As mentioned before the Mac Studio takes around 10 Watts during idle and the PSU is around 93% effective according to Apple. That means there is about 1 W in excess heat. That does not justify running any fans.
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Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.
- Thread starter AdamSeen
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Other than paying a heft premium for features that were not absolutely essentially for me, but nice to have (display, keyboard, portability, 64GB of RAM) it's been everything I wanted from the Mac Studio. The fans run at 0 RPM for most uses, though if you have it docked to a Studio Display it doesn't take too much to get them to come on. When they're on they run at about 2300-2500 RPM, but that is not audible for me.
The system run hotter than the Mac Studio (about 45-50℃ as opposed to 35℃), but it's only slightly warm to the touch on the bottom as opposed to the ever-present cool of the Studio. Performance wise they're the same and basic benchmarks actually scored slightly higher on the laptop for some reason, but I can't notice a difference for my use.
The only true knock is that I leave this system always on connected to the display as a desktop 99% of the time, but I'm hoping that macOS' optimize battery feature helps to avoid any real issues down the road. I've used docked laptops for years for work and back in school and I never personally had an issue.
I feel the same way. The size, ports, and feature set of the Mac Studio were what I've been waiting for a while as I want an always-on desktop to serve as "home base" for my media, files, Plex Server, etc. Unfortunately, I found the fans and whine a noticeable downgrade for my uses. I didn't go looking for issues, I simply used my computer as I normally would and kept noticing it.
There were no reports or comments from Apple and no real indication as to whether this was a manufacturing defect that would get corrected on later units, a design flaw that could be tweaked, or a software fix. I didn't want to end up trying to play an Apple Care lottery to swap out units and didn't want to way 6-8 weeks for a new system.
Correct and I agree with you - it's just that other than cooling the PSU I can't think a reason why the Studio is set to 1300 RPM. Honestly, what would be the justification?
Another theory I stumbled upon is, that Apple maybe got aware of the issue and therefore the base RPM of the fans is not 1100 (as low as possible) but now above 1300 RPM to mitigate the whine issue.
Quite pathetic, if this would be true.
Here is a musician that say its too loud for a music studio. He is doing some recording with its studio microphone. Interesting noise samples at different distances as well as different RPMs.
Quite pathetic, if this would be true.
Here is a musician that say its too loud for a music studio. He is doing some recording with its studio microphone. Interesting noise samples at different distances as well as different RPMs.
For me, it's really the whine and not the fans. If I heard fans whoosh like I do in RX if I listen to everything below 1 kHz, I would be totally fine with that. I'm coming from a 2020 iMac 5K that's always clearly audible and ramps up to pretty loud, but it never has that high-frequency whine. That's not to say that I wouldn't appreciate the silence from fans at 0 rpm like other M1s have, but a whoosh doesn't bother me.
Having a fuzzy sense of the problem seems like the key practical difficulty in deciding what to do. The pattern here seems to best fit an explanation that it's a manufacturing defect with some low-ish probability, but we don't know. If Apple support said, "hey, that's not what it should be like, and we'll replace/repair it until it's fine," I'd try to make that work. If it were software (I doubt it, at this point), I might try to wait it out. If they said it's working as intended, I'd swap to a specced up MBP.
Did you contact support and they gave you the option of waiting out a replacement? Or was the fan (even if they replaced the one with whine) enough to push you over to the MBP without asking support about your options?
I've been running my last two MacBook Pros (2012 & 2016) in clamshell mode hooked to a larger display for 90% of the time, and for both it resulted in their batteries swelling after 2 to 3 years!
My 2012 MacBook Pro was destroyed by this, because the keyboard was bent upwards by the battery expanding and parts of the logic board broke off. Back then I didn't really know about this, and blamed a bad battery.
Since I got it in 2017, I've been monitoring the battery of my other MacBook Pro (2016, current computer) by physically inspecting it every year, and low and behold in late 2019 the battery started to get somewhat puffy, and I had to replace it in the summer of 2020, since it really started swelling and exerting pressure on the other components.
It's clear to me now that these laptops are not meant to run in clamshell mode for prolonged periods of time, and that's why I'm moving to a Mac Studio, hopefully not a whistler though.
