New M5 Max MBP Buzzing and Popping

[Grilled Cheese]

I have a new M5 Max MacBook Pro. It’s silent at idle, but the instant I do something to push the cpu it makes a buzzing sound. It sounds a bit like an old hard drive searching for data - kind of crunchy. It’s quiet, but annoying.

Worse still, it makes the occasional popping sound. This tends to happen most when the gpu is working on something, for example, when rendering in Final Cut Pro or compressor. It also pops sometimes when I do something very basic like moving a window or a graphical element. It’s about as loud as gently tapping a pen on your desk.

I work in a soundproof music studio and these sounds interfere with my work. Super disappointing. My previous M1 Max MBP never had any of these issues.

I’ve had this Mac for about 3 weeks, so it’s outside the initial two week return window (it took me nearly two weeks to install all the software I use).

Anyone else notice these sorts of sounds? Is this “normal” for MBPs, or would this be considered a fault for which I can expect a replacement or refund?

Many thanks in advance.
~Cheesy

P.S. these sounds are NOT the fan.

 

[maflynn]

have a new M5 MacBook Pro. It’s silent at idle, but the instant I do something to push the cpu it makes a buzzing sound.

That's most likely something called coil whine. Its something that many computers/electronic components deal with. Depending on the loudness, it can be rather annoying.

When interacting with the storage, and hearing an increase in sound is very typical to coil whine, sadly there's no solution or ways to decrease sound AFAIK.

If its a brand new laptop, then get it exchanged, you paid a lot of money and if that sound is distracting, then get one that doesn't have it

 

[Basic75]

If its a brand new laptop, then get it exchanged, you paid a lot of money and if that sound is distracting, then get one that doesn't have it

This. Apple's quality control is very good, but they ship a lot of devices. Occasionally one will be "bad" out of the box.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Just got an M5 Max MBP on the 16th and haven’t heard anything like this. Been pegging CPU and GPU with Blender rendering and local AI stuff and no issues at all. Using the default fan curve, fans aren’t even audible until CPU/GPU temps hit 80C.

 

[Grilled Cheese]

Thanks everyone. For the sake of anyone else who might be interested in this, I've attached a recording of the sound my M5 Max makes when under load. Note: The first click you'll hear is a mouse-click, which I left in as a volume reference. You should be able to hear the MBP buzzing sound and three clicks that happened while I was processing some audio in Izotope RX.

For a $7,000 AUD machine, this is not OK for pro audio production.
I've contacted Apple and have been asked to send it in for service technicians to inspect.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Is this happening all the time?
Or, does it happen more when you are using the charger, plugged into an outlet?
And how many "prongs" does your plug have?
Three?
Or just two?

 

[Livestep]

Hi, just received my m5 max this week. How can I quickly test whether my m5 max suffers from this same 'coil whine' affliction? Is this appearing under significant load? And lastly, do Apple know that this is a problem? ie. are they likely ot say 'nothing we can do about it', or are there good vs bad units and unfortunately it is a gamble which one you get?

 

[960design]

Do you have it plugged into a UPS or directly into the wall?
If UPS, does it have a true or simulated sine wave? The simulated sine wave versions can exacerbate coil whine.

 

[Grilled Cheese]

OP:

Is this happening all the time?
Or, does it happen more when you are using the charger, plugged into an outlet?
And how many "prongs" does your plug have?
Three?
Or just two?

Do you have it plugged into a UPS or directly into the wall?
If UPS, does it have a true or simulated sine wave? The simulated sine wave versions can exacerbate coil whine.

I have tested this on:
(a) Battery power
(b) Powered via USB hub, and
(c) Powered via MagSafe charger (which has 2 prongs).

It makes no difference. The exact same noise problems happen on all three. It happens more when I'm pushing the CPU or GPU hard.

I'm not using an UPS.

Attached is a new recording in which you can hear me playing a Final Cut Project that is pushing the GPU past 80%. I placed a microphone about 6 inches away from the keyboard. As a volume reference, you can hear me pressing the space bar to start and stop playback. The moment playback begins the buzzing starts and you'll hear a few clicking sounds too.

Putting the MBP in low power mode stops the buzzing / clicking sound instantly. The noises only happen in automatic or high power mode.

A few more comments on the performance and behaviour of the M5 Max MBP...

The fans kick in much sooner and WAY louder than my M1 Max MBP. I expected this to some degree, but it's much more than what I expected. This makes sense of course as it is a much more powerful machine, but for anyone who is accustomed to the silence of the M1 Max, the M5 Max is a very different machine.

