Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.

[jmho]

One thing that got my M1 Max MBP to actually start the fans very audibly was compiling shaders (maxes out the CPU cores) in Unreal Engine while looking at an expensive scene in 6k (maxes out the GPU cores)

I just tried the same thing on my M1 Ultra Studio and the CPU temperatures reached ~75C (from ~35 at idle) with the GPU cores at ~62C (from ~35 at idle), and even still the fans didn't really move from 1330 rpm.

I have absolutely no idea what you'd have to do to get the fans up to 3500 rpm lol.

I'm wondering if Apple decided that having a completely flat fan curve was desirable so you'd never ever hear or notice the fans ramping up, given that the machine is (hopefully) going to be running flat out a decent amount of the time.

 

[funkahdafi]

I'm wondering if Apple decided that having a completely flat fan curve was desirable so you'd never ever hear or notice the fans ramping up

If 1330 RPM is enough for this load and temps of 75 degrees, then it makes exactly zero sense to not ramp the fans down at lower temps. Keeping the fans at 1330 even at idle doesn't seem to serve any purpose in that scenario.

 

[PianoPro]

What does worry me however is the fact the fans are constantly running. With my iMac, I didn't generally ever turn it off: not even at night. Only if I was going to be away from it for several days. I enabled all the power-saving options to put the HDD and screen to sleep after a certain time of inactivity, then I just left it.

But after day 1 of owning the Studio, I have started shutting it down at the end of every night and only powering it on when I come back from work the day after. My reasoning is there's a finite number of times those fans are going to rotate, and I don't see the point in unnecessarily shortening the time it takes for that limit to be reached, during hours when I'm not using the machine. Having the fans running constantly, needlessly recirculating cold air, seems totally at odds with Apple's power-efficiency sales-pitches. For the first time in 11 years of Mac ownership it seems likely I'll download some kind of fan-control and override the automatic settings completely.

The fans don't run when the Studio sleeps.

 

[jmho]

If 1330 RPM is enough for this load and temps of 75 degrees, then it makes exactly zero sense to not ramp the fans down at lower temps. Keeping the fans at 1330 even at idle doesn't seem to serve any purpose in that scenario.

I totally agree. I'm just trying to guess what possible reason they could have for choosing this behaviour.

 

[Jrshelby]

The fans don't run when the Studio sleeps.

I have not confirmed or went back to read but I though at least a few people have reported the fan stayed on. I’ll test later if I remember when I get home tonight

 

[vddobrev]

My thoughts about the Studio fans (which I'll also post to my blog thread for anyone who doesn't read it here).

I can't hear my Studio Max's fans running unless I put my best ear within 6" of the casing. So it's pretty accurate to say the sound is not a distraction for me. My 20 y/o sons, whom, as you would expect, have much better hearing than me, say they can faintly hear the fans when sat 18" from the computer at the regular seating position in my room, but that the sound is not a distraction.

What does worry me however is the fact the fans are constantly running. With my iMac, I didn't generally ever turn it off: not even at night. Only if I was going to be away from it for several days. I enabled all the power-saving options to put the HDD and screen to sleep after a certain time of inactivity, then I just left it.

But after day 1 of owning the Studio, I have started shutting it down at the end of every night and only powering it on when I come back from work the day after. My reasoning is there's a finite number of times those fans are going to rotate, and I don't see the point in unnecessarily shortening the time it takes for that limit to be reached, during hours when I'm not using the machine. Having the fans running constantly, needlessly recirculating cold air, seems totally at odds with Apple's power-efficiency sales-pitches. For the first time in 11 years of Mac ownership it seems likely I'll download some kind of fan-control and override the automatic settings completely.

The fans will be clogged with dust before they reach their end of life. So that is another reason to worry about - how will you clean the accumulated dust - and this will happen before the fans die of natural death.

 

[jmho]

I have not confirmed or went back to read but I though at least a few people have reported the fan stayed on. I’ll test later if I remember when I get home tonight

The fans seem to stay on for about a minute or two when I put my Studio to sleep, but they do eventually stop.

