed. Maybe the old MacBook Pros with Intel CPUs would have had issues with dual 4K monitors using scaled resolution but these Apple Silicon MacBook Pros run very efficiently and cool.

 

[alfogator]

But the new MacBooks are said to be much more susceptible to fan noise. Many YouTubers have already reported this.

I'd say that when the old one was loud the new one is usually louder but most of the time you won't hear a thing.

 

[dmccloud]

But the new MacBooks are said to be much more susceptible to fan noise. Many YouTubers have already reported this.

Apple has also lifted some of the power limits that were in place for M3 and earlier, which means more heat can be generated under heavier loads. The M4 still trounces Intel and AMD in performance per watt, efficiency and thermals. Alex Ziskind dropped a YouTube video where he ran some comparisons between the M4, M4 Max, M3 Max, etc. - the thermals of the M4 Max under load were roughly equivalent to my gaming PC at ~50% max load, and that machine has an AIO liquid cooler.

Even under those loads, the M4 series does not approach the Intel Macs in terms of fan noise.