Is the 15 inch Macbook Pro 2018 loud?

[dapa0s]

I've just got a 13 inch quad core MacBook pro the other day, and I love it. It's such an amazing machine that I want to upgrade to the 15 inch model for the screen size and a more powerful cpu/gpu. I wouldn't want to upgrade though if it's hotter or louder than my current model.

So should I expect the 15 inch to stay just as cool and quiet? Is the trackpad just as good, or is it too big? And the battery life I'm assuming is the same?

My 13 inch runs really cool and on normal use stays completely inaudible.

 

[internetrando]

It generates more heat, but with a larger body, so they’re probably the same.

Your experience will depend on your use case scenario. If you are taxing the 15”, you’re going to have some heat and fan noise to contend with, especially if you get an i9 model.

The computer is amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone needing a powerful Mac machine.

 

[Gamer-Dad]

Having had both, the 15 will ramp the fans up faster than the 13. The 15 generates a lot more heat especially when doing a task that requires the Radeon graphics card. When the fans are fully spinning, its very noticeable, but so is the 13 when the system is taxed.

I just went through this same thing. I originally bought a 13 back in May, then exchanged it when the '18 13 came out, only to exchange it again for the 15 2.6/512/16/560x during a Labor Day sale. Kept it till the day after Christmas and realised that I didn't really need the extra heft or foot print of the 15, and went back with the 13.

 

[dapa0s]

It generates more heat, but with a larger body, so they’re probably the same.

Your experience will depend on your use case scenario. If you are taxing the 15”, you’re going to have some heat and fan noise to contend with, especially if you get an i9 model.

The computer is amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone needing a powerful Mac machine.

My problem is that I only use Logic Pro for music making, so I don't need a dedicated GPU. Otherwise I just browse the web and if I need to play games I use my ps4. So the 15 inch kinda seems a bit overkill, especially considering it's heavier than the 13 inch.

Having had both, the 15 will ramp the fans up faster than the 13. The 15 generates a lot more heat especially when doing a task that requires the Radeon graphics card. When the fans are fully spinning, its very noticeable, but so is the 13 when the system is taxed.

I just went through this same thing. I originally bought a 13 back in May, then exchanged it when the '18 13 came out, only to exchange it again for the 15 2.6/512/16/560x during a Labor Day sale. Kept it till the day after Christmas and realised that I didn't really need the extra heft or foot print of the 15, and went back with the 13.

Great to know, thanks. I think I would also go back to the 13 inch, if I go exchange it now for the 15 inch.

 

[Gamer-Dad]

It's really a tough call. I love the extra screen space the 15 offers. For what I do with my MBP, the 13 does the job

 

[maflynn]

So should I expect the 15 inch to stay just as cool and quiet?

It depends on the tasks. When I'm not really pushing the laptop, its very quiet, but with 6 cores, the fans come up fairly quickly and can be loud. I think its more likely to happen on the mid range 15" and the i9 model as well, as they generate more heat then the base model (which is what I have).

 

[dapa0s]

Considering that Logic pro doesn't really use up the gpu, I would expect it to stay quiet.

Or I'll just get a usb c to hdmi cabel and keep my 4k monitor to use my 13 inch MacBook more as a desktop when I'm at home. Best of both worlds, I guess.

 

[jerryk]

Considering that Logic pro doesn't really use up the gpu, I would expect it to stay quiet.

Or I'll just get a usb c to hdmi cabel and keep my 4k monitor to use my 13 inch MacBook more as a desktop when I'm at home. Best of both worlds, I guess.

Not a bad option. Depends upon how much you need the extra performance of 6 core CPU in the 15". You might want to check the benchmarks to see relative performance gain.

 

[Ploki]

I had i9/560x 32gb for Logic primarily. Fans started up pretty fast. It was loud. And hot.
Hotter and louder than my old 2012 retina MBP.

You cannot run it on internal because Logic often switches to discrete GPU, and when that happens fans kick in hard.
I don't know whether RAM or some specific software triggers discrete GPU, but it works fine on UHD630 and runs much cooler when only integrated graphics are used.

I don't like the 2018 15" all that much.

I instead went for 13" i5/16/512 (it arrives tomorrow yay!) + Mac Mini i7.

Mac Mini i7 runs logic much smoother than the 15" as far as i experienced.

 

[dapa0s]

I really disliked the Mac Mini, and I've used it for a few days, I'd much rather just get an iMac. I'm loving the 13 inch Macbook pro at the moment. And getting both sounds great, but it's too expensive for me at the moment. But thanks, after reading your post I think i might just stick to the 13 inch, but add 8gb more of RAM. The 13 inch is almost always silent.

 

[buran-energia]

I had 2017 15 inch. The main difference is, on the 15 inch, the fans spin all the time at 2000 rpm. While on the 13 inch, the fans either don't spin at all during light load or start spinning at 1200 rpm and are pretty much inaudible until around 2000 rpm.

In comparison, I heard the fans on 15 inch while idling (2k rpm) in a quiet room from a normal distance (not having my ear pressing the keyboard). They weren't loud by any means, but not silent either. I imagine the 15 2018 model won't be better.