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Why? rMBP=Silence but Windows Laptops = Fan Noise

O

OSMac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 14, 2010
1,456
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Not wanting to start a bash windows thread
but I am completely amazed that the
new late 2013 retina MacBook Pro laptops run SILENT under casual use.

I've used a number of ultra books over the last couple of years and while some were quieter than others all ended up with the fan being heard after browsing the web or watching videos for a while.

An Asus ultra book looked incredible but had an annoying whine to its fans and HP fans were very quiet but came on and off too often.

Just amazed somehow Apple has found a way to completely silence these machines under normal light use.

Is it just because of the Haswell processor, maybe Windows laptops using it are silent now too, but somehow I don't think so?
 
I think its because the window drivers supplied by Apple are not optimized and so your MBP runs hotter in windows then OSX.
 
maflynn said:
I think its because the window drivers supplied by Apple are not optimized and so your MBP runs hotter in windows then OSX.
Click to expand...

Sorry, maybe I was not clear in my post.

I'm not running windows on the rMBP,
just noting how the late 2013 base rMBP runs silent in OSX
and other sandy/ivy bridge windows laptops running Win7 did not.

Is it the Haswell CPU ?
 
The main advantage is the aluminium body as it draws a lot of the heat away from the internals.

The other advantage the rmbp has is the new cooling vents on the bottom left and right. These allow cool air to be freely pulled through the system.
 
The fans start speeding up at a much higher temp, for example my laptop (13" rmbp) is reporting 64c normally on windows at this temp the fans would be starting to speed up, but on this machine it just stays at the lowest rpm.

It is also to do with the fan design, they spin in such a way that it is a lot harder to hear it.

And as above the casing allows it to dispense heat much easier, so even when I hit 90c it doesnt feel as bad (apart from the fan button where it kicks out the heat).
 
Windows as I recall on the classic macbook pro, fans go on loud everytime in Windows... wish there was some way to quiet them down. I don't think its a "Windows is not optimized issue", but probably more of a "Apple just doesn't want Windows to run quietly on Windows". Im sure there could be better drivers that would better run Windows quietly and better, Apple's just strategically not doing it.

A friend of mine got her Dell XPS 15. It was really quiet.
 
Last year's MacBooks (retina or not) were not silent. Haswell makes a BIG difference.

I have no idea how they compare to Haswell Windows PCs.
 
NewbieCanada said:
Last year's MacBooks (retina or not) were not silent. Haswell makes a BIG difference.

I have no idea how they compare to Haswell Windows PCs.
Click to expand...

My impressions are Mac is usually silent. Running windows is always noisy. Its no wonder Mac users dislike Windows.
 
Starfyre said:
My impressions are Mac is usually silent. Running windows is always noisy. Its no wonder Mac users dislike Windows.
Click to expand...

There's a whole new level of quiet on Haswell for Macs. There may be similar improvements on high-end Windows laptops under Haswell.
 
OSMac said:
Not wanting to start a bash windows thread
but I am completely amazed that the
new late 2013 retina MacBook Pro laptops run SILENT under casual use.

I've used a number of ultra books over the last couple of years and while some were quieter than others all ended up with the fan being heard after browsing the web or watching videos for a while.

An Asus ultra book looked incredible but had an annoying whine to its fans and HP fans were very quiet but came on and off too often.

Just amazed somehow Apple has found a way to completely silence these machines under normal light use.

Is it just because of the Haswell processor, maybe Windows laptops using it are silent now too, but somehow I don't think so?
Click to expand...

2012 rMBPs do this as well. I can attest this with my 15" one.
 
You'll find most high end Windows laptops don't make much noise either. I was going to say $2000 Windows laptops, but realistically a high end Windows laptop is around $1000, and by the time you hit $2000 you're into workstation class laptops which will make a lot of noise and are more alike to a Mac Pro than a Macbook Pro.

But generally speaking, any high end Windows laptop is going to be quiet too.
 
NewbieCanada said:
Last year's MacBooks (retina or not) were not silent. Haswell makes a BIG difference.

I have no idea how they compare to Haswell Windows PCs.
Click to expand...

Have you really compared an Ivybridge based rMBP with a Haswell based rMBP running side by side?

My ivy bridge one runs at the min fan speed of 2000rpm which is silent (unless you are in a sound isolated room and place your ear close to the exhaust vents).

I can only hear the fan during a long compilation with Xcode or by playing SC2 or some demanding game. Conversion of RAW images can also make it non-silent.

But for every day use, yes it is silent.
 
Apple cares a lot about things like this. They want the entire UX to be as good as possible. You do pay more for it, but it's what makes Apple products awesome in my opinion.
 
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/design-retina/

Scroll down to the section about the fans, they have asymmetrical blades and are tuned to stay out of the audible range as much as possible, whereas your typical Windows OEM laptop maker just picks a standard part to use.

Apple's pro stuff seems to always deliver on cooling and quietness, my 8-core Mac Pro is six years old now and not once have I heard its fans rev up beyond their lowest RPM, even during transcoding and large Compressor exports, making it pretty much silent.

My new rMBP definitely will rev up under heavy load, but 85% of the time it's totally silent.
 
OSMac said:
Not wanting to start a bash windows thread
but I am completely amazed that the
new late 2013 retina MacBook Pro laptops run SILENT under casual use.

I've used a number of ultra books over the last couple of years and while some were quieter than others all ended up with the fan being heard after browsing the web or watching videos for a while.

An Asus ultra book looked incredible but had an annoying whine to its fans and HP fans were very quiet but came on and off too often.

Just amazed somehow Apple has found a way to completely silence these machines under normal light use.

Is it just because of the Haswell processor, maybe Windows laptops using it are silent now too, but somehow I don't think so?
Click to expand...

Because comparing a $2000+ Apple laptop to a $400 Windows laptop is pretty unfair?
 
My ThinkPad X1 Carbon is silent.

I can only hear the fan doing very intensive things; same can be said for my Mac.
 
skirmisser said:
Have you really compared an Ivybridge based rMBP with a Haswell based rMBP running side by side?
Click to expand...

No - I have not used a Haswell rMBP, but I have used both an Ivy Bridge and Haswell MacBook Air and the Haswell is considerably quieter and cooler. It runs at about 1100! I can't imagine that not being equally true of the rMBP - I can't say how much quieter it is than Ivy Bridge, but it's almost certain to be quieter.
 
I think Mavericks also has some role to play here. Mavericks is built around optimizing power usage my minimizing the CPU usage of apps that are in the background (and not actually supposed to be performing any work). In general this is going to mean less of what you leave open is leeching CPU time and heating up the system or draining battery.

It's even helped out my 2010 17", which gets much better battery life (for a 17" anyway) than it did on previous OS X versions and doesn't seem to get nearly as warm as it used to.
 
You can't really generalise.

Sony Vaio Pro 13 - Loud
Acer S7 - Quiet
Asus Zenbook - Quiet

New 13" MBPs have one fan now and they used to have two. Notebookcheck audio profile suggests it is very quiet though.


Idle 27.4 / 27.4 / 27.4 dB(A)

HDD 27.4 dB(A)

Load 42.5 / 44.7 dB(A)
 
Doward said:
Because comparing a $2000+ Apple laptop to a $400 Windows laptop is pretty unfair?
Click to expand...

Who said the windows ultrabooks I mentioned cost $400?

Who said the apple laptop was $2000+?
 
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