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MacBookPro 16-inch has current noise, cpu turbo frequency noise?

I found that during the use of the newly purchased MacBookPro 16-inch, such as opening large software and restarting the system, noisy sounds will be heard under the keyboard. Should be the noise caused by Intel CPU Turbo? Some in the community also said that it was noise from SSD read disks. It's strange to hear this kind of sound at night when it is quiet. Is it a quality problem? Is it normal? Does everyone's MacBookPro also have this current noise? Wait for your feedback, thank you. (My MacBookPro 16-inch is i9-9880H CPU and 1T SSD)

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Posted on Jan 1, 2020 5:52 PM

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Posted on Apr 4, 2020 2:01 PM

Model - MacBook Pro 16, Intel Core i7-9750H

The coil whine appears when there is a sharp high power supply to the processor.When the turboboost is turned on, the power is jumped to 80 watts and the squeaking is heard. If you turn off the turbo boost and run the test, the power will not rise above 40 watts and the coil whine will not be heard. For the load testing was used Geekbench. For power measurement, the Intel Power Gadget was used. Turbo Boost Switcher was used fo turn on/turn off turbo boost.Below images with measurement.

With turboboost on




With coil whine - turbo boost on


Without coil whine - turbo boost is off


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76 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 4, 2020 2:01 PM in response to area3d

Model - MacBook Pro 16, Intel Core i7-9750H

The coil whine appears when there is a sharp high power supply to the processor.When the turboboost is turned on, the power is jumped to 80 watts and the squeaking is heard. If you turn off the turbo boost and run the test, the power will not rise above 40 watts and the coil whine will not be heard. For the load testing was used Geekbench. For power measurement, the Intel Power Gadget was used. Turbo Boost Switcher was used fo turn on/turn off turbo boost.Below images with measurement.

With turboboost on




With coil whine - turbo boost on


Without coil whine - turbo boost is off


May 4, 2020 8:30 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

It is not about cooling - the noise comes from bad quality inductors - `coil whine` it is not about cooling - actually in electronics world coil whine coud be fixed with changing inductors construction or with more glu inside coil - so Grant Bennet-Alder we are talking about different noise and this topic about coil whine noise but not about coolers

Jan 2, 2020 7:18 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello! I just watched this YouTube video. The sound from my MacBookPro 16-inch i9 1TSSD is similar to this one. Excuse me, does all MacBookPro 16 inches have such SSD noise? Or is it probable that only a few people's MacBookPro SSDs make this sound? Is this a quality issue? I feel that the place where the noise is emitted should be near the keyboard W, E, R keys. I had a ThinkPad P1gen2 (i7-9750H, Intel 512G SSD) before, and I had similar current noise. But when I disable the CPU Turbo function in the BIOS, this current noise disappears, and the SSD reads no noise, but the CPU will be hot. And I found that when the ThinkPad P1 turns on the energy-saving mode, the current noise is small, and when the high performance is turned on, the current noise will increase. So I have always suspected that the MacBookPro 16-inch current noise comes from the CPU Turbo function , the power supply inductance howls, and the higher the power consumption, the more obvious this noise is. And the inductance on Apple's SSD is fixed with glue, which should not cause vibration.

Jan 3, 2020 10:41 AM in response to area3d

If the noise you hear is similar to the noise in that YouTube video, it comes from very fast writing of data in the SSD drive. It is NOT a defect, just a surprise, because, you know, no moving parts was supposed to be like ... silent. But it's not.


If you change operating parameters so that the speed of writes gets even a little slower, like turning off Turbo, you alter the timing and that will alter the sound generated.


The sound is not caused by any of the other items you mention. The battery and the power adapter are under 20 Volts DC, and there is far less of the power supply stuff you imagine that is actually doing anything interesting that would produce such noise.

Jan 4, 2020 5:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello. Are you working for Apple? I heard the sound of my MacBookPro (16 inches), which is indeed similar to this YouTube video. However, I don't think this is from the SSD. why? Because I don't involve reading and writing disks when I perform some application software operations, I have 32G memory and will follow your operation to generate this noise. I tried to use Intel Power Gadget software to monitor the frequency and power consumption of the CPU. I found that the timing of this noise basically coincided with the changes in CPU frequency and power consumption. I also found that the location of the sound should be near the CPU. In other forums, some people said that he disabled the CPU core frequency by using a software (Turbo Boost Switcher), and then this current noise disappeared. So, it seems that all this proves that this current noise comes from the CPU Turbo.It's the coil whine issue.

Jan 4, 2020 5:42 PM in response to area3d

<<So, it seems that all this proves that this current noise comes from the CPU Turbo.It's the coil whine issue.>>


Saying that it is so does not make it so.


If you have an article written by reputable source that says otherwise, please cite it. Otherwise, you are talking unverifiable nonsense.


As I stated above that there is no high-voltage power supply in these computers. The Power Adapter generates 20 Volts DC, the battery generally stores about 12 Volts DC and the computer generally runs on 5 volts DC. None of this requires high frequency switching. There is no substantial coils inside to whine -- those are in High Voltage switching power supplies that take in 110 or 220 volts AC chop it up further, and rectify and regulate it back to a DC voltage.

Jan 4, 2020 6:11 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I got the same thing on my new 16". But I can trigger this like crazy in Photoshop as I zoom in on the picture I am working with and moving it around. This electricial kind of buzzing sound (almost like a writing HDD) actually changes frequency the more I zoom in and out. No it’s not fan noise I’m not that stupid. On the Intel power gadget it also shows that the CPU reaches it’s highest peak (4,6Ghz) when I zoom and the sound triggers. It’s not the biggest issue but in the silent night of Photoshop editing it can be heard. Feel like the 16" has a lot of "satisfied" customers already.

Jan 5, 2020 5:25 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

You should do a test. Under macOS, some operations do not involve too many reads and writes to the SSD, and there will still be current noise at this time. For example, in Photoshop, most of the image zoom operations, this noise will be synchronized with the operation and appear at the same time. Because the memory is large enough and the picture is very small, the system does not need to use SSD as virtual memory (dynamic swap file), and no other programs are running in the background, so this picture scaling operation hardly involves reading and writing to the SSD hard disk. Why is the noise very synchronous with Photoshop zoom operation? I think there is only one reason, and that is that when scaling, the frequency and power consumption of the CPU, including the GPU, have changed. Therefore, current noise is generated. Of course, not only the operations under Photoshop can generate current noise, but any software with high load on other software will also generate similar current noise. I suggest that you perform some operation tests that can change the CPU frequency and power consumption in an instant, and try not to involve the operation of reading and writing the SSD. At this time, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Mar 7, 2020 12:10 PM in response to area3d

Same here, can hear this sound coming from under keyboard. For such an expensive kit this is weird. Can hear the sound even when all I m doing is browsing. Will probably be returning. Never had similar sound with my 2015 Macbook so regardless if it's loud SSD or not this makes no sense. Especially not for such an expensive machine.



Mar 7, 2020 1:43 PM in response to centas

When you post here, you are "preaching to the Choir" -- Rreaders are all other users like you, and Apple movers and Shakers do not troll the forums looking for problems.


If you want to get this resolved, call the AppleCare toll free number or Contact support using the "contact support" link at the top of every forum page, then follow through and do not let them call your case "Solved" if it is NOT solved. Insist they file a Bug report or escalate your issue to the next level support.

MacBookPro 16-inch has current noise, cpu turbo frequency noise?

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