Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is the 16” i7 quieter than the i9
- Thread starter adeelrahman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Even the i9 is very quiet when not doing much.
It makes noise under stress with the following
1. external monitor
2. High CPU Usage(atleast one core)
3. Rendering/Export video
that said the culprit is the discrete GPU in my use case i.e. it uses more than 18 watts even with nothing open. The CPU scales very well with load it goes from 65ish watts(with short bursts of near 100Watts) all the way down to under 1W(thats smartphone territory)
There might be some imperceptible 2db difference with a microphone measurement but it would be unpleasant either way in a quiet environment.
It makes noise under stress with the following
1. external monitor
2. High CPU Usage(atleast one core)
3. Rendering/Export video
that said the culprit is the discrete GPU in my use case i.e. it uses more than 18 watts even with nothing open. The CPU scales very well with load it goes from 65ish watts(with short bursts of near 100Watts) all the way down to under 1W(thats smartphone territory)
There might be some imperceptible 2db difference with a microphone measurement but it would be unpleasant either way in a quiet environment.
I'm curious, do you know if all the gpu options draw the same amount of power? The 5300, 5500 4 gig, and 5500 8 gig?
I'd expect all the available discrete GPU options to have similar power consumption, that said the fans are about 2000-3000 RPM still relatively quiet with an external display.
This machine is designed(like most laptops in its class) to be used on its own with short bursts of High CPU use. It consumes about 7-8 watts by itself (everything including display with integrated GPU) say if you were browsing the web at at an airport in the night thats less than half of just the AMD GPU alone.
That said it happily drives multiple displays while doing some work and more. Move a few sliders in lightroom and the fans start to ramp up, Noticeable but still relatively quiet at about 3K. Sustained High CPU and you have a little jet engine on your desk ready to take off.
Its a fantastic machine but dissipating 50 or so watts of heat in a thin form factor while performing high CPU loads with today's technology will mean some noise.
This machine is designed(like most laptops in its class) to be used on its own with short bursts of High CPU use. It consumes about 7-8 watts by itself (everything including display with integrated GPU) say if you were browsing the web at at an airport in the night thats less than half of just the AMD GPU alone.
That said it happily drives multiple displays while doing some work and more. Move a few sliders in lightroom and the fans start to ramp up, Noticeable but still relatively quiet at about 3K. Sustained High CPU and you have a little jet engine on your desk ready to take off.
Its a fantastic machine but dissipating 50 or so watts of heat in a thin form factor while performing high CPU loads with today's technology will mean some noise.
My question is about this too.... I have the stock i9 version (2799).... It is super quiet and a really great machine. Ebverytime I record in logic, using software instruments (I am a hobbyist), the fans kick in and are pretty loud; playback and simple editing, they are go back off, so the control of the fans is pretty dynamic - its only when recording. I have an external monitor. I am OK with this, just curious if the i7 would NOT behave this way??? anyone know?
No, they all draw about the same power which means they make about the same heat.