Yes just put your hand behind the Mac Studio you will feel cool air gushing out of the back. They are designed to always be on and near go below 1100 RPM.
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Mac Studio Max - it's not that quiet
- Thread starter sixers22
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So I think you are the first person to report they had actually had 2 different M1 Max in the same location and then report one was much quieter than the other. Is that what you are saying?
With all the contradictory reports about noise (I can't hear my Malaysia made Ultra without getting my ear closer than about a foot in a really quiet residential room) I'm suspicious there are fan differences (possibly batch related) that might account for why some people are hearing a higher pitched whine (or that could be from a power supply component in some units).
Do you know if one was made in Malaysia and the other in China?
I can't speak to the first one as I never bothered to look but this one says Malaysia on the box.
Ya people who act like there's noise do have a problem it's noise than a lot of macs
Interesting. Would you be kind enough to install Macs Fan control please and let us know what speed the fans are running at?
This is going to be fun,
Users returning Apple Studio's just because someone told them that it is louder when it is manufactured in a specific country.
Just to be on the safe side.
I love this forum
Users returning Apple Studio's just because someone told them that it is louder when it is manufactured in a specific country.
Just to be on the safe side.
I love this forum
Some may be interested in my sound levels, which don't actually vary that dramatically despite me not being happy with he constant whirr of the fans at Apple's minimum of 1320. I am only using an app on my iPhone, so theses aren't going to be terribly accurate, but at least give an idea of the differences. I used the NIOSH app.
So, 1m min front of the Mac Studio, my room measure 25.6dB maximum. From he same position with he fans at 1320, it is 27.1dB Max, so only a tiny increase. With fans at 1100, it is 25.8dB max, so pretty much the same as my room, and the reason I then cannot hear it much. So yes, there is less than 2dB difference from this distance, which on paper would certainly look like hardly anything. Yet, to my ears, it is difference enough - so all definitely subjective!
For info, holding the meter right up to the front of the Mac, the readings were 29.3dB max at 1100 and 33.8dB max at 1320 - so much more of a difference.
If anyone is interested, I can do some recordings with my Tascam portable recorder comparing room with different fan speeds
So, 1m min front of the Mac Studio, my room measure 25.6dB maximum. From he same position with he fans at 1320, it is 27.1dB Max, so only a tiny increase. With fans at 1100, it is 25.8dB max, so pretty much the same as my room, and the reason I then cannot hear it much. So yes, there is less than 2dB difference from this distance, which on paper would certainly look like hardly anything. Yet, to my ears, it is difference enough - so all definitely subjective!
For info, holding the meter right up to the front of the Mac, the readings were 29.3dB max at 1100 and 33.8dB max at 1320 - so much more of a difference.
If anyone is interested, I can do some recordings with my Tascam portable recorder comparing room with different fan speeds
We are not saying that is the case at all, just that we have someone saying they have had 2 different M1 Max machines and one was quieter than the other. That clearly shows there is something different and it would be good to know why.This is going to be fun,
Users returning Apple Studio's just because someone told them that it is louder when it is manufactured in a specific country.
Just to be on the safe side.
I love this forum
You see, that is what is confusing me. When I set mine to be controlled by Apple, the fan speed is consistent no matter what the load. At idle it is 1320rpm and after 20 minutes of Cinebench with CPU at 100%, it is still 1320, with no difference in noise level. This points to there actually being a difference - and strange that if you look at my levels, there is a 4db difference between idle and load, exactly what I got between 1100 and 1320. It is a shame he doesn't mention the fan speeds!
I saw that before and immediately was annoyed that he says nothing about how he measured the noise.
In French, but it's easy to translate. They talk about fans and noise ...
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I've got my Max base model setup in a quiet corner in the basement. Hardly notice the fan at all... reminds me of a super-quiet white noise gadget.
I have Max and Ultra and both are assembled in Malaysia. They're pretty much the same, but the Ultra is slightly louder
Kinda funny the people on here who think the ultra is gonna be more quiet cause it costs more so therefore the fans will be more magical and quieter. the more computing performance the hotter its going to get and the louder the fan is going to be. its almost like they imagine some smug apple employee plotting to put a worse fan in the Max and you only get the goodest fan on the ultraest. Macbook Pro with higher specs seems to get hotter and have a more frequent louder fan as well for example.
folks have been speculating the ultra's may be quieter due to a slightly different internal cooling design. (for example, the teardown's have shown the maxes have some fins in the air flow which the ultra's do not). that's not quite the same as 'because it costs more'
I don't want to berate anyone else's sensitivities, truly. If a noise bugs you, it bugs you. But I am pretty surprised that this seems to be just about the biggest controversy around the Mac Studio. I don't think I'd have given it much thought at all otherwise.
All the tear downs suggest the the copper heat sync suggests this. That's why people believe this. The M1's all run cool and the ultra runs the same temp as max. They both have up to 370 Watt power supply and this is the reason for the over active fans, not the CPU's. So a reasonable person would think the more expensive Ultra, with the mores expensive, 2 lbs heavier heat sync, should run cooler. The wild card is the fans are actually there for the internal power supply, and not the CPU's
M1 gets hot the moment you stress it. They run cool when idle. The Ultra has a more decked out cooling because it has more computing power thus gets hotter. You say the cooling is only there for the 370 Watt power supply and not the chip that is so hilarious. Your assumption that since its there for just the power supply and the ultra should be quieter because of the better heatsink is hilarious. Is the heatsink attached to the power supply or the M1 chip? and If M1 ran cool while stressed there would be no fans. Have you not looked at any of the thermal videos on youtube showing the chip blazing up when stressed on all M1 apple computers including IMac and Macbook Pro?
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Im sorry but no. They are running the same temps and under max load those temps barely go up. My thunderbolt 4 port with my studio display connected registers hotter then the my M1 max cpu. If you have a Mac studio download TG Pro and check for yourself. I had every app (23 apps in all) open from the App folder including Final Cut Pro and motion. The fans do not go up and the temp of the CPU did not change. They still run around what a normal M1 run. The heat syncs are for the processor the fans main job is to cool the power supply. That's why the air first flows up over the power supply. The M1 Max in a powerbook reacts the same way, the big difference is there is no power supply inside. The Mac book air needs no fan at all as well as the M1 iMac cause the have external power supply. 6 phone calls about my exchanged with apple support confirms this. Ive seen all they videos and most of the test are opposite of what you say. Max tech said it was crazy that the CPU barley gets warmer and and the fans stay in the 1300 rpm range. I've had 2 and ran the same test. Max Tech only ever got the fans to kick up when they forced TG pro to manually to make them do so. Watch Renee Richies last video from today. Most of the benchmarks can't even touch or max out the processor and and/gpu so far and seems Final Cut pros next update will take full advantage of the Ultras.
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You don't even know the heatsink is for the CPU you've already went off the rails.
They are shown in all the tear downs and apple even said so and pointed out the Ultra gets a upgraded copper 2 ib heavier CPU heat sync for said use case and I'm not off the rails. The last week has been extremely frustrating for me. I take that part personal. Apple support had me exchange mine, not because the fans were always on (which they educated me on why, as discussed up above), but because of the high pitch sound they were making.