Macbook Pro 2019 16 inch fan noise with Ableton

[WilmarBoer]

If you are part of our beta testing process, there is a new beta which has some changes that we would like help testing regarding fan noise:

https://ableton.centercode.com/project/ ... 704E445151}

OK, I just installed 10.1.17b1. There no notes about the fan in the release notes. Any particular things you want me to test?

[Tarekith]

Please see the thread I linked to in my first post, it has all the details.

[WilmarBoer]

Please see the thread I linked to in my first post, it has all the details.

Thanks, got it.

[LQdb.Music]

Does it apply to the Mac-Beta-Version aswell ?

[WilmarBoer]

Does it apply to the Mac-Beta-Version aswell ?

For now it does for me, but for others it did get slightly better. But the good news is that there apparently aware of the problem and working on it.

[harleytat]

In testing a couple hours with the same session in each version (averaging around 7-8% on Ableton's CPU usage meter), I found no discernible difference in the excessive fan noise between using the 10.1.17b1 Beta and 10.1.15.

What I did find make a huge difference is Turbo Boost Switcher. Here are screen shots of TB Switcher's Charts window with me continuously working in Live and nothing else changed over time other than a toggling of TB.

16" MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz 8-Core i9, 64GB / 4TB

[udolinsky]

What I did find make a huge difference is Turbo Boost Switcher. Here are screen shots of TB Switcher's Charts window with me continuously working in Live and nothing else changed over time other than a toggling of TB.

4000-5000rpm? jesus …

i have ableton installed on my old macbook pro 2013 and on my mac mini 2018 and thougt about switch to my new macbook 16. but i guess it just makes no sense. my mac mini is super quiet. no fan noise.

[LQdb.Music]

I returned all MBP 16" (3 in total) because of extensive fan noise, as above shown, 4800-5200 is total normal for the i9 with low to mid CPU load, unuseable IMHO, going Mac Mini 2020 aswell

[dcyse]

Anyone tried with the new 5600m graphics card?

Can't believe I'm half-seriously considering this as the price is obscene, but out of interest would be good to know if it helps or not.

[oratowsky]

I feel like I'm missing something with this thread but please enlighten me because the thermal performance of the 16" macbook pro is something I follow very closely.

Was the cpu getting throttled when this fan noise was occurring?

If not, it seems like normal behavior to me.

These computers run screaming hot and yes indeed, the fans have to work very hard.

I have dealt with thermal throttling issues with every macbook I've owned.

I have to open up my computer and clean the dust out once a month or otherwise the laptop gets throttled, and if it's a super hot day, it may get throttled even if the inside is clean.

When the CPU is getting throttled, you can open up power gadget, open up a session, and watch the temperature rise and the clock speed plummet.

I think physically cleaning the computer is a good troubleshooting step in general to those users experiencing a lot of fan noise.

Another great additional cooling method is to suspend the laptop on 4 bottle caps and put a small fan next to it so the air is blowing underneath the laptop. This works shockingly well, and as far as I've seen, works way better than any "cooling mat" type product available.

[LQdb.Music]

I feel like I'm missing something with this thread but please enlighten me because the thermal performance of the 16" macbook pro is something I follow very closely.
These computers run screaming hot and yes indeed, the fans have to work very hard.

That was not exactly the point and dust in a 3 weeks old machine should not be the problem.
The overall temp. in this enclosure (with high temp and GPUs. CPU, Thunderbolt-Port, AC-converter etc.) is high without really doing much.
Just load simple start-up template in Ableton and wait for the fans to spin up to max. No playback, no fancy oversampling synth etc.

dGPU draw 20-25 watts w/o even starting playback etc., CPU easy up to 70-80C.
It is NOT the problem of working hard with this machine and the CPU getting a bit hotter than normal. High base temp., simples task pushes the machine cooling fans "over the edge" without high CPU usage. Seems that AMD drivers are crap and "unlucky" Std.-METAL API-Calls do the rest.

And yes, this machine throttles below base clock (2.3, throttles down to 1.9 measured with Intel Power Gadget).

[Tone Deft]

premium money for a basic bitch experience. what the hell? fan noise on Macs? I thought they were built to be austere and classy. I guess 'composed on the Mac' means "pardon the background noise."

that's a freaking lot of money to hang your hopes on to get screwed. sucks man.

[LQdb.Music]

yeah, it's getting even worse when the retailer AND Apple refuse to take the device back while still under warranty. Because it's a combination of soft- and hardware failure, not as easy to track as water damage

total rip-off from Apple in my opinion. Their own support forums are full of users complaining (220+ pages to date) and they still ignore it.

Retailer: "the whole 16" series have this behaviour, no failure, no refund", Apple: "That problem is weird but not an HW-issue with your device, have a nice day". Had my lawyer to write a nice letter to the retailer about independent repair center cost and EU consumer laws , after that they changed their mind and refunded me

After 15+ of music production with macOS it's time to say Goodbye, hello Win10

[LQdb.Music]

that's a freaking lot of money to hang your hopes on to get screwed. sucks man.

yeah, it's getting even worse when the retailer AND Apple refuse to take the device back while still under warranty. Because it's a combination of soft- and hardware failure, not as easy to track as water damage

total rip-off from Apple in my opinion. Their own support forums are full of users complaining (220+ pages to date) and they still ignore it.

Retailer: "the whole 16" series have this behaviour, no failure, no refund", Apple: "That problem is weird but not an HW-issue with your device, have a nice day". Had my lawyer to write a nice letter to the retailer about independent repair center cost and EU consumer laws , after that they changed their mind and refunded me

After 15+ of music production with macOS it's time to say Goodbye, hello Win10

[Tone Deft]

yeah, it's getting even worse when the retailer AND Apple refuse to take the device back while still under warranty. Because it's a combination of soft- and hardware failure, not as easy to track as water damage

Retailer: "the whole 16" series have this behaviour, no failure, no refund", Apple: "That problem is weird but not an HW-issue with your device, have a nice day". Had my lawyer to write a nice letter to the retailer about independent repair center cost and EU consumer laws , after that they changed their mind and refunded me

After 15+ of music production with macOS it's time to say Goodbye, hello Win10

just a reaction post...

I'm still in shock over this story. I'm a lifelong PC user but I've been studying with a deep dive on Intel's chipsets, Apple's history of choosing them and what AMD means to it all. my main takeaway is that Apple works with Intel to curate their uP choices which saves A LOT of headaches* PC users come across with their own custom build. Apple has that extra layer of their various OSes (I have not studied those) to give users some leeway to 'hack around' to get better performance (my guess on OSes.) Instead of users wading through spec sheets of uPs, Apple produces generations of machines that properly represent market segments. blah blah blah, it's well coordinated with the purpose of doing the heavy thinking up front for the users.

even then, you'd be relying on Dell etc to do a build for you and you're back to square 1 with a certain level of trust in their builds.

you're a different case though, with a LAWYER on your side you have great representation. I'm glad for that.

I was drinking the Apple Kool-Aid. I guess they're not immune to screwing up bad. you're an adult, you're gonna be alright. I hope things "just work" for you one of these days, what a nightmare.