 

[vddobrev]

Thanks for your correction. Now I will correct you - no fan is silent, unless at 0 RPM. Mac Pro 2013 is quieter at idle than the Studio and you cannot hear it, that's what you should have said instead 😉

I still don't understand why it is important that workstation computer should be quiet at idle? Do people intend to do anything serious with their Studios, or just check emails, browse internet or change desktop backgrounds... 😂

If I am spending 6000 GBP on a computer, it better be earning this money back from day one by actually doing something, not sitting idle 😁

Technically - anything that makes a sound is not silent. That is a fact.
Practically - if you cannot hear it, then it is silent, even thought it makes a sound. And that is also a fact.

Also, you cannot tell me (nor should you) how I must use my workstation. If I wanted, I can just browse the internet, or sit and enjoy a desktop picture on my workstation. And that is my choice, you have no power nor authority to determine or tell me how I use my computers, or whether I should check email on my iPad instead of my workstation.
If you are spending 6000 GBP, that is your problem how you want to recover it, OK? There is no need to bring it up.

If you can't understand why I need it to be silent, than that is your problem.

For the record, and for your pleasure I will tell you, though, how I use my workstations, so that you can see for yourself that you are completely wrong in assuming that anyone who needs a workstation is taxing the CPU and GPU.

I do not need GPU power, and I do not need extreme CPU power - I need lots of RAM, and the M1 mini offers only 16GB. I need at least 32GB RAM for my work, which is large JVMs - they are not CPU/GPU taxing, they need a fast SSD and a lot of RAM. So, I need something better than M1 mini.

Now, back to the fans and noise - tell me, if I am not taxing the CPU/GPU, why should I hear the fans and why should the system make any noise?

Bottom line - a workstation to you is not what a workstation is to me.

 

[vddobrev]

Do people intend to do anything serious with their Studios, or just check emails, browse internet or change desktop backgrounds... 😂

Yes, I intend to, and I do serious work, like reconcile financial balances of multi-billion companies for example. I do financial software (that is not CPU/GPU intensive) that requires a lot of RAM.

For the love of God, what is up with all the people, and why do they think that the ONLY serious work nowadays is working with video, and why are the only benchmarks related to exporting video content?

As if YouTube and marketing feeds the world. Time to wake up.

 

[PianoPro]

The fans seem to stay on for about a minute or two when I put my Studio to sleep, but they do eventually stop.

That's odd. My fans stop within 20 seconds of putting the Studio to sleep from the Apple menu.

 

[dunanos]

There is a difference, by putting the user to sleep from the menu or spontaneously after a certain time - here the fans are still spinning.

 

[AlphaCentauri]

Technically - anything that makes a sound is not silent. That is a fact.
Practically - if you cannot hear it, then it is silent, even thought it makes a sound. And that is also a fact.

Also, you cannot tell me (nor should you) how I must use my workstation. If I wanted, I can just browse the internet, or sit and enjoy a desktop picture on my workstation. And that is my choice, you have no power nor authority to determine or tell me how I use my computers, or whether I should check email on my iPad instead of my workstation.
If you are spending 6000 GBP, that is your problem how you want to recover it, OK? There is no need to bring it up.

If you can't understand why I need it to be silent, than that is your problem.

For the record, and for your pleasure I will tell you, though, how I use my workstations, so that you can see for yourself that you are completely wrong in assuming that anyone who needs a workstation is taxing the CPU and GPU.

I do not need GPU power, and I do not need extreme CPU power - I need lots of RAM, and the M1 mini offers only 16GB. I need at least 32GB RAM for my work, which is large JVMs - they are not CPU/GPU taxing, they need a fast SSD and a lot of RAM. So, I need something better than M1 mini.

Now, back to the fans and noise - tell me, if I am not taxing the CPU/GPU, why should I hear the fans and why should the system make any noise?

Bottom line - a workstation to you is not what a workstation is to me.

