How noisy/quiet is new iMac with Retina 5K display?

Now that it's warmer outside (50 degrees F), the fan kicks in to turbo-loud about once every 3 minutes - this happens when I'm not using the iMac! I haven't done additional research to see if there's a triggering condition for this. I don't call Apple because I don't really expect them to fix this.

Does anyone think there's actually something wrong with my new iMac 5K beside the inherent cooling design? Thanks in advance!

I don't have my decibel meter handy, so I estimate the fan being as loud as or slightly louder than a conversation when it's in what I call "turbo" mode. I don't know the RPM. I didn't have this problem with my older mid-2011 iMac which had cooling vents top and bottom. I guess there's a price to pay for thin and fast besides $$$ and it's measured in dB.

Matt

Hi, I have the 27 iMac from 2013. I love it! No retina display, but you do not hear absolutely nothing. I returned an HP touchscreen for that reason. It sounded awful. The fan of the iMac (intel 5er) was not to be heard, ever. My room is extremely quiet, I must add.

I am just going to buy one for my mom, and wanted to buy one with retina display, but after reading this, it must be awful. Let us be honest, the noise is one of the reasons switching to mac in the first place, next to the cool design.

Just one hint: If you can get a mac with the Operating system Mavericks, the one before Yosemite, then please do NOT upgrade to Yosemite, Mavericks looks much better, no doubt. Cheers, Surfing Friendly

I've just arranged to return my iMac 5k retina (mid-2015) with the i7 core, M295X gpu with 512gb SSD. The one and only reason I am returning it is the heat and noise of this unit. Even in idle I can hear the rush of air which I never get from my mid-2011 27 iMac. Playing games in OSX or Bootcamp was also very disappointing and for the first time ever I had to turn the volume up on my amp to drown out the sound of the fan.

So I did some more objective testing by putting my iMac 2011 next to the riMac and loaded up Tomb Raider Underworld at 2560x1440 on each machine (not at the same time as I needed to hear which machine was generating noise) with exactly the same graphic options set. At the beginning of the game Lara's house is on fire and I just left the game to idle, no use of the controller, etc. Anyway, the 2011 iMac noise level did not change at all but the back of the machine did get a bit warmer. I left it to run for 20mins and there was no change. The 2015 riMac ramped up to 2500rpm on the fans and (looking at iStat Pro) with a GPU temp of 104 degrees C in less than 1 minute.

That was enough for me. The riMac is a compromised design and the thermal management is poorly executed. This is now the second product from Apple's latest-and-greatest line up that I've been disappointed with on the grounds of poor engineering design. The riMac with heat/noise issues and the iPad Air 2 with the ridiculous chassis speaker resonance. These are simple engineering design issues that should never have got past quality control.

What is going on in Apple? Why is the VP of Hardware allowing these products to go on sale? Does he not realise that this is undermining Apple's core customer base who rely on well engineered and highly reliable products???

If it wasn't for OSX I'd be moving back to a Windows PC. So, I'm really pleased to see that Microsoft seem to be upping their game with Windows 10.

Same problem. High end model. Persistent fan. Did not notice until winter when I turned the AC off ... then, hear it constantly and during very routine operations.

Not true.

It's important to notice that the fan/heat noise issue with specially the maxed out 2014 iMac 5K ((i7 + 295X)) has been reported by many other persons. The latest 2015 5K looks to not suffer from the same problem.

Max Yurvey did the test and posted a video on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PErtLOvMcM0

As for my personal experience, I find the Late 2015 at idle speed (1200 rpm) to be noisy in a quiet room compare to my mid 2011 iMac. Both had a SSD and no external hard drive connected. I can certainly attest a difference in noise level between the two. The temperature is generally always around 40-45C. So not very hot. If you run smcFanControl for a moment at full speed and lower it a default idle level (1200 rpm) you will see that the fan goest under 1100 rpm for a moment before returning to its idle default speed. At that precise moment, for a few seconds, you cannot hear the computer. I'm pretty sure if a firmware update could just lower the security level to 1000 rp or 1100 rpm, no one would have any trouble.

The heat also dissipates from the lower portion of the iMac, where the speakers are located. If you block the fan at the back for a few minute you can feel the air comings out at the bottom. Even when blocked for a long period of time the temperature does not goes over 45C with a fan at idle speed. And then the room is quiet again 😉 But I would not suggest to block the fan on a regular basis.

I have the same noise issue. My configuration is iMac 27inch, i7, 295x, 3TB fusion drive. I installed smc fan control and the temp is 40C average and fan is constantly running at 1200 rpm - putting a constant background buzzing noise. Not happy with this PC at all. I have a 3year old MacPro laptop - which is way quiet that this iMac.

The iMac came with Yosemite and it was running very smooth. CPU usage will be around 1% and memory ( Dr. Cleaner app ) around 16%. Later when i upgraded to ElCaptain, all issues started. CPU started pegging around 110%.. memory constantly at 99% when i am not running anything except Safari. Then the fan started cranking up to cool the CPU. Later found about ElCaptain iCloud sync issues.. turned off the iCloud sync.. then my cpu and memory came to normal. But the fan never went back to the way it was before. Thinking El Captain is the issue, did a internet restart and re-installed Yosemite. Now, i am running on Yosemite.. but the fan is constantly running.

Have already spent many nights with Apple support. Planning to return or sell my iMac 27inch off.

iMac 27 retina is a premium PC. Can't belive it runs so noisy than my office windows Dell laptop.

Dear JiPe,

I just bought an iMac (Reitna 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with a 2 TB Fusion drive (Processor 3,2 GHz Intel Core i5).

