I don’t know, the small poll here seems to indicate 18% have the problem, which doesn’t sound like a ‘tiny fraction’ to me. I guess time will tell. Mine arrives tomorrow so we’ll see if it’s a keeper or no.
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Poll: Mac Studio M2 whine noise?
- Thread starter Think77
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Really enjoyed the specificity of your reply!
Glad everything's in order for you, now
Well my M2max arrived today, it’s been running for a few hours and it’s dead silent. I put my ear right against the back grill and I can hear a slight whine inside the machine, but it’s zero as soon as I take my ear off of it. I don’t plan on keeping my ear there…
So I don’t know if it takes time to get there or what, so I’ll wait a few days and add to this poll, but this machine is probably the most powerful machine I’ve ever had.
So I don’t know if it takes time to get there or what, so I’ll wait a few days and add to this poll, but this machine is probably the most powerful machine I’ve ever had.
Just to add my two cents. I’ve been testing a M2 Ultra 64GB RAM Studio. It’s situated in a recording studio so needs to be very quiet.
I have also been testing it against an M1 Max MacBook Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro. All three machines have been hooked up to a Pro Display XDR and a second monitor (a 4k TV).
Observations:
- the two MacBook Pros, when running idle are completely silent. No noise whatsoever. Fans off.
- the M2 Ultra Studio has a very very quiet white “I’m on” noise. Very very quiet.
- the M2 Ultra’s fans, but default, are running at approx 1000 RPM. Basically whisper quiet. If you press your ear up 10-15cm from the machine you can hear a very faint “mechanical whir”… move to 30cm and it’s essentially silent.
- the only time I’ve heard the fans ramp up on the Ultra at all is during graphic intensive benchmarks. During those intensive tests, the fans went into the 2000-2500 RPM regions, and I would say, yes, as the fans started to return towards idle you can hear a few whistle/whiney noises very briefly but then it returns to its 1000RPM and is back to being essentially silent.
Running Logic Pro benchmarks it gets really interesting, for my needs at least...
- the MacBook Pro M1 Max, with a project size of 100 tracks remained completely silent. Fans off. Pushing past 100 tracks (which is very probable in our sessions) would see the fans begin to ramp up to a noticeable volume. Not loud / whistling, but noticeable. Around 2000 RPM. The M1 Max would then hit a system overload (ie wouldn’t play) once I hit 157 tracks. Core temperatures at 157 tracks were in the region of 103 degrees.
- the M3 Max MBP was noisier, but could also achieve a much higher track count. Again, fans off until around the 100 tracks mark. After that they would incrementally ramp up, louder than the M1 Max. It capped out at 322 tracks (which is pretty incredible), but at that point the fans were really pumping. Unusable really if you are recording audio in the same room. But it’s relatively rare (but not unheard of) to be running sessions that big. Core temperatures again over 100 degrees.
- the M2 Ultra’s fans ran consistently between 1000-1020 with no whine… just a very very gentle, basically silent white noise (only audible with ear pressed up close to the machine), continuously all the way up to 376 tracks, which was its limit. But 376 tracks in pretty much silence is incredible for that benchmark test. And the cores at 376 tracks were only hitting maximum 85 degrees. Really impressive.
I will do some more tests tomorrow to see if I can get it to whine at all, but for our usage at least (large audio sessions) it seems to be really impressive.
(I guess what I’m saying is, even if it does whine a little bit when the fans are ramping up and down in the 2000 range, for our usage, the Logic benchmark suggests the fans will never be doing that for us anyway)
I have also been testing it against an M1 Max MacBook Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro. All three machines have been hooked up to a Pro Display XDR and a second monitor (a 4k TV).
Observations:
- the two MacBook Pros, when running idle are completely silent. No noise whatsoever. Fans off.
- the M2 Ultra Studio has a very very quiet white “I’m on” noise. Very very quiet.