I understand your points and I absolutely do not want to impose on anyone how to use their computer and/or how much to spend on one.

Again, I am only presenting my personal opinion as what is important for me and many people like me (music producers). For me, computing power is everything, noise is secondary issue. I want my workstation to be as quiet as possible but not at the expense of computing power or thermal throttling. But that’s just me, everyone’s case will be different.

If Apple can make the Studio quieter at idle, I will be ecstatic. I don’t think that they will and (IMHO) I think this is by design, but I would love to be wrong about it.

Granted, my stance regarding fan noise goes against the spirit of this thread, but that’s what fora are for, to discuss and to disagree sometimes.

 

[vddobrev]

I understand your points and I absolutely do not want to impose on anyone how to use their computer and/or how much to spend on one.

Again, I am only presenting my personal opinion as what is important for me and many people like me (music producers). For me, computing power is everything, noise is secondary issue. But that’s just me, everyone’s case will be different.

Granted, my stance regarding fan noise goes against the spirit of this thread, but that’s what fora are for, to discuss and to disagree sometimes.

Very Good! Now please do tell me in the music production business, isn't noise floor important, and how do you cope with the noise emitted by computers? Or are you not recording in the same room?

You must understand how important is for a business workstation to be silent, when you sit and crunch numbers all day, the least thing that you want is to hear the computer.

 

[PianoPro]

There is a difference, by putting the user to sleep from the menu or spontaneously after a certain time - here the fans are still spinning.

For automatic sleeping after a period of inactivity - You need to uncheck the "Prevent your Mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off" box. Otherwise the display goes off but the Mac does not sleep and the fans will continue turning. Uncheck the box and the Mac will sleep and the fans do turn off.

That's the difference between forcing sleep from the Apple menu (where the check box does not matter) and using automatic sleeping after a period of inactivity (you must uncheck the box in that case).

 

[AlphaCentauri]

Very Good! Now please do tell me in the music production business, isn't noise floor important, and how do you cope with the noise emitted by computers? Or are you not recording in the same room?

You must understand how important is for a business workstation to be silent, when you sit and crunch numbers all day, the least thing that you want is to hear the computer.

In my case, instrumental electronic music with vocal samples only, I do not record live instruments or vocals. I use a lot of virtual instruments and sample libraries, so computing power is essential, noise from fans (within reason) - not so much.

Those who record live vocals or acoustic instruments, use ISO boxes or they have separate machine rooms. Home studios - the quieter the better, recently I see the trend to use M1 MacBook Air for this, as those are 100% silent.

Pure multitrack audio recording is not CPU intensive at all, one can easily record 15-20 audio tracks on MB Air simultaneously.

It is mixing with virtual effects and producing with virtual instruments which eats CPU quickly, hence the need for computing power and plenty of RAM.

I cannot get by with M1 Mac Mini either, not enough CPU power (especially multi core), not enough RAM, storage and ports. It has to be either the Studio or AS Mac Pro for me.

 

[curiousmike1300]

After a couple weeks of ownership, the "1300rpm whoosh" has somewhat degraded into a slightly more higher pitched and annoying sound.
Not happy.

 

[jmho]

Music production is probably one of the few pro use-cases that doesn't have a dedicated "quiet phase."

As a graphics programmer I have the quiet phase where I like to think and code in silence, and then the compiling and running phase where I want full power and the fans can go as loud as they want.

People working with video or 3D graphics will also likely have a phase where they're working and not pushing the machine, where they might enjoy silence, and then a rendering / export phase afterwards, where they need power.

Also while music producers often have excellent ears for pitch and rhythm, they're also the group of people that are most likely to suffer from tinnitus or mild hearing damage in certain frequency ranges because they spend all day listening to music and not sitting in absolute silence getting annoyed by barely audible fans

 

[richinaus]

Music production is probably one of the few pro use-cases that doesn't have a dedicated "quiet phase."

As a graphics programmer I have the quiet phase where I like to think and code in silence, and then the compiling and running phase where I want full power and the fans can go as loud as they want.

People working with video or 3D graphics will also likely have a phase where they're working and not pushing the machine, where they might enjoy silence, and then a rendering / export phase afterwards, where they need power.

Also while music producers often have excellent ears for pitch and rhythm, they're also the group of people that are most likely to suffer from tinnitus or mild hearing damage in certain frequency ranges because they spend all day listening to music and not sitting in absolute silence getting annoyed by barely audible fans

Good post.

Personally, I dont mind the fans on a workstation when I know I am pushing it, however do enjoy piece when focussing on other work.

Given it is a workstation, it is without doubt the quietest I have ever used.

I can hear my PC workstation which is on the floor under the desk at idle, more than I can hear this studio which is sat on the desk under the monitor at full load. I dont think I have anything else to offer this thread.......

 

[m1maverick]

I still don't understand why it is important that workstation computer should be quiet at idle? Do people intend to do anything serious with their Studios, or just check emails, browse internet or change desktop backgrounds... 😂

It just seems so uncharacteristic of Apple which has focused on minor details which seem unimportant to other companies. If you read about the development of the original Macintosh you would discover there was focus on details which, to almost everyone else, wouldn't even be noticed (such as the PCB layout which was inside the machine).

If spinning fans are necessary to keep the Studio cool at idle then so be it. However I think there's reasonable evidence to suggest that need not be the case.

 

[Chancha]

Honestly, I feel that certain someone on the thread is trying to gaslight people that the Mac Studio is ok and that the noise is normal (even though that person hasn’t check out the machine).

I am getting strong Butterfly KB vibes. Look how it turned out.

 

[MajorFubar]

The fans will be clogged with dust before they reach their end of life. So that is another reason to worry about - how will you clean the accumulated dust - and this will happen before the fans die of natural death.

This is indeed another very valid concern considering how hard Apple have made the machine to disassemble to perform even a basic service. Basic maintenance like cleaning the fans of my 2013 MBP and especially my 2010 Mini is a few minutes work. I've seen the Max Tech and iFix It videos: stripping this thing down even just as far as the fans is worse than stripping down my old 2011 iMac to fit the SSD. Another product from Apple purposefully designed to not be user-serviceable.

 

[MajorFubar]

After a couple weeks of ownership, the "1300rpm whoosh" has somewhat degraded into a slightly more higher pitched and annoying sound.
Not happy.

This definitely seems to be affecting some users but not others. No sign of it so far from mine, but I will report back if it starts. There is IMO no question that Apple has insiders monitoring forums like this and threads like this: this could turn out to be 'butterfly-gate' / 'flex-gate' all over again, but I hope not.

 

[mardragon]

After a couple weeks of ownership, the "1300rpm whoosh" has somewhat degraded into a slightly more higher pitched and annoying sound.
Not happy.

Exactly same for me. Initially I was happy that this problem does not appear for me but it started after running it for a week 24/7 ( I experience sleeping bug mentioned in other thread so I decided to not sleep it at all for now). Honestly I am so frustrated about this small detail. If it would be dead silent as you expect from Apple product I would give it 10/10.

Problem is I don't really know yet what to do with it, should I return it? Should I wait for Apple to understand and address this issue?

 

[MajorFubar]

Problem is I don't really know yet what to do with it, should I return it? Should I wait for Apple to understand and address this issue?

I'd return it as faulty. No software patch is going to fix this, other than something which turns off the fans until they are really needed. And even then, you don't want the fans squealing away like a car with bad brakes when they do have to come on.

 

[MajorFubar]

The fans don't run when the Studio sleeps.

Considering the hoops I've had to jump through to get it to work with my 4K Samsung HDMI monitor (HDMI->HDMI = no picture, I have to connect it via USB-C to a powered hub, then from the hub's HDMI output to the monitor), I have absolutely no faith that waking this device from sleep will result in it successfully waking the monitor. Consequently I've never yet even considered putting it to sleep.