Macbook Pro 16''i9 - terribly noisy even without external monitor

[Queen6]

My near silent 2011 15" says hello and they were "Burners" in the day. If you want performance there's a trade off, try a PC notebook with a TDP of over 230W, pushing a constant 4GHz then you'll understand fan noise.

Seriously Apple designs Mac's to be a quiet as possible, always has done and all too happy to leave performance on the table for the sake of it...

Q-6

 

[jerryk]

If you worried about noise when recording create booth space with a sound blanket and padding and keep computers with fans out of it. That is what the pros do. Have cables, mics, and digital recorders in the booth, but no computers with fans. Do your computer work in post outside the "booth".

 

[Wando64]

I have a friend who also bought this for audio work and he is quite desperate - he can't record anything or work with it, since it constantly produces this terrible noise ...

Your friend's mbp is noisy while he's recording audio?
I mean, I can't think of anything less taxing than recording audio with Logic X pro.

I use an early 2015 mbp and I can pretty much never hear the fans when I am using Logic, even if (by mistake) I max out the CPU to the point of stuttering playback.

Maybe something else running in parallel? Either that, or the 16" is really bad.

 

[jerryk]

Your friend's mbp is noisy while he's recording audio?
I mean, I can't think of anything less taxing than recording audio with Logic X pro.

I use an early 2015 mbp and I can pretty much never hear the fans when I am using Logic, even if (by mistake) I max out the CPU to the point of stuttering playback.

Maybe something else running in parallel? Either that, or the 16" is really bad.

It is not the macbook 16". Mine is silent when recording audio tracks. Still as a good studio practice I try to keep anything with a fan outside the sound-proofed space

 

[MacosaurusNEXT]

Hmm, it IS the MBP 16".

I had 3 (1 bought, 2 replacement machines and many hours of Apple Support chats) of the i9 version, ALL of them where very noisy in terms of fan noise. Aggressive fan curve, constant turbo boosting, high GPU temps. even on non GFX-heavy-tasks etc.

What I observed is that Apps that uses METAL API (most of em for drawing GUI) the temp. rises quickly, ramping up the fans to 3300-4200 rpm (60-80%) even with low CPU and NO external Display.

Using Logic Pro X and simple playback with only 3 tracks (3 instances of Alchemy default patch), gives the GPU (external Monitor not connected) a hard time (around +20watts) because of METAL API calls during playback. With external monitor (HDMI, 4K) it's even worse, adds another 6-8 watts. After 15 mins. of Logic Playback around 4200-5200 rpm, temp. around 75-80C. All 3 units had exact the same behavior. When I switched to another DAW e.g. Reaper or StudioOne 4 the GPU was stressed less until a plugin/synth triggered the METAL API again. Even with gswitch forcing the internal GPU, these API-Calls triggered the dGPU instantly.

Got my old mid-2014 i7 MBP (no dGPU !!!) as comparison, totally quiet with same setup. Returned all 3 units, not acceptable IMHO. Base heat with CPU and GPU and TB-Port is already close to edge. Even simple tasks triggers the meltdown. Std.-API-calls behavior (dGPU for GUI rendering, 60Hz GUI draw) on METAL Apps do the rest.

Simple Web browsing with Safari and Intel GPU only is not a problem and keeps the fans quiet, as soon as I start a YT video with 720p the fans ramp up again to 3300 rpm after 15 mins. of watching (again that's around 60% of full rpm with CPU at 6-8%).

When people write: mine is totally fine, they definitely have another use case for the machine, sitting at Starbucks, internal Display on battery, coding or web browsing, judging fans speed by ear, that's a total different machine then. Like Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde

PS: I'm using Apple Devices for more than 20 yrs, I had several aTVs, A-Watches, MP 2013, several MBPs, iPhones etc. I know about about SMC, NV-RAM, TurboBoost Switcher, gswitch and CPU undervolting etc.