Fan issue driving me nuts

[sanfairyanne]

So my 10 month old MacbookPro is driving me nuts, Apple tells me it's quite normal for the fan to start spinning the way it does. I took it to their store and they weren't concerned by the noise, of course in a busy store you can hardly hear the fan but in a quiet room it's infuriating. The moment I open Photoshop CC the fan starts to speed up, within seconds it's so annoying I cannot concentrate on editing.
I've read online that there is software to force a fan to slow down, but there's a warning that this might cause damage.
Can anyone offer a suggestion other than ditching the computer.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Toutou]

Maybe you're just a little sensitive
The fan should be totally inaudible during non cpu-intensive usage (web, copying files, using Pages).
It's okay for them speed up when doing photo editing, but if it's like they reach max RPM within ten seconds and stay there, then yeah, something's wrong.

Get a fan monitor like Macs Fan Control or SmcFanControl and report your temps + RPM when idle and when it's annoying for you.

Also check your CPU usage in Activity Monitor - when the machine is idle it shouldn't be higher than 1-3% (with occasional spikes) . If it is, there is something other running and burning through cpu cycles.

 

[Gav2k]

You need to check the temps before you start playing with fan speeds

 

[sanfairyanne]

Maybe you're just a little sensitive
The fan should be totally inaudible during non cpu-intensive usage (web, copying files, using Pages).
It's okay for them speed up when doing photo editing, but if it's like they reach max RPM within ten seconds and stay there, then yeah, something's wrong.

Get a fan monitor like Macs Fan Control or SmcFanControl and report your temps + RPM when idle and when it's annoying for you.

Also check your CPU usage in Activity Monitor - when the machine is idle it shouldn't be higher than 1-3% (with occasional spikes) . If it is, there is something other running and burning through cpu cycles.

The activity monitor shows CPU speeds are much higher. The attached screen grab shows Firefox at 14%, at the moment I took that screen grab Firefox and Activity Monitor were the only programs running.
I'll check out fan controllers thanks.

 

[Tobias Funke]

Just disconnect the fan on your car as well.

Im sure its not doing anything.

 

[jerryk]

The activity monitor shows CPU speeds are much higher. The attached screen grab shows Firefox at 14%, at the moment I took that screen grab Firefox and Activity Monitor were the only programs running.
I'll check out fan controllers thanks.

It's more important to check in when you are running Photoshop and doing your regular image workflow.

Also, which computer. 15" units with a dGPU generate a lot of heat because the CPU and dGPU are running hard.

 

[JTToft]

Also check your CPU usage in Activity Monitor - when the machine is idle it shouldn't be higher than 1-3% (with occasional spikes)

The activity monitor shows CPU speeds are much higher. The attached screen grab shows Firefox at 14%, at the moment I took that screen grab Firefox and Activity Monitor were the only programs running.
I'll check out fan controllers thanks.

- Those figures aren't comparable. Toutou was referring to 1-3 % total CPU use. The 14 % you are seeing is 14 % of one CPU thread. A 13" has 4 threads, and a 15" has 8 threads. So that 14 % translates to roughly 1.5-3 % total utilisation.

Your screenshot is entirely normal.

 

[Toutou]

15" units with a dGPU generate a lot of heat because the CPU and dGPU are running hard

Totally this — the dGPU is major source of heat, even idling. When it's powered on, the temps go up a lot.

Your screenshot is entirely normal.

I agree.

 

[T5BRICK]

If you're utilizing the CPU and/or GPU, they're going to create heat. The fan spins up to move the air to remove the heat.

If you want a silent computer, the retina MacBook is fanless.

 

[sanfairyanne]

If you're utilizing the CPU and/or GPU, they're going to create heat. The fan spins up to move the air to remove the heat.

I've seen one and I'd swap out my Macbook Pro for one, but I don't know if it will be too slow to run Photoshop CC with the files from my Nikon D810.

 

[T5BRICK]

I've seen one and I'd swap out my Macbook Pro for one, but I don't know if it will be too slow to run Photoshop CC with the files from my Nikon D810.

I imagine it could handle ~50MB RAW files that your camera produces.

Or you could spend a little more time troubleshooting the problem your having. In the screenshot you posted about a week ago, was the fan making a lot of noise under that load?

 

[Yr Blues]

How loud does it get? Maybe there's a mechanical error and it's not spinning correctly or there's something in there causing noise.

 

[dk808]

Do you guys think the weaker base gpu in the new macbook pros will run quieter than the stronger ones?

 

[Marshall73]

I have a steering wheel in my pants that's driving me nuts... hee hee

 

[VesselA]

I cant stand fan noise, but the 13" 2015 macbook pro sorted most of that. It is silent for most things apart from gaming, previous macbooks Ive had the fans kicked up even for video, which made it very annoying.