I have the 14" M1 Max and I can get the fans going with ffmpeg quite easily. Also Final Cut renders will often cause me to hear them. It's very infrequent, however. Normal use, I would never even know I have fans.
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14'' M3 Max new owners - fan noise?
- Thread starter Badfish12
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I have the 14" M1 Max and I can get the fans going with ffmpeg quite easily. Also Final Cut renders will often cause me to hear them. It's very infrequent, however. Normal use, I would never even know I have fans.
I bought the M3 Pro 12 core and decided to switch it for the base Max 14" on Saturday.
I think both models are good choices, but I can confirm no fan noise under normal use with either device. Battery life does seem a little worse with the Max, but can't say I notice any real difference from my 14" M1 Pro (now used by my wife).
I think both models are good choices, but I can confirm no fan noise under normal use with either device. Battery life does seem a little worse with the Max, but can't say I notice any real difference from my 14" M1 Pro (now used by my wife).
I remember you said yours would be arriving on Monday. Are you satisfied with your16/40 max? I am undecided between the base model and the 16/40 model. I am wondering if there are any real differences between the 2 models in terms of heat, fan noise and battery life, but there is no review yet for just comparing these 2 models.
I use mine (18/1/12) for network administration primarily and similar light work. I have not heard the fans come on once. I've had the machine for over a week. The only time I heard the fans was when I ran CineBench 2024 benchmark tests the first day I got it. Running cinebench the fans were audible, but not too loud and more importantly annoying. It's a fantastic machine. For off-site work I like it even better than my other one -- 18/1/48 M3 Max -- which is too heavy and which stays at the office and does all of the heavy lifting. As I mentioned in my other posts here, subjectively, there is absolutely no difference in performance when it comes to everyday, normal tasks. I love both machines.
Mine arrived yesterday with the inside (Apple) box corner crushed in. I almost kept it since the laptop was probably fine but I ended up returning it today without opening it just in case it wasn't. And I often resell with the box down the road. I was already having second thoughts about that config with all the talk of the fan noise and throttling so I wasn't too upset about it. After everything I've read I think I'm steering clear of the 14" 16/40 due to the fan noise and throttling being the worst in that config. For nearly $5k I want to make sure I'm investing in something I won't regret and the resale value is the worst on the higher spec configs. Someone posted a review recently with charts showing the fan speed and decibels for several different MacBooks. My current 2020 M1 maxed out at around 41db where the M3 Max 14" and 16" were mid 50s and the 14" maxed the fans out the soonest and the most consistently. So making sure this fan speed/noise is turned down as often as possible is a priority for me. I'm now leaning towards the 16" after looking at it again in the store but the 14" 14/30 and Pro models are still options. I'm worried that given the thermal limitations of the M3 in this chassis we may be seeing some major changes or a hardware refresh next year and I might be tempted to upgrade. Lots to consider but right now the top contender is a 16" 14/30 36GB.
Yes, we should invest the money wisely, and that is the reason we spent so much time on the reviews and comments.
Some anecdata.
Personally, I am only really interested in CPU cores. And in that regard, both my old 14" M1 Pro (8P+2E cores) and new 14" M3 Max (12P+4E cores) behave similarly:
When stressing *all* P-cores — so 8 on the M1 and 12 on the M3 — (from an otherwise idle system), the fans will become audible after roughly 40 secs of sustained CPU load in both machines and then ramp up further. The time might be a tad longer on the M1, but is roughly in the same ballpark.
As far as I can tell, Low-Power mode lowers the maximum frequency which allows for a lower (and thus quieter — but still audible) maximum fan speed. For me, this resulted in ~15-20% slower performance.
Personally, I am only really interested in CPU cores. And in that regard, both my old 14" M1 Pro (8P+2E cores) and new 14" M3 Max (12P+4E cores) behave similarly:
When stressing *all* P-cores — so 8 on the M1 and 12 on the M3 — (from an otherwise idle system), the fans will become audible after roughly 40 secs of sustained CPU load in both machines and then ramp up further. The time might be a tad longer on the M1, but is roughly in the same ballpark.
As far as I can tell, Low-Power mode lowers the maximum frequency which allows for a lower (and thus quieter — but still audible) maximum fan speed. For me, this resulted in ~15-20% slower performance.