Noise and heat on current 15" macbook pro models?

Considering buying a new macbook because my current one is too loud.

Looking for feedback from power users of the current 15" models.


I assume the slowest model with integrated graphics is the coolest and quietest -

Has anyone compared the sound/heat from a 2.2ghz 15" rMBP vs the top of the line 2.8ghz 15" rMBP with Nvidia graphics?

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 8:33 PM

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7 replies

Mar 7, 2015 4:14 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks, at what threshold Does this happen, and what model do you have?


on my 2011 MBp if I hit say 20% cpu load it starts getting noisy.

while I do expect the fans to kick in if I am rendering video, I'd like to be able to enjoy more everyday tasks without the noise.


the base model has no graphics card, but I believe still has two fans, so I'd expect that to be the quietest.


if anyone who owns one can chime in that'd be awesome.

Mar 7, 2015 4:35 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

yep, it's clean inside.

my specific model is known to be on the hot side (mid 2011, 2.5ghz with ati/amd graphics)

on mine, I would say I don't notice the fans too terribly bad below 3000 rpm.


my idle temp on this model is around - 130F


I dont know that I have acute hearing, but I do use the Mac for recording webinars & screencasts and I can hear the fans in the recordings.


this becomes more of a problem when I'm editing the recording becuase the fans are also loud during the editing session, so even if I pull out the fan noise with eq, it's very hard to hear the result since the fans are on pretty high during editing with logic.


sorry for any typos/bad punctuation - typed from my iphone...

Mar 7, 2015 11:30 AM in response to BasementJack

I too have a 2011 2.5 GHz MBP, 17" model (8.3 model identifier). For lightweight work, mine is about 15°f cooler than what you report but that will fluctuate somewhat. Ambient temperature will be a factor so in a cool room, the temperatures will be lower.


Have you tried a SMC reset?


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Have you checked in Activity Monitor to see if there are any third party applications that may be running in the background? Anti-Virus software or any so called 'cleaning' applications are prime offenders.


Ciao.

Mar 7, 2015 12:51 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

yep, I've done a reset, I've even had it to the apple store to re-apply thermal paste - I've read that some users have done this themselves and seen a 10-20 degree drop in temps - I wasn't comfortable doing it myself, but apple did it under warranty - It helped a little on the CPU, the heat from the GPU seemed to get worse.

No antivirus, but I run istat menus so I keep an eye on CPU temp, CPU activity, and fan speed via that, so maybe if anything, I'm more aware of it than the average consumer would be.


Also I think I mentioned from my phone the temps ran in the 130's, but as I'm typing this it's 114 with a CPU load of 2-4%

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Noise and heat on current 15" macbook pro models?

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