Mac Studio M1 Max - High Pitched Whining Fans / Fan Motor

[tevion5]

Can we have a recording of the sound? you might upload it to YouTube

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

 

[MaskedCarrot]

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

Ya that is the same high pitched noise that the one I returned had.

I liked the machine and hated to return it, but it was giving me headaches.

 

[Traverse]

I find it really interesting that both @PianoPro here and @dunanos here did separate measurements of two different recording and both found a sound in addition to the normal fans of nearly the same frequency. I think this shows that there is definitely something hardware-related going on in manufacturing.

 

[ixxx69]

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

Thank you for sharing that.

That's really bad. I think too much has been made of the fan noise as far as the "whooshing" part (though I'm in general agreement that they should be quieter at idle), but that high-pitched emanation is awful - it can't be "normal".

I cancelled my Studio order and am going to wait to see how things shake out over the coming months.

Aside from the obvious likelihood that there's a bunch of defective parts making their way into Studios, another culprit can be electrical interference.

Have you tried turning literally everything off in the room except for the Mac Studio? Including display, speakers, any attached devices, and that they're all powered off? I would want to eliminate any possibility of electrical interference with another nearby device causing the sound.

 

[Dutch60]

My Mac Studio arrived today:

• M1 Max
• 32 Core GPU
• 64GB Ram
• 2TB SSD

At the default 1300ish RPM speed there is a noticeable high pitched whining sound. Actual fan whoosh is barely noticeable (similar to my very quiet 12-Core Mac Pro 2019 sitting on the floor which this is supposed to replace). But this whining sound is distinct and much more annoying.

What "fixes" it is manually bringing the fans down from the standard 1300 RPM to around 1200 RPM.
Makes virtually no difference to temps (stays around 55*C or so at most) even under artificial max load of benchmarks but gets rid of the whining. Minimum of 1100 RPM also works, virtually silent in every way.

Oddly if I run it at some fan speeds higher than 1300 RPM I get a louder usual fan whoosh but the whining also goes away. Some faster speeds just make the whining more intense too. So seems to me like a bit of nasty resonance on the fans / fan motor that causes whining at certain frequency intervals. Doesn't seem like coil whine or something, it's 100% determined by fan speeds.

Rather annoying because while I can basically solve it by doing manual fan control, it's ridiculous that I should have to do hacks like this on day 1! Guess I'll have to take it up with Apple support but annoyed I might have to do a, likely very lengthy, return...

I' m considering exactly that version of the Studio later this year (same specifications). I' ll closely follow this thread (although I' m not very sensitive to (a little) noise). I hope, things get solved here. Indeed it shouldn't be necessary for you to manually bringing fans up/down.
I do read mixed reports on noise coming from Mac Studio fans; some find it awful while others claim to almost hear nothing at all.

 

[Menno87]

I was playing around with the RPM settings for my ultra. This will vary based on many variables and tolerance , but for me;

1300 - 1430 = Annoying (Whine)
1430 - 1470 = Tolerable (Whine almost gone)
1430 - 1750 = Annoying (Whine)
1750 > = Gone but too loud for an idle machine

I have created a fan profile with 1440 minimum rpm because thats seems to be the sweet spot for me, but still thinking about returning it.

 

[Sharky II]

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

How is it if you move it away from the wall?

 

[dogface1956]

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

My Ultra does not make that noise, I have used techtool 15 to exercise the fans and while I can hear the fans when the speed goes up, I don't hear any high-pitched noises and certainly not the noises in the video

 

[tevion5]

How is it if you move it away from the wall?

It may not seem as clear with the angle of a video but there is actually a good 10cm between the back of it and the wall. Positioning doesn't seem to make any difference.

 

[Sharky II]

Sure, but 10cm isn't that far - the hard wall will still reflect the high pitch noise back towards you, whereas if the Mac had e.g. 10 feet of clear space behind it, you might not notice it as much...

Obviously it shouldn't make the noise in any case, but hard walls are going to reflect and perhaps even exacerbate any issues like this

 

[tevion5]

Sure, but 10cm isn't that far - the hard wall will still reflect the high pitch noise back towards you, whereas if the Mac had e.g. 10 feet of clear space behind it, you might not notice it as much...

Obviously it shouldn't make the noise in any case, but hard walls are going to reflect and perhaps even exacerbate any issues like this

Maybe I can try but if it's far away it's going to get impractical quick.
The room used for recording and has a lot of foam panelling so sound reflections are quite minimal overall.

 

[Sharky II]

Be interesting to see if you stick a rockwool/foam panel behind it and see if it affects your perception, just for a quick test?

