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yurkennis

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 1, 2010
84
67
Anyone experiencing high-frequency sound generated by fan on M1 MBP when it's operating under "uncomfortably" heavy load for a long time?

Here is sound spectrum as shown by Academo's Spectrum Analyzer:
Screenshot 2020-12-18 at 03.09.13.png


Note a distinctive peak at 4.7KHz, it looks like what makes the sound most uncomfortable when heard during extended periods.

My scenario for achieving such sound is not an issue: in this case I found a way to do the same with much less load. What I'm really concerned is the same fan hardware will produce the same sound when there is no workaround available.

But if you are interested in reproducing the issue at your 16GB MBP, here are my steps:
  • launch HandBrake-1.4.0-beta.1.dmg
  • open some heavy 4K movie (I used "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" totalling 45GB)
  • Preset: Very Fast 1080p30
  • keep Video > Video Encoder: "H.264 (x264)"
  • modify "Video > Encoder Options > Preset" to "veryslow"
  • wait for 15-20 minutes until fans sound most loud
 
Last edited:
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