By the way, the battery management and health monitor in macOS don't notice this at all. You need to physically check.
FWIW I find my Studio Max to be silent from my working position, with the machine about two and half feet away. Fans face away and vent out into the room. I ran a live spectrogram from my iPad and while I see the same broadband fan noise if the mic is very close, I see no banding higher up the frequency scale.
I notice a terrible continuous whistle in that video when the author show fan noise recording. Is that the high tone whine many are talking about?
interesting. i can clearly hear the tone on the video and see it on my RTA.
but the same equipment doesn't see any tones in that frequency range at all on my ultra under any load.
sounds like a manufacturing variance issue to me
I think Apple simply optimized for "steady noise as long as possible" instead of "no noise at all during idle". And if you only have professionals in mind who would use that kind of machine it might make sense. In almost any kind of Studio are wolfing multiple people at once. So the background noise is probably over 30 db. So the Mac Studio is completely quit in such an environment. The only thing what would disturb someone working with it is sky rocketing fans every half an hour hen rendering a video, exporting a couple hundred photos, rendering a song, generating huge images, compiling code ... So it makes kind of sense. But still it's extremely conservative I think they would be fine if the would have put in slower spinning fans (maybe at 900 rpm) during idle.
Just for good measure I've probed my 2016 Intel MacBook Pro while having some tabs in Firefox open and Music running and it makes about 29.2 to 33.2 dB(A) of noise. Keep in mind that it's currently nighttime where I live in a rural region with the windows closed in a brick and mortar house. I mean other than the computer and me breathing, there's maybe one or two mice farting somewhere, but not much else to hear. The MacBook Pro produces a continues hum-like sound.
When it ramps up the fans, which it does all the time when watching YouTube live streams, playing Mini Motorways, rendering 3D stuff, compiling code, etc., it sounds like a miniature leaf blower going off at 48.9 to 59.8 db(A).
If the whistling sound in the Mac Studio is indeed produced by coil whining, the Mac Studio does have more in common with high-end discreet GPUs than just similar performance.
When it ramps up the fans, which it does all the time when watching YouTube live streams, playing Mini Motorways, rendering 3D stuff, compiling code, etc., it sounds like a miniature leaf blower going off at 48.9 to 59.8 db(A).
If the whistling sound in the Mac Studio is indeed produced by coil whining, the Mac Studio does have more in common with high-end discreet GPUs than just similar performance.
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It is a manufacturing variance. The question is will a few, most or all that have it eventually. My first one had it day one. I exchanged it and the second one had no whine for 12 days running 24/7 (I found the fan noise to be tolerable but unnecessary) then the whine hit that unit, same tone and even louder than the first unit. I returned that one. Miss it alot but in my office the tone was unberriable when I had music off and was concentrating on something. I hope Apple acknowledges the issue otherwise I know most Geniuses will not help.
Who's to blame you for enjoying the silence! I do to.
It is just the everlasting greediness of today's companies like Apple. I think it all boils down to saving costs, and while design and engineering might have done their job well, cost saving might have decided to put an el-cheapo fans with cheap ball bearing, manufactured in who-know-what factory for a fraction of the dollar.
I heard all sound recordings, and definitely mechanical, this is a cheap fan, as I posted earlier - it is either a ball bearing running with dried or no greasing, or just a piss-poor cheap ball bearing.
And it is beyond me why the fans are not user accessible for dusting. This can't be a disposable Mac, starting at $1999 and going up to $7999. Eventually the fans and the internals will need dusting. Who's gonna do it? Heck, even the old trash can is opened by one switch, so you can dust it easily. Poor poor design from my perspective, I will not invest in such a disposable machine.
I don't think anyone is questioning the noise at full load, but rather at idle. It makes a big difference. With my line of work I cannot tax the CPU/GPU to 100% no matter what I do. But I need more than 16GB RAM what the M1 mini offers, so I have to go with either a Mac Studio, Mac Pro or Intel Mac mini 2018.
This does not mean I have to endure constant fan noise at idle of the Mac Studio, so I went with an Intel Mac mini 2018, happily upgraded the RAM to 32GB myself.
Ok, this is a comprehensive recording of the noise at different RPMs (manually set via TG Pro).
