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M3 Ultra making clicking noises during Lightroom Classic use.

Z

Zubba

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 20, 2007
95
50
After about a week I've been pretty happy with the overall performance of my new M3 Ultra 28/60 96 2TB.

However I have noticed that when I'm using Lightroom whenever I toggle the shadows slider the unit has a clicking noise. Some have suggested it's coil whine, but I've never really experienced coil whine sound like that. It isn't a huge deal, but I'm concerned it could be some hardware issue that might grow into a problem down the road.

Attached is a short video.


Looking for advice. Should I keep it, or swap it out?

Edit: Clicks start at about 8 seconds. You'll probably have to raise the volume fairly high to hear them.
 
Last edited:
I tried Lightroom and the shadows slider on my M3 Ultra (base model) and can confirm mine has the same clicking noise. I don't think it's coil whine as my previous M1 Max Mac Studio had very evident coil whine although it was never an issue with hardware or performance. Personally, I'm not concerned about it but we'll see if anybody else has any insights on this.
 
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M3 Ultra (Base Model) here. I just spent about 10 minutes in Lightroom, fiddling around with both raw and jpg files. I tweaked only 1 photo at a time, tried Contrast, Shadows, Exposure etc. Fast and slow movement of sliders.

No clicking noise at all for me, at this point in time. I've only had the M3 Ultra for less than a month, all seems well.

At the same time while I did all this, I had my Sensei app open in the background. I could see that, at rest, the processor load is like 0-2%. But anytime I click and held down a slider in LR ready to tweak, the processor load would instantly shoot up to an average of 40%. It seemed lower on some jpgs, but couple types the processor load went as high as 52% on a DNG or CR2 file, can't remember. Anyway, amidst all of this, I did not hear a single click beep nothing nada.
 
cl516 said:
M3 Ultra (Base Model) here. I just spent about 10 minutes in Lightroom, fiddling around with both raw and jpg files. I tweaked only 1 photo at a time, tried Contrast, Shadows, Exposure etc. Fast and slow movement of sliders.

No clicking noise at all for me, at this point in time. I've only had the M3 Ultra for less than a month, all seems well.

At the same time while I did all this, I had my Sensei app open in the background. I could see that, at rest, the processor load is like 0-2%. But anytime I click and held down a slider in LR ready to tweak, the processor load would instantly shoot up to an average of 40%. It seemed lower on some jpgs, but couple types the processor load went as high as 52% on a DNG or CR2 file, can't remember. Anyway, amidst all of this, I did not hear a single click beep nothing nada.
Click to expand...

I think it's an audibility thing, as I went ahead and visited an Apple Store to make the final decision. Even the model they had on display made the same sounds, though in that environment I could only hear it by having my girlfriend tweak the sliders while I basically had my ear to the studio.
 
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Zubba said:
I think it's an audibility thing, as I went ahead and visited an Apple Store to make the final decision. Even the model they had on display made the same sounds, though in that environment I could only hear it by having my girlfriend tweak the sliders while I basically had my ear to the studio.
Click to expand...
i tried it on my Lightroom on m3u. when i kept moving the shade slider, the GPU jumped to 40-60% and i can hear the soft light mouse click sound in the quiet room. I'm not sure what it is. It may be caused by the GPU load. What's the opinion of the apple staff? and what's the final decision, keep or exchange or return?
 
everestsky said:
i tried it on my Lightroom on m3u. when i kept moving the shade slider, the GPU jumped to 40-60% and i can hear the soft light mouse click sound in the quiet room. I'm not sure what it is. It may be caused by the GPU load. What's the opinion of the apple staff? and what's the final decision, keep or exchange or return?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure staff thought I was someone with severe OCD, but they let me play with the display model as much as I wanted. I've decided to just keep the unit, since it seems like all of them likely exhibit the noise. In the end even mine is pretty difficult to hear during the day when ambient sounds are higher. I'm satisfied it isn't some voltage issue that might cause a failure, so I'm good.
 
Zubba said:
I'm pretty sure staff thought I was someone with severe OCD, but they let me play with the display model as much as I wanted. I've decided to just keep the unit, since it seems like all of them likely exhibit the noise. In the end even mine is pretty difficult to hear during the day when ambient sounds are higher. I'm satisfied it isn't some voltage issue that might cause a failure, so I'm good.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, was the M3 Ultra you tested at an Apple Store? All the ones I've visited so far seem to only have M4 Max models on display. I'm planning to check out other locations to try and test an M3 Ultra.

Also, I was wondering if it's possible to install Lightroom classic on a demo Mac at an Apple Store? I thought Adobe typically limits one account to two signed-in devices.
 
everestsky said:
Out of curiosity, was the M3 Ultra you tested at an Apple Store? All the ones I've visited so far seem to only have M4 Max models on display. I'm planning to check out other locations to try and test an M3 Ultra.

Also, I was wondering if it's possible to install Lightroom classic on a demo Mac at an Apple Store? I thought Adobe typically limits one account to two signed-in devices.
Click to expand...

M3 (though it was a 32/80, not 28/60), and technically it was Lightroom, and not Lightroom Classic; good enough for me though.
 
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