Some amazing news. The new Mac Studio is going to be significantly quieter at idle!!!
Old Mac Studio:
New Mac Studio:
support.apple.com
support.apple.com
Thank you Apple for listening - our prayers have been answered!
Edit1:
The new fan default speed has been lowered from 1300 RPM to 1000 RPM.
Edit2:
I've completed analysing the Mac Studio M2 (Max base, 64tb), recorded on an RE20 studio mic.
Compared to the first generation:
1) It is significantly quieter - I can barely hear it at all in my quiet office.
2) I've detected no whine.
The last sonically great high performance desktop was the iMac Pro 2017, the M2 now takes it's crown and is even better than it was. Subjectively, the noise when the fans spin up is very pleasant. I'm happy to say I would definitely recommend this one if you've been on the fence.
Results and samples below:
The image below shows two tracks with individual y axis which shows a spectrogram from 0 - 19,000hz. The top track is the microphone directly facing into the airstream. The bottom, is off to the side.
The x axis spaces short audio clips taken at readings of 1000 (new idle), 1300 (previous idle), 1600, 2300 & 3500rpm.
You'll notice there's no whine around the 2.14Khz mark.
Compare this with the old one where at 2.14Khz there was a distinct band, which was the whine.
Here are the samples that match with the images above.
Mac Studio Direct - The microphone is faced directly into the airstream (+several decibels so you can hear it)
Mac Studio Indirect - The microphone is not facing into the steam, it is very close by (+several decibels so you can hear it)
Edit 3:
Pushing the machine, I could get it to 1200RPM.
At nearly 100% usage of most things (E-CPU, P-CPU, Neural engine, GPU) - total package power peaked at 76watts on the M2 Max base (no idea what TDP of the M2 Max base is). I saw peak power hitting 120watts for a split second on a few occasions, but then the system crashed or processes failed - so maybe some tweaks on Apples end. I didn't push it to it's absolute max as couldn't run some of the benchmarks I wanted to due to time and GFX bench wasn't working.
When the cores reached around 90c (194 freedom units), the fan started kicking up to a max speed of 1200RPM. The back temperature reached 47.4c (117.32f). Overall, quiet as hell, I couldn't get it to reach the 1300RPM base speed of the original.
This was the Studio they should have designed from the beginning. It's going to be telling to see a teardown and see if there are any physical changes, or it's just a fan curve change.
* Ambient temperate was 22.3c.
Edit 4:
Ifixit have completed a tear down and found it’s the same internals as the first gen. No obvious cooler changes, it appears the only major change apart from the chips themselves is a fan curve change.
Edit 5:
Some whine captured: #113
Old Mac Studio:
| Idle | 2.5 (K V = 0.3) | 15 |
|---|---|---|
| Wireless web | 2.5 (K V = 0.3) | 15 |
New Mac Studio:
| Sound Power Level L W A,m (B) | Sound Pressure Level Operator Position L p A,m (dB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Idle | 1.5 (K V = 0.3) | 6 |
| Wireless web | 1.5 (K V = 0.3) | 6 |
Mac Studio (2023) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support
Mac Studio (2022) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support
Thank you Apple for listening - our prayers have been answered!
Edit1:
The new fan default speed has been lowered from 1300 RPM to 1000 RPM.
Edit2:
I've completed analysing the Mac Studio M2 (Max base, 64tb), recorded on an RE20 studio mic.
Compared to the first generation:
1) It is significantly quieter - I can barely hear it at all in my quiet office.
2) I've detected no whine.
The last sonically great high performance desktop was the iMac Pro 2017, the M2 now takes it's crown and is even better than it was. Subjectively, the noise when the fans spin up is very pleasant. I'm happy to say I would definitely recommend this one if you've been on the fence.
Results and samples below:
The image below shows two tracks with individual y axis which shows a spectrogram from 0 - 19,000hz. The top track is the microphone directly facing into the airstream. The bottom, is off to the side.
The x axis spaces short audio clips taken at readings of 1000 (new idle), 1300 (previous idle), 1600, 2300 & 3500rpm.
You'll notice there's no whine around the 2.14Khz mark.
Compare this with the old one where at 2.14Khz there was a distinct band, which was the whine.
Here are the samples that match with the images above.
Mac Studio Direct - The microphone is faced directly into the airstream (+several decibels so you can hear it)
Mac Studio Indirect - The microphone is not facing into the steam, it is very close by (+several decibels so you can hear it)
Edit 3:
Pushing the machine, I could get it to 1200RPM.
At nearly 100% usage of most things (E-CPU, P-CPU, Neural engine, GPU) - total package power peaked at 76watts on the M2 Max base (no idea what TDP of the M2 Max base is). I saw peak power hitting 120watts for a split second on a few occasions, but then the system crashed or processes failed - so maybe some tweaks on Apples end. I didn't push it to it's absolute max as couldn't run some of the benchmarks I wanted to due to time and GFX bench wasn't working.
When the cores reached around 90c (194 freedom units), the fan started kicking up to a max speed of 1200RPM. The back temperature reached 47.4c (117.32f). Overall, quiet as hell, I couldn't get it to reach the 1300RPM base speed of the original.
This was the Studio they should have designed from the beginning. It's going to be telling to see a teardown and see if there are any physical changes, or it's just a fan curve change.
* Ambient temperate was 22.3c.
Edit 4:
Ifixit have completed a tear down and found it’s the same internals as the first gen. No obvious cooler changes, it appears the only major change apart from the chips themselves is a fan curve change.
Edit 5:
Some whine captured: #113
Last edited:
