# Mac Book Pro M1 Max fan noise on 14’’ and 16’’?



## Cecco (Feb 13, 2022)

Hello everybody, I work as a music composer mainly on tv series, using Cubase, Pro Tools and run video with Video Sync 5 on the same machine. My actual computer is a Mac Pro Late 2013, 6 cores with 64 Gb of Ram, but it often struggles with my sessions. So I am considering buying a new Mac Book Pro M1 Max with top specs. Any of you have first hand experience on fan noise on those machines? It is louder on 14 '' or 16 ''? I am asking this because I know that the 16 '' has bigger fans and a turbo mode (high power mode) and I wonder if this can negatively impact fan noise. It’s very important for me that the machine will be as quiet as possible, since I often record in the same room.
Thank you in advance for your help!


----------



## pcohen12 (Feb 13, 2022)

I've had a 16" M1 Max for a couple months now, and still have never heard the fans. This includes doing music production, gaming, installing packages for large JavaScript apps, etc. So I actually can't _truly_ answer your question as I've never personally heard the fans to tell you how they sound 😛 (But if the goal is just to have a quiet and performant machine, I cannot imagine you'll be disappointed!)


----------



## benwiggy (Feb 14, 2022)

Yep, never heard the fans on this MBP 16" Pro.


----------



## jonathanwright (Feb 14, 2022)

I haven't heard the fans here either (14").


----------



## Cdnalsi (Feb 14, 2022)

Same here, I've yet to stress the chip so hard to have them spin up.


----------



## Cecco (Feb 14, 2022)

Thanks everyone! It really seems that this new Mac Book M1Max is great and very quiet. Hopefully it won’t get too long to have all the software native.


----------



## PhilA (Feb 14, 2022)

14” pro here I’ve never ever heard the fans. Unlike my work Surface laptop which is like a blooming jet most of the time.


----------



## Cecco (Feb 14, 2022)

PhilA said:


> Unlike my work Surface laptop which is like a blooming jet most of the time.


Yes, same with my Intel Mac Book Air…


----------



## jonathanwright (Feb 14, 2022)

Cecco said:


> Thanks everyone! It really seems that this new Mac Book M1Max is great and very quiet. Hopefully it won’t get too long to have all the software native.


Kontakt M1 native was just released!


----------



## jscheel (Feb 14, 2022)

Meanwhile, the fans on my i9 16" mbp blow at 4000 rpm if I dare to do something super intensive like hooking up an external monitor.


----------



## Doppler (Feb 14, 2022)

jscheel said:


> Meanwhile, the fans on my i9 16" mbp blow at 4000 rpm if I dare to do something super intensive like hooking up an external monitor.


Or sometimes even lightly browse the web.

Im quite amazed by the M1Max’s performance. Current session has about 65 tracks of Kontakt & OPUS. I’ve started dropping in some heavier mixing plugins and reverbs and the fans are still at 0. Logic performance meter is at 25%. My 2019 space toaster would have been screaming out loud by now. Exporting the session seems super fast too.


----------



## rnb_2 (Feb 14, 2022)

jscheel said:


> Meanwhile, the fans on my i9 16" mbp blow at 4000 rpm if I dare to do something super intensive like hooking up an external monitor.


I think this is because hooking up an external display automatically switches it to the discrete GPU. Using the internal display, the Intel machines will use the integrated GPU as much as possible, only switching to the hotter discrete chip when needed.


----------



## jscheel (Feb 15, 2022)

rnb_2 said:


> I think this is because hooking up an external display automatically switches it to the discrete GPU. Using the internal display, the Intel machines will use the integrated GPU as much as possible, only switching to the hotter discrete chip when needed.


Oh yes, it's a very well known issue, unfortunately. It's not just that it uses the discrete gpu, it's that it runs it a full tilt all the time. The 5600m doesn't have this problem, but the 5500m and 5400m do.


----------



## pixelcrave (Feb 15, 2022)

Similar experience to some folks here — 3 months owning the 16" M1 Max, for music but also photography, and some video stuff. Haven't heard the noise once!! 

Meanwhile, my work Macbook (2018 Intel) has been consistently providing the background jet noise I never ask for.


----------