As you can see the whine doesn't scale uniformly; While I can hear more of the low frequency hum, I actually hear the high-pitched whine less at the highest RMP I tested (1700) RPM.
All was recorded on an iPhone 13, about 10cm/4" from the rear of the mac.
You can listen for yourself.
You are welcome to pin this post or use it as reference.
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB.
Country of delivery: Italy
Date of purchase: March the 8th, 2022
Date of delivery: April the 1st, 2022
Assembled in China
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1100 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1300 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1500 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1700 RPM
I'm now testing working with it at 1700 RPM.
The fan noise itself doesn't botter me and it makes the whine much less noticeable, not to mention there's physically less whine.
IT's something with the way the air traverls through the metal itself.
I still have to decide if to send this machine back, but I surely prefer working with it like this.
As you can see the whine doesn't scale uniformly; While I can hear more of the low frequency hum, I actually hear the high-pitched whine less at the highest RMP I tested (1700) RPM.
All was recorded on an iPhone 13, about 10cm/4" from the rear of the mac.
You can listen for yourself.
You are welcome to pin this post or use it as reference.
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB.
Country of delivery: Italy
Date of purchase: March the 8th, 2022
Date of delivery: April the 1st, 2022
Assembled in China
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1100 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1300 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1500 RPM
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48-Core 128GB 1TB at 1700 RPM
I'm now testing working with it at 1700 RPM.
The fan noise itself doesn't botter me and it makes the whine much less noticeable, not to mention there's physically less whine.
IT's something with the way the air traverls through the metal itself.
I still have to decide if to send this machine back, but I surely prefer working with it like this.
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The whine can start after some time as opposed to at manufacturing. My second unit was silent for 12 days then the whine started. Another poster had the whine start after some use as well. They posed the question of how many units will develop a whine in their useful life.
If the ball bearing is not greased properly in the manufacturing process (and then sealed), then it will sooner or later start making noise, call it whine, grind, or something else. Most cheap fans will make the noise from the start, others after some time, and more expensive fans properly manufactured will never make such a sound (or may be after thousands of hours of operation). All I am hearing in theses recordings is a mechanical noise that can only be made by a poor and cheap ball bearing of the fans. What else in the Mac Studio can make such a noise?
I have forced the fan at 1700rpm and while I hear the white noise more, the whine is gone.
It's 100% better, as I can't hear it when I have my headphones on.
Like this the computer is finally usable.
It's 100% better, as I can't hear it when I have my headphones on.
Like this the computer is finally usable.
My ultra has no high pitched sound, so I'm only speculating from the various recordings I've heard.
But it sounds more like power supply whine than fan squeal to me. In the recordings I hear a more pure sinewave-like sound that could be a sub-harmonic of the switching rate. I've also heard it chirp a little, which again seems more like a power supply issue. It could be from a coil (usually) or a capacitor (not as likely when new). Changing the fan speed could still effect the volume. You may recall the 2018 Mac Mini (I believe that was the model) had quite a problem with coil whine initially.
It would be tell-tale to know if the volume or pitch of the sound changed with the load put on the power supply since the fan speed virtually never changes under load. That should be tested by both running the CPU/GPU harder and also by exercising the SSD with a somewhat sustained speed test or something similar. If you hear the high-pitched sound change in either situation it's almost certainly coming from a power supply component.
Has anyone else noticed the power supplies in the Max Tech Mac Studio teardown (an M1 Ultra) and the iFixit Mac Studio teardown (a M1 Max) are different? According to the Apple Spec page the electrical specs of both models are the same (370W).
So are the power supplies different because one is a M1 Ultra and the other is a M1 Max even though they have the same total wattage specs? Or are they meant to use the same power supply board and there was a design change to the power supply board late in preproduction, and some of both models were built with an older version of the power supply board? It's pure speculation, but if so, that could possibly explain why some units have the high-pitched whine and others don't have it at all.
So are the power supplies different because one is a M1 Ultra and the other is a M1 Max even though they have the same total wattage specs? Or are they meant to use the same power supply board and there was a design change to the power supply board late in preproduction, and some of both models were built with an older version of the power supply board? It's pure speculation, but if so, that could possibly explain why some units have the high-pitched whine and others don't have it at all.