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iMac Retina 5K with M295X GPU - is it noisy?

Does anyone have personal experience with the new Retina iMac with the 295X GPU?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 5, 2014 9:33 AM

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37 replies

Nov 5, 2014 1:30 PM in response to apikoros

Depending on the chosen configuration (HDD/Fusion vs SSD) and the load on graphics

and applications running concurrently, the Fans and Hard Drive should be the only

source of noise within the computer itself. With a larger load, noise level may increase.


Given how Mac OS X rations system resources, depending on what you buy into may

well add or detract from the active use noise levels from daily loads in the computer.

So your use patterns & software choice may cause these conditions to vary somewhat.


Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Nov 5, 2014 4:58 PM in response to apikoros

Disclaimer: I have the i7, 16GB, SSD, 295X


I have to say, most of the time I hear absolutely nothing. No fan noise at all. But the one time the fan does spin up, it's really annoying. When I start watching a youtube video in full screen mode (eg. 720p60fps, HTML5 player) the fan goes absolutely crazy, like an airplane turbine. It drives me nuts. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Could this be fixed by a software update? Or is this a limitation of the hardware, scaling, video playback, codecs, etc?


I'm not sure what I'd rather hear: that I'm the only one noticing this, or that everybody has these issues with the machine. Other than that I can't watch full screen YT, it's been wonderful so far.

Nov 6, 2014 12:14 PM in response to MiJMac

MiJMac, have you played YouTube (or other) videos in full-screen mode?


Below, oelna reports that when s/he does so the fan in his/her Retina iMac "goes absolutely crazy, like an airplane turbine. It drives me nuts." So I'm wondering if his/her experience is unique, or if that is a more widespread issue.


Thanks in advance.

Nov 6, 2014 12:35 PM in response to oelna

Perhaps to look into Activity Monitor, and note what runs there, using

a good deal of resources when the fans run, may be an idea to tell

what is going on at that time. To duplicate the cause is helpful when

troubleshooting or learning the cause of certain symptoms.


Also, check the Console (utility) log files as they can provide a record

of the time and date most any incident occurred. In fact, the Logs are

extensive and to find one actually related to one incident may be hard.

But that is where you could get some ideas, and an expert (not me) in

deductive analytical knowledge of these systems could understand it.


Certain aspects of the system will run-up, there are at least two main

cooling fans in most iMacs; & at least one just for the graphics CPU.


So this is why in my previous post, mention was made about load factor.


However that works out...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Nov 6, 2014 1:40 PM in response to apikoros

I will do further tests in the coming days. As of now, I have only just discovered the issue during my normal usage.

I use Chrome as my browser. I have not talked to anyone at Apple about this yet. I am also hesitant to go to the genius bar for this. The iMac is a) brand new and b) kind of hard to transport. The closest Apple Store is like 90km away (Frankfurt, Germany), so I'd like to collect some more data about this first, before I decide this is not "expected" behavior.


What I'd like to try out first is:

- Use a different browser. Chrome is kind of bloated on OSX. If it happens in Safari too, it's an issue.

- Try playback of other fullscreen video. I'll try 720p and 1080p video in mkv and mp4 containers in VLC and Quicktime.

- Dive deeper into Activity Monitor. A first glance reported about 50% CPU usage on Chrome the last time this happened.


I'll report my findings here, so you can benefit.

Nov 6, 2014 2:07 PM in response to apikoros

My experience, so far, has been silence regardless of what the iMac is doing. I have played HD YouTube and Netflix full screen without any noticeable noise. As I noted before, the machine is also exceptionally cool, only slightly warm, to the touch (much cooler than my 2009 era iMac) so the processor (both i7 and GPU) temps must be reasonable. I have only had it for about 8 days so still more to discover, but so far no complaints. I'll play with it some more this weekend and report if my experience changes.

iMac Retina 5K with M295X GPU - is it noisy?

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