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The new iMac is a lot noisier!

Will just in case anybody was wondering if I am certifiable This should clear it up...
Using ProTools as the test vehicle I found the same session would run in both the i5 and i7 (17 virtual instrument tracks and 40 audio tracks -All at 96 kHz. As expected the i5 runs quite a bit cooler And surprisingly it ran just as well at low buffers on the i5 as it did on the i7. I am once again thinking the i5 is going to be fine for me. There is always freeze track and other ways to deal with heavy loads. I even went and upped my i5 order on Apple to a 1 TB SSD. Back to the dream of 1 internal drive - 1 backup external (already have a 1TB SSD) and force myself to finish things and send them to the Archive (5TB offsite, 3TB onsite).

That's the plan today now 🙂... Of course an i7 is "better" but if one really doesn't "need it" it is extra capacity sitting unused... but I reserve the right to flip flop for the weekend 🙂
 
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I still think something must be wrong with my 2014 i7. I have Chrome, Polymail, Slack, Evernote, and a few other productivity apps open. Temp is at 70C, fan at 2,100, CPU 91% idle.

I'm no expert, but doesn't it seem strange that the fan would be at that RPM when I'm not doing anything processor intensive?
 
badlydrawnboy said:
I still think something must be wrong with my 2014 i7. I have Chrome, Polymail, Slack, Evernote, and a few other productivity apps open. Temp is at 70C, fan at 2,100, CPU 91% idle.

I'm no expert, but doesn't it seem strange that the fan would be at that RPM when I'm not doing anything processor intensive?
Click to expand...

Hard disk? Amount of memory?
 
badlydrawnboy said:
I still think something must be wrong with my 2014 i7. I have Chrome, Polymail, Slack, Evernote, and a few other productivity apps open. Temp is at 70C, fan at 2,100, CPU 91% idle.

I'm no expert, but doesn't it seem strange that the fan would be at that RPM when I'm not doing anything processor intensive?
Click to expand...
If its changed you would know - right,
FWIW I have read that the 2014s were known for running hotter than the 2015s - never owned either thugh.
 
propower said:
Will just in case anybody was wondering if I am certifiable This should clear it up...
Using ProTools as the test vehicle I found the same session would run in both the i5 and i7 (17 virtual instrument tracks and 40 audio tracks -All at 96 kHz. As expected the i5 runs quite a bit cooler And surprisingly it ran just as well at low buffers on the i5 as it did on the i7. I am once again thinking the i5 is going to be fine for me. There is always freeze track and other ways to deal with heavy loads. I even went and upped my i5 order on Apple to a 1 TB SSD. Back to the dream of 1 internal drive - 1 backup external (already have a 1TB SSD) and force myself to finish things and send them to the Archive (5TB offsite, 3TB onsite).

That's the plan today now 🙂... Of course an i7 is "better" but if one really doesn't "need it" it is extra capacity sitting unused... but I reserve the right to flip flop for the weekend 🙂
Click to expand...
Maybe you should order the 7600 like I did. 🙂

Only a handful more MHz than the 7500, but maybe that will be just enough to calm your nerves. 😵
 
propower said:
Will just in case anybody was wondering if I am certifiable This should clear it up...
Using ProTools as the test vehicle I found the same session would run in both the i5 and i7 (17 virtual instrument tracks and 40 audio tracks -All at 96 kHz. As expected the i5 runs quite a bit cooler And surprisingly it ran just as well at low buffers on the i5 as it did on the i7. I am once again thinking the i5 is going to be fine for me. There is always freeze track and other ways to deal with heavy loads. I even went and upped my i5 order on Apple to a 1 TB SSD. Back to the dream of 1 internal drive - 1 backup external (already have a 1TB SSD) and force myself to finish things and send them to the Archive (5TB offsite, 3TB onsite).

That's the plan today now 🙂... Of course an i7 is "better" but if one really doesn't "need it" it is extra capacity sitting unused... but I reserve the right to flip flop for the weekend 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks for that input!
 
jerwin said:
the cpu test uses cpu.
the gpu tests uses the gpu-- plus the cpu has to feed the instructions, but that's not all that demanding.

As you can see, the gpu score is blanked out, so the radeon parts aren't likely to be abnormally warm. It looks like the i7 gets hot, and moderate fan speeds aren't always sufficient to vent the heat.

power gadget would be helpful here.
Click to expand...
Your not following. They use the power of the GPU test and the CPU test.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
512 GB SSD and 34 GB RAM.
Click to expand...

I don't see anything wrong with what you are experiencing. It all seems well within normal. Replace it with the same and expect the same.

Apple, like many companies, proposes in ways large and small that a purchase will be perfect; even an answer to life's great questions. But buy it and it's still a product, as flawed and doomed as we all are in the end. Acceptance - whatever that means to you - is the only rational response.

Peace.
 
propower said:
Will just in case anybody was wondering if I am certifiable This should clear it up...
Using ProTools as the test vehicle I found the same session would run in both the i5 and i7 (17 virtual instrument tracks and 40 audio tracks -All at 96 kHz. As expected the i5 runs quite a bit cooler And surprisingly it ran just as well at low buffers on the i5 as it did on the i7. I am once again thinking the i5 is going to be fine for me. There is always freeze track and other ways to deal with heavy loads. I even went and upped my i5 order on Apple to a 1 TB SSD. Back to the dream of 1 internal drive - 1 backup external (already have a 1TB SSD) and force myself to finish things and send them to the Archive (5TB offsite, 3TB onsite).

That's the plan today now 🙂... Of course an i7 is "better" but if one really doesn't "need it" it is extra capacity sitting unused... but I reserve the right to flip flop for the weekend 🙂
Click to expand...

Your tests and experience have been really helpful, thanks! I see you have the nMP. Can you comment on its noise level with respect to the iMacs you've used? What's the draw of the iMac over the nMP? Is it the screen?
 
The 2013 MP is a fantastic machine (despite the ridicule it endures). For audio it has been flawless and off to the left of me ~3 feet it is just a little "louder" than the new iMac. If placed behind a monitor it is quieter than the new iMac. And the fan in the nMP hex has never spun up in all the time I have had it. So why sell? 1) I have never pushed the potential of that machine and today my needs are smaller - not bigger. Due in part to not recording large bands (small groups and Jazz now) but also due in part to advances in Audio Interfaces that have made the stress on the computer for recording at super low latency far less. 2) That screen!!!! Simply enhances everything I do. 3) I am a tech fan and change computers every 3 years or less. The nMP lasted longer than most I have had (except the old PowerMac 9600. 4) In my mind - the time to sell a 2013MP is now - since there is a new one coming that will make this one a one and done. Could get hard to sell in 2018. 5) I like having Apple Care.
 
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jpross123 said:
I have the 2017 27' i5 model, and while doing photo editing in Lightroom, and having photoshop open at the same time I hear no fan noise at all. Same with video editing in FCPX.
Click to expand...

which i5 did you have? and how does it perform with previews, import and export?

thanks @jpross123 for any feedback you can share!
 
kingdavidd said:
which i5 did you have? and how does it perform with previews, import and export?

thanks @jpross123 for any feedback you can share!
Click to expand...
I just put my review in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/please-review-your-2017-imac.2051475/page-7

It performs very well while importing over 150 pictures into lightroom. Exporting about 50 photos takes just a couple minutes. I recommend upgrading to an SSD vs. the fusion drive. The SSD performs soooooo much better
 
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propower said:
The 2013 MP is a fantastic machine (despite the ridicule it endures). For audio it has been flawless and off to the left of me ~3 feet it is just a little "louder" than the new iMac. If placed behind a monitor it is quieter than the new iMac. And the fan in the nMP hex has never spun up in all the time I have had it. So why sell? 1) I have never pushed the potential of that machine and today my needs are smaller - not bigger. Due in part to not recording large bands (small groups and Jazz now) but also due in part to advances in Audio Interfaces that have made the stress on the computer for recording at super low latency far less. 2) That screen!!!! Simply enhances everything I do. 3) I am a tech fan and change computers every 3 years or less. The nMP lasted longer than most I have had (except the old PowerMac 9600. 4) In my mind - the time to sell a 2013MP is now - since there is a new one coming that will make this one a one and done. Could get hard to sell in 2018. 5) I like having Apple Care.
Click to expand...

