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Same with M3.


M2 Whine.


Confirmation bias is strong when some one wants to push agenda or prove a point. There are always certain small number of devices that are prone for whining be it M3, M2 or M4. Return if you have one of those machines with whine. Apple sells millions of devices, if it was normal the blogs and media and lawyers will have a field day.
You will find absolutely nothing for M1 though - something has changed.
 
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A few years ago it became quite normal for certain graphics cards to have coil whine, and even then it wasn't in every instance of that vendor/model, it was very much a luck of the draw type situation. If you bought a 6800XT and it whined at high FPS, you were one of the unlucky ones.

Considering the number of people in this thread who have no coil whine on their M4, and the fact that M2/M3 have been shown to have coil whine, lets just say we know it exists, and there is an element of poor luck if you get an M4 exhibiting the issue to an extent that its actually an annoyance.

The fact 5 out of 5 M4's you tested are unbearably loud, perhaps you should consider buying a lottery ticket next.
 
Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and opinions. At the end of the day there isn’t much point arguing further. I posted this to raise awareness of a new issue affecting the m4 series. I don’t really care if it’s the m4 SOC itself or some other design change that came along with the m4

It’s as simple as, m1-2/3 air didn’t do it and was dead silent in all cases, so this should be the expectation for m4. So something has changed in a negative way. That’s all.
Thank you for raising your issue…
 
You will find absolutely nothing for M1 though - something has changed.
There are plenty for M1. It’s like bend gate, one guy posts and every one tries to put their head to keyboard to hear minutest of the noises. Like I said if you go looking for smallest of problems you will find it.
Not sure if you ever used those Intel Macs but they were really noisy and ran hot. I will take any M series laptop when it comes to noise.
 
Yet there are not dozens of threads here and on other forums complaining of such an issue, which would be the case if it was as widespread as you claim.
OMG, yes. Remember the butterfly keyboard days? Let's never do that again. Oh, and I haven't heard a dang thing from my M4 Mini--except the VERY quiet fans.

Compared to my Acer Predator Helios Neo 16" RTX 4060 (which is known for its quiet in "balanced" mode)? My Mini is so quiet.

Then again, given my tinnitus maybe I'll let the youngins talk this one out.
 
OMG, yes. Remember the butterfly keyboard days? Let's never do that again. Oh, and I haven't heard a dang thing from my M4 Mini--except the VERY quiet fans.

Compared to my Acer Predator Helios Neo 16" RTX 4060 (which is known for its quiet in "balanced" mode)? My Mini is so quiet.

Then again, given my tinnitus maybe I'll let the youngins talk this one out.
2016-2019 MBP were one of the worst laptops Apple ever made. I was so ready to move on from Macs after using my 2019 MBP, ran hot, too loud and keyboard, Touch Bar made it all worse. If M4 whine on a finless M4 is bad, my RTX 4090 under load has a whine louder than my M4 Max MBP fan. I don't have the luxury to sit in silent room given my compute needs, I just put my headset/ AirPods and work if its too noisy.
 
This is what I tried (all Apple refurbished):
  1. Mac mini with M4 Pro 14/20 — silent, but coil whine occurs under extreme GPU load (LLMs)
  2. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro 14/20 — random coil whine and happens under normal GPU load. There was also some random clicking, which has been reported on other devices on Reddit
  3. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 — silent, but a small amount of coil whine occurs under extreme GPU load (LLMs)
I returned the first two and the third is my partner's. I would've kept the mini tbh, but the Studio had just been released and I needed more time to decide between the two.

I need a new Mac at this point and I'm not sure what to get. I would love a silent machine 90% of the time if possible, knowing that I won't be pushing it all the time.

@appleincognito any thoughts?
 
This is what I tried (all Apple refurbished):
  1. Mac mini with M4 Pro 14/20 — silent, but coil whine occurs under extreme GPU load (LLMs)
  2. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro 14/20 — random coil whine and happens under normal GPU load. There was also some random clicking, which has been reported on other devices on Reddit
  3. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 — silent, but a small amount of coil whine occurs under extreme GPU load (LLMs)
I returned the first two and the third is my partner's. I would've kept the mini tbh, but the Studio had just been released and I needed more time to decide between the two.

I need a new Mac at this point and I'm not sure what to get. I would love a silent machine 90% of the time if possible, knowing that I won't be pushing it all the time.

@appleincognito any thoughts?
My thoughts remain the same that all m4 series have varying degree of coil whine.

Most of the time it won’t be a constant sound. For example with the m4 air, it’s extremely shrill and high pitched when you first run the command in the OP, but eventually it goes away as the chip throttles and heat builds up.

In real life, it can still be annoying though. For example when I open certain heavier apps on my m4 air, I can briefly hear the frequency come and go. Or if I copy a large file to the Mac SSD, same thing.

I think we’ll have to learn to live with it and understand it’s a trade off they’ve made with this new series.

I’m not saying m4 units without coil whine don’t exist, just that they are most definitely the minority, and most (if not all) have coil whine to a degree or rate not experienced on earlier series.
 
My thoughts remain the same that all m4 series have varying degree of coil whine.

Most of the time it won’t be a constant sound. For example with the m4 air, it’s extremely shrill and high pitched when you first run the command in the OP, but eventually it goes away as the chip throttles and heat builds up.

In real life, it can still be annoying though. For example when I open certain heavier apps on my m4 air, I can briefly hear the frequency come and go. Or if I copy a large file to the Mac SSD, same thing.

I think we’ll have to learn to live with it and understand it’s a trade off they’ve made with this new series.

I’m not saying m4 units without coil whine don’t exist, just that they are most definitely the minority, and most (if not all) have coil whine to a degree or rate not experienced on earlier series.
That sounds rather depressing. All m4 exhibit some form of coil whine. Sorry you are experiencing this!

I have experienced this only on gaming laptops with the GPU not the CPU. Since M4 has an integrated GPU it would be the only thing making the coil whine. I am not sure if there was a major redesign of the GPU in the m4? Coil whine from a GPU once you hear it is one of those things you can't un-hear and drives you crazy afterwards.

I would think if this is a widespread issue then more people will start to report about it. I doubt anyone who buys an m4 Air wants to hear any noise at all and I would return mine in a heartbeat if I heard that.

Guess we will just have to wait and see. What I would say is that you are still making a lot of assumptions and projections based on your personal experience. Maybe there is an issue and maybe there isn't. All you can say is that in the devices you tested with m4 you experienced coil whine. It could be a manufacturing issue they will get sorted out?

I would just return and wait a month or so and see if you experience the same thing. Maybe save some money and buy an M2 until m5 or m6 come out??
 
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