- the M2 Ultra’s fans, but default, are running at approx 1000 RPM. Basically whisper quiet. If you press your ear up 10-15cm from the machine you can hear a very faint “mechanical whir”… move to 30cm and it’s essentially silent.
- the only time I’ve heard the fans ramp up on the Ultra at all is during graphic intensive benchmarks. During those intensive tests, the fans went into the 2000-2500 RPM regions, and I would say, yes, as the fans started to return towards idle you can hear a few whistle/whiney noises very briefly but then it returns to its 1000RPM and is back to being essentially silent.
Running Logic Pro benchmarks it gets really interesting, for my needs at least...
- the MacBook Pro M1 Max, with a project size of 100 tracks remained completely silent. Fans off. Pushing past 100 tracks (which is very probable in our sessions) would see the fans begin to ramp up to a noticeable volume. Not loud / whistling, but noticeable. Around 2000 RPM. The M1 Max would then hit a system overload (ie wouldn’t play) once I hit 157 tracks. Core temperatures at 157 tracks were in the region of 103 degrees.
- the M3 Max MBP was noisier, but could also achieve a much higher track count. Again, fans off until around the 100 tracks mark. After that they would incrementally ramp up, louder than the M1 Max. It capped out at 322 tracks (which is pretty incredible), but at that point the fans were really pumping. Unusable really if you are recording audio in the same room. But it’s relatively rare (but not unheard of) to be running sessions that big. Core temperatures again over 100 degrees.
- the M2 Ultra’s fans ran consistently between 1000-1020 with no whine… just a very very gentle, basically silent white noise (only audible with ear pressed up close to the machine), continuously all the way up to 376 tracks, which was its limit. But 376 tracks in pretty much silence is incredible for that benchmark test. And the cores at 376 tracks were only hitting maximum 85 degrees. Really impressive.
I will do some more tests tomorrow to see if I can get it to whine at all, but for our usage at least (large audio sessions) it seems to be really impressive.
(I guess what I’m saying is, even if it does whine a little bit when the fans are ramping up and down in the 2000 range, for our usage, the Logic benchmark suggests the fans will never be doing that for us anyway)
Reporting back after a few months. The M2 Max studio actually started to make a noise a couple of evenings ago after months of being *silent*. I started to panic. Then realised "Oh, you do need to clear the dust of the vents every once in a while." Fans had gone from steady 1,000 to 1,200RPM and had become audible. It's the only time this has ever happened. Back to silence
Reports of both versions whining from the March 2022 release. My M1 Max - purchased in Nov 22 - has no whine issues at all so maybe it had been addressed?!
Answers vary wildly. When Studio M1 came out, the only complaints were about Max. I dared get one—well, dead silent. Now I read the Ultra may occasionally build sound issues. I’m expecting an Ultra in two weeks; we’ll see.
Is because the Ultra has different heatsink and cooling? I never understood why the Max had the issue but not the Ultra.
Nice, which system did you order? The M2 Ultra?
I purchased a release day M1 Max but returned it within a few days because the high pitched noise drove me nuts. I was going to buy a M1 Ultra but ended up buying a MacBook Pro to tide myself over and it has been a good unit.
Hopefully the M4 Max/Ultra Studio will be released soon because my M1 Pro MBP is starting to get a bit long in the tooth and I don't want to buy into the M2 generation so close to a new model. (hopefully)
Hopefully the M4 Max/Ultra Studio will be released soon because my M1 Pro MBP is starting to get a bit long in the tooth and I don't want to buy into the M2 generation so close to a new model. (hopefully)
Damn, I was about to get the m4 max mbp16 with 128gb RAM for logic, but I think I might just go for the m2 ultra mac studio 192gb after reading your post!
I believe the fans are the same (the fan curves may vary, but that should be software, not hardware) on both variants, the heatsinks are also the same, excepting the material used; the Max gets an aluminum heatsink, and the Ultra a copper variant; this also explains the weight difference, as copper is heavier than aluminum...