Exact same reasoning I sold mine, all around. It was simply time to move on to newer hardware, for me.
 
Ok I got mine yesterday and the fan kicks louder more often.

New version
i7 4.2ghz
500 gig ssd
24 gig ram
Radeon Pro 580

It IS faster as I do stuff in lightroom. I'm very happy about that. But for identical tasks like exports, the fan turns on now when on my other one it doesn't. I've ran identical exports (since I still have both computers sitting here) from lightroom and the new one averages about 15% faster depending on the export BUT the fan will turn on at times the old one doesn't.

Personally this doesn't matter to me, all I care about is faster. I don't have any temperature testing software so this is a non scientific test but based on my own comparison, the fan does kick in more but then again, it's because it's doing more work in a shorter period of time.
 
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iemcj said:
Ok I got mine yesterday and the fan kicks louder more often.

New version
i7 4.2ghz
500 gig ssd
24 gig ram
Radeon Pro 580

It IS faster as I do stuff in lightroom. I'm very happy about that. But for identical tasks like exports, the fan turns on now when on my other one it doesn't. I've ran identical exports (since I still have both computers sitting here) from lightroom and the new one averages about 15% faster depending on the export BUT the fan will turn on at times the old one doesn't.

Personally this doesn't matter to me, all I care about is faster. I don't have any temperature testing software so this is a non scientific test but based on my own comparison, the fan does kick in more but then again, it's because it's doing more work in a shorter period of time.
Click to expand...
By old one, do you mean the one in your signature?

Temp software is freemium ware: iStat Menus
 
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badlydrawnboy said:
I still think something must be wrong with my 2014 i7. I have Chrome, Polymail, Slack, Evernote, and a few other productivity apps open. Temp is at 70C, fan at 2,100, CPU 91% idle.

I'm no expert, but doesn't it seem strange that the fan would be at that RPM when I'm not doing anything processor intensive?
Click to expand...
you may have installed 3rd party fan control software at some point.
 
If somebody gets a chance could you post a video of the fan on the i7. I'm curious to hear how loud it sounds. I wish I could just go into the Apple store and hear it, but they didn't have any i7 when I looked.
 
This has been posted before, but in case you haven't seen it, the best comparison I've seen of the 7700K, 7600K, and 7600 is from Tom's hardware, as it not only provides comparative benchmarks, it also really delves down into the power consumption characteristics.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-i7-7700-i5-7600k-i5-7600,4870.html

Before I ordered the 7700K, I was largely just comparing the 7700K vs the 7600K and also the 7700K vs the 7600. But before I returned the 7700K and ordered the 7600, I took a closer look at just the 7600K vs the 7600.

For the most part the 7600K is relatively cool, but it was interesting to see that with extreme load, the 7600K can indeed be pushed to have very high power utilization.

Here is the 7600K with their FPU utility (high usage) and with the Intel Power Thermal Utility (extreme usage):

7600K-FPUMax.png


7600K-PTU.png


Here are the corresponding 7600 graphs:

7600-FPUMax.png


7600-PTU.png


Big difference in power under these extreme conditions. I'm thinking it's likely that we wouldn't ever hit PTU type conditions, but I'm guessing the FPU Max numbers do have some relevance for us, and would likely be in the ballpark of video encoding. I guess this explains why the 7600K is a 91 W TDP Watt chip (despite usually staying below 65 Watts with regular heavy usage, unlike the 7700K), and why the 7600 is the 65 W TDP chip.