 

[Blue Sun]

If you have this issue and are not happy with it, book it in with Apple (or even just send an email or report the issue) and return it. You deserve to be happy with a machine this expensive, and this coil whine is clearly not normal.

Hopefully Apple will be able to resolve the issue in manufacturing with time, the more reports they receive about this the better.

 

[Peter_M]

Here I put together a video that hopefully demonstrates the whining problem clearly.
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

That's definitely not up to Apple's usual quality standard, very disappointing especially considering Apple's asking price. You could return it, but who knows if the next one would be better.

You could do what I did with my Mac Mini, simply fasten it under your work table (with velcro tape and pins or whatever), and you'll probably won't hear it anymore. I did that with my Mac Mini because of the SSD controller buzzing, and to hear less of the fans ramping up (Mac Mini 2018 i7). Now I never hear the SSD controller, and the occasional fan noise is much less intrusive. It's worth a try IMO.

 

[tevion5]

UPDATE:

I spoke to Apple today and explained the problem with my brand new machine.

I decided to go with a replacement because I do really like the Mac Studio and I want a desktop not a laptop. Performance is fantastic and there's loads of IO. Suits me very well so if not for the noise I'd be very happy.

Because of the spec I ordered a replacement will be, as I predicted, lengthy. Around 2-3 months. That's what I was afraid of because I don't want to give it back right now and continue using my Mac Pro for another 3 months.

But Apple were actually able to organise it so I can hold onto this one in the meantime and when the replacement is ready I can swap it then. This is the best option to me because I do want this machine at this spec and tbh I'd rather like to sell my Mac Pro 7,1 ASAP.

I think I can live with 2-3 months of fiddling with the fans in TG Pro every time I boot it up then hopefully getting a replacement in the summer that doesn't have this problem.

 

[kinghuang]

I just received my Mac Studio, and it definitely has the high-pitched whine. I thought it was going to be louder based on the comments. But, it's really the frequency that makes it noticeable.

I've placed the Mac Studio as far away as possible for now to avoid the noise. But, I'm going to try to get a replacement like @tevion5.

 

[hugodrax]

M1 Ultra does not have this issue, due to the denser copper cooling solution. Its 2 pounds extra of material.

 

[Sharky II]

Ugh, maybe we need to make a sticky to stop us going around in circles…

 

[Chocomonsters]

Fans will slow down once Studio is done with all indexing and all. Obviously smaller fan size will have a higher pitch than a larger fan in Mac Pro. Ultimately that is a limitation of smaller form factor.

 

[macca24]

M1 Ultra does not have this issue, due to the denser copper cooling solution. Its 2 pounds extra of material.

Same fans though, my M1 Max hasn’t got the ‘whine’.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

That says it all.
Aren't we making mountains out of molehills here...?

 

[tevion5]

OP wrote:
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

That says it all.
Aren't we making mountains out of molehills here...?

The airflow noise is not an issue on my model and I understand most others. It's *barely* audible but honestly I have it sitting right in front of me on the desk and I would have to actively try to hear airflow noise to hear it. YouTubers calling it THE LOUDEST MAC EVER either have dog ears or are exaggerating a lot.

However the high pitched whining issue I experienced is definitely not right, no way Apple intended that. Immediately obvious and very grating.

 

[bobcomer]

The airflow noise is not an issue on my model and I understand most others. It's *barely* audible but honestly I have it sitting right in front of me on the desk and I would have to actively try to hear airflow noise to hear it. YouTubers calling it THE LOUDEST MAC EVER either have dog ears or are exaggerating a lot.

However the high pitched whining issue I experienced is definitely not right, no way Apple intended that. Immediately obvious and very grating.

I can definitely say the normal airflow in my Studio Max is louder than my i9 Desktop at idle, so yeah, some make more noise than others. And I don't have the whining noise.

 

[Jcc37]

Good evening,

Have you tested the latest version of Macs-Fan-Control?

It is now compatible with the Studio.

Release 1.5.12 · crystalidea/macs-fan-control

Mac Studio 2022 support (m1 pro) Computer won't enter sleep with fan on #568 Improved macOS Monterey compatibility Dutch, French, Chinese (Simplified) translations update

github.com

The developer, who owns a Studio, is working on the possibility of reducing the speed below the planned threshold. This would be included in the next beta.

v1.6.0 Milestone · crystalidea/macs-fan-control

Control fans on Apple computers. Contribute to crystalidea/macs-fan-control development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Cordially

 

[Traverse]

OP wrote:
(Tbc the actual regular fan airflow noise is barely audible at all, the recording makes it seem WAY louder.)

That says it all.
Aren't we making mountains out of molehills here...?

For me personally, I didn’t go looking for it. I used my Mac studio in the same contexts as I used my 2017 iMac and noticed both the fans and whine constantly.