I have asked for a replacement because of the noise issues (and because I could physically feel the fan/hard disk turning crazy and getting too warm). The replacement does not get warm at all and you cannot 'feel' anything, but the noise level is MUCH higher than my MacBook Air and in comparison to my Late 2012 21 inch iMac).

I am bit in despair. Is there something I can do? I don't do fancy things, mainly writing (not even using Apps etc), but need it to be completely silence (like I am used from the other Apple products I used since 2003). So disappointed.

If anybody can give some advice... Replacement not an option, just went through a replacement and noise level is the same.

I appreciate any feedback--first time I have posted.

Best wishes,

After three times repair / exchange, you can request a refund as far as I heard

Thanks, but I don't want a refund. I am really pleased with all my Apple products, but disappointed that my (late 2015, 27 inch, Retina 5K, Fusion drive 2TB) iMac makes a whirring sound (only noticeable in a quiet room). It runs at average fan speed of around 1200 rpm (between 33 and 35 degrees) and it is clearly audible. Even when nothing is running (I mean apps etc). Can I do something about this--other than get another replacement (this is a replacement).

Thanks.

OK, look like than you have to live with it since it seams to be its design 🙂

FWIW, the 5K iMac at idle generates a 15.5 DB SPL, a 4K iMac an 11 DB SPL, a 2015 Mac mini, a 12 DB SPL. Basically all within 3-4 DB of each other. 3DB is the smallest perceptible change a human can hear.

I think if anyone finds these computers noisy, They should switch to a MacBook 12" Retina. It has no fan.

p.s. breathing is approx 10 DB.

I do not know for sure whether I can help you. I can only explain what I did and what worked for me. Try it out at your own risk, it is certainly not a standard procedure, let alone Apple-approved. No guarantees or liability on my part. And please forgive me for not describing the process in every detail, but only in rough sketches

I needed two programs, both downloadable from the Internet:

smc fan control 2.5.2

mac fan control (1.3.2).

I downloaded both and installed them, then quit them. Both programs are so designed that you can raise fan speed above factory settings, but not lower it beneath Apple's minimum setting - which varies from machine to machine.

The former program (SMC fan control) generates a respectively named section in the application support folder of the library (visible only when pressing "alt" in the "goto" menu.

There, I found a file named machines.plist.

This file contains the factory MSC fan settings for a lot of Macs, and also an auto-generated entry and the end named iMac17,1. I deleted the reference to auto-generation and edited (or, as you might say, manipulated) the values for min and sel speeds to 1000, and saved the file.

Afterwards, I went to the applications folder and right clicked the package smcFanControl and let the contents of the package show. In the resources folder of this package, I took the original machines.plist file and moved it to a safe place. then, I copied the edited version of the machine.plist file into this folder, so that it is now in both places.

I then opened SMC fan control and chose the command to reset to factory default. I restarted the Mac. After starting the program, I could see a new minimum value of 1000.

But this still did not change the actual RPM, the fan was still too noisy for my taste.

This is where the second program Mac fan control came into play. I opened it and chose the panel where you can set a fan speed by hand using a slider. Unlike before the measures described above, it was now possible to set the slider to 1000 RPM, which I did. Appearantly (and I do not know why and how), Mac fan control accesses the machine.plist of the competing smc fan control program.

Bingo! The fan slowed down to 1000 RPM.

I chose to auto start the Mac fan control software (not smc fan control). At every auto-start, the software will now set the fan to 1000 RPM. Sometimes, this does not happen after the Mac wakes up from sleep. In these cases, I just quit the program and restart it.

At 1000 RPM, the iMac can still be heard a little bit in a totally quiet environment, it is not completely silent like a MacBook air normally is. Nevertheless, it is almost silent, the difference is significant.

Naturally, the iMac runs a bit warmer at 1000 RPM. This is easy to monitor because Mac fan control rests in the menubar of OS X and can show you the CPU temperature sensor's reading as well as actual RPM.

At normal room temperature, my machine normally runs at between 38 and 48°C when the fan whirs at 1000 RPM, depending on cpu load, of course. I have not seen it exceeding that range so far. Also, no other sensor on the machine shows higher readings.

I have not done any testing as to the difference in temperature at 1200 RPM, but I think it may be between 5 and 10°C.

I am no expert, but I think I have read on the Internet that the CPU of my machine (i-6700K) can stand far higher temperatures (e.g. when overclocked).

Also, like I said before, I applied roughly the same procedure to my wife's iMac14,1 two years ago. It is still alive and kicking (and silent at that).

Besides, I have two Windows machines constantly running at temperatures in this range for years.

IMHO, Apple's engineers, like many of their colleagues at other manufacturers, were just a bit to conservative/protective when defining minimum fan speed on iMacs with dedicated GPU - but that is just my

Of course, I can not rule out the possibility that the lifespan of your CPU is shortened, and, like I said, I will not accept any liability for adverse effects if you try to do what I did. Enter at your own risk.

I did so myself. I just thought, chances are that I will replace my machine for other reasons well before its CPU dies on me for getting "too" warm constantly. And, in any case, I will have had the pleasure of near silence when using it (as opposed to not wanting to use it for the noise it generates).

Cheers, Marius

Thank you for your very detailed response. I really appreciate it.

What a shame that the iMac late 2015 seem to be so 'noisy' (see post of dialabrain).

Many thanks for the time you took to write this response.

Don't bring me into this. 😁

I don't find it noisy at all. My refrigerator makes more noise when it is running two rooms away.