Just as importantly, the performance difference between the two is small. According to Tom's benches, the performance differences ranges from 2.5% to 7.5%, with most around the 5-6% range. That makes sense, given the clock speeds:

i5-7600: 3.5 GHz with Turbo Boost to 4.1 GHz single-core, 4.0 GHz dual-core, 3.9 GHz quad-core
i5-7600K: 3.8 GHz with Turbo Boost to 4.2 GHz single-core, 4.1 GHz dual-core, 4.0 GHz quad-core

Delta: +8.6% base clock, Turbo Boost +2.4% single-core, +2.5% dual-core, +2.6 GHz quad-core

BTW, I had guessed the Turbo Boost speeds would weigh more heavily than the base clock speeds for benches, but for real world benches it seems the difference in base clock speed may be more important, as I said the real-world bench differences are usually in the 5-6% range. I had hoped it would have been closer to the 3% range. Either way though, most people would never notice a 6% performance difference in most workloads so effectively they are neck-and-neck performance-wise. In contrast, the 7700K is on average much faster than both of them, not just because of the clock speed, but because of HyperThreading, unfortunately at the expense of much higher power utilization under load as we all know.

As for synthetic benches, this is what we get with Geekbench 4.1:

i5-7600: 5362 / 16068
i5-7600K: 5484 / 16463

The difference there is about 2.5 %, so probably Geekbench is more representative of Turbo Boost speeds.
 
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The other factor to realize with the mid-tier 2017 iMac option is that the 575 is already faster than all of the previous iMac GPUs ever released. In fact, the base model 570 is pretty much on par with the previous M395X, which was the previous top end part that you could only get via CTO, and the 575 is faster. That 28 nm to 14 nm shrink was two complete nodes, and did a lot to reduce power usage.

However, the 580 is considerably faster and has 8 GB too which is becoming necessary for modern games and VR. I have been informed that for dual-5K monitors for most other work (non-3D), the other 4 GB models will be fine. For Final Cut, Apple recommends 1 GB video RAM (with a minimum of 256 MB). I'm not sure how it works with multiple monitors, but I figure 2 GB per screen would be overkill, but that's what we have, with a minimum of 4 GB total on the current cards. But the guys like in the other thread playing X-Plane 11 at very high settings will appreciate the 8 GB and 580. One of them said he was utilizing 7 GB VRAM in X-Plane with his settings, and getting about 30 fps out of the 580 with 7600K.

existe said:
Is there a video/recording of the I7 fan noise?
Click to expand...
It's actually in the original first post of this thread. 😛

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-new-imac-is-a-lot-noisier.2051501/
 
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EugW said:
The other factor to realize with the mid-tier 2017 iMac option is that the 575 is already faster than all of the previous iMac GPUs ever released. In fact, the base model 570 is pretty much on par with the previous M395X, which was the previous top end part that you could only get via CTO, and the 575 is faster. That 28 nm to 14 nm shrink was two complete nodes, and did a lot to reduce power usage.

However, the 580 is considerably faster and has 8 GB too which is becoming necessary for modern games and VR. I have been informed that for dual-5K monitors for most other work (non-3D), the other 4 GB models will be fine. For Final Cut, Apple recommends 1 GB video RAM (with a minimum of 256 MB). I'm not sure how it works with multiple monitors, but I figure 2 GB per screen would be overkill, but that's what we have, with a minimum of 4 GB total on the current cards. But the guys like in the other thread playing X-Plane 11 at very high settings will appreciate the 8 GB and 580. One of them said he was utilizing 7 GB VRAM in X-Plane with his settings, and getting about 30 fps out of the 580 with 7600K.


It's actually in the original first post of this thread. 😛

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-new-imac-is-a-lot-noisier.2051501/
Click to expand...

Thank you, I watched it but cut it just short of the fan noise section since he said "thanks for watching"
 
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