For music production I'm not sure that Logic Pro is optimised for the M5 Max yet, as many tasks don't seem to run much faster. Example: I bounced a 6 minute music project with 40 tracks and a wide variety of plugins and it took 1:50 on the M5 Max (while buzzing and making occasional clicking sounds) and 2:10 on the M1 Max (which performed silently). That's a 15% improvement in speed, at a cost of $7,000 and a machine that buzzes and clicks. Hopefully some updates to Logic Pro software will improve this, as the CPU of the M5 Max should be vastly superior to the M1 Max.

I use Izotope RX for forensic-level audio analysis. This program pushes the CPU really hard sometimes, causing instant buzzing and clicks. The M5 Max clicking literally interferes with my work in this area.

Playback and rendering of video in Final Cut or Compressor also causes buzzing and clicks, more or less depending on how demanding the task is. When working on low impact tasks like Mail, Pages or Safari, the machine is mostly silent.

I imagine that in a normal office environment you probably wouldn't notice these sounds, but in a very quiet workspace they are obvious and may impact your work. I do not know how prevalent this problem is. I can only hope that my MBP is an anomaly.

I'll keep you posted as this process progresses.
~Cheesy

 

[960design]

My M5 Max 128GB does not have any coil whine at all. I run ML models on it for hours with no issues. It is standing in one of those vertical mounts behind the Studio Display, so it might be that I am 3 feet from it I cannot here it. I do hear the fans spool up which is weird/awesome as I never heard the fans on the M4 Pro 48GB running similar workloads.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote in original post:
"I work in a soundproof music studio and these sounds interfere with my work."

In that case, would not a Mac Studio or Mac Mini have been a better choice...?

 

[iaynnu]

It's mostly coil whine. Not much you can do about it. Its kind of like losing the lottery.

 

[iaynnu]

My M5 Max 128GB does not have any coil whine at all. I run ML models on it for hours with no issues. It is standing in one of those vertical mounts behind the Studio Display, so it might be that I am 3 feet from it I cannot here it. I do hear the fans spool up which is weird/awesome as I never heard the fans on the M4 Pro 48GB running similar workloads.

Quite lucky. I have two coworkers that has coil whine on the same spec'd machine.

 

[dblissmn]

Coil whine was a problem with the Intel CoreDuo and maybe just a bit the Core2Duo as well. Not noticed an issue since with the i7 or M1. I would guess these all have a small amount of coil whine, given the prevalence of dangerously loud music we all ought to be considering tinnitus and high frequency hearing loss. The original CoreDuo though was like a little insect.

It might be worth people comping M5 Pro and M5 Max. There really isn't much constraining the Max; it's going to go and also by the way quite apart from any coil whine issue, it's going to use those fans heavily. Not at all like a Studio Ultra with its large-diameter, low RPM, therefore quiet fan.

 

[Grilled Cheese]

OP wrote in original post:
"I work in a soundproof music studio and these sounds interfere with my work."

In that case, would not a Mac Studio or Mac Mini have been a better choice...?

A Mac Studio would be a great choice, but I love the portability of a laptop. I also do video production and having a second screen to double check my work is very handy. My M1 Max provides all this and has no coil whine.

If I can't get an M5 Max MBP that doesn't buzz and click, then I'll abandon it and will consider a Mac Studio when the M5 Max arrives.

Or maybe I'll just stick with my trusty ol' M1 Max. It's a fantastic machine, but the M5 Max whipped its butt in video production.

 

[bmoraski]

I just purchased the M5 Pro and haven't had this issue. I haven't pushed to the max yet but will. Hopefully I hit the lottery. lol

 

[Matt2012]

No pop on my M5 Max, but jeez, the fan(s) is really loud and noisy.

 

[Livestep]

Just an update, brand new 16" M5 Max 18c, 128Gb, 4Tb (delivered in the last 2 weeks) - suffers from no coil whine or pops under significant load either on AC or Battery. Phew!

 

[Grilled Cheese]

I’ve received my M5 Max MBP back from Apple repair. Hmm… It still buzzes when pushing the GPU.

For example, in Final Cut Pro the moment I start playback the buzzing begins. The loudness of the buzzing is directly proportional to how hard the GPU is working. It’s very quiet when playing back a simple clip, but pile on some effects and the buzzing instantly increases.

Can you replicate this? I’d love to know. Fire up Activity Monitor, find a way to push your GPU past 50%, then listen closely anywhere near the keyboard. Put your ear really close if necessary. Do you hear silence, or a buzzing sound?

I really want to know if my MBP is an outlier or if other people have the same issue. I wonder if this buzzing is normal and that many other people have it without realising, either because they’re not pushing their GPU very hard or because the ambient background noise in their environment masks the buzzing. I work in a dead quiet music studio which makes unwanted sounds really obvious.