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Arctic Sounds
Arctic Sounds
Known Participant
March 23, 2018
Question

iMac 2017 fan noise

  • March 23, 2018
  • 9 replies
  • 8738 views

Hi all,

I've just bought a new 2017 iMac with a Retina 5K 27" display. It has a 4,2 GHz i7 processor and 8 GB RAM. When I'm running Lightroom Classic CC 7.2, the fan of the iMac blows very loud. No clicking noise, but just loud blowing, impossible to ignore. Mostly or maybe only when I'm in the Develop mode, and only with Lightroom. I didn't have this issue with my other iMac which was aprox. 8 years older. Does anyone have the same problem and does anyone know what's causing this problem? Is there a fix? Would upgrading my RAM solve anything?

Thanks in advance!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    9 replies

    R
    rayo70575913
    Participating Frequently
    May 3, 2018

    Im Having the exact same problem. its pissing me off big time. I spent $4000 on this iMac and its not as good as my 2013 iMac. When I called Apple, they says its Adobe fault, and im sure adobe is saying its apple fault for making a buggy 4.2ghz i7, and us consumers are just being puzzled and ping ponged between apple and adobe. I believe Apple do have a point, because this problem is only happening in LR no other application i'm noticing it. I really hope this gets fixed to at least get our moneys worth.

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Brainiac
    May 3, 2018

    this problem is only happening in LR no other application i'm noticing it.

    As explained before, very few applications utilize most of the CPU and GPU, as LR does. So it's not at all surprising that LR causes the fans to come on and other apps don't.  If you don't like that the fans come on frequently when an app uses your computer heavily, complain to Apple.

    The very poor LR performance that some experience is a separate issue, and there's no strong evidence that it's related to the amount of CPU usage. For example, my LR performs very well on a MacBook Pro Retina, using the same amount of CPU in Develop as someone with an iMac in which LR performs very poorly: Lightroom Classic CC 7.3 (and 7.3.1) update slowed down my iMac and made fans spin at full speed | Photoshop Family Cust…

    Chris Tsorotes
    Chris Tsorotes
    Known Participant
    April 26, 2018

    Roll it back to Version 7.0.

    It runs like a pig on the latest Mac's.

    Arctic Sounds
    Arctic SoundsAuthor
    Known Participant
    April 26, 2018

    Do you mean it is better in 7.0?

    N
    nunoferreira
    Participating Frequently
    April 4, 2018

    Same problem here. I also have a late 2017 iMac with an i7 4.2GHZ, top of the line graphic card and 40 GB of RAM, and the fans will kick at full speed every time I'm working in LR, even with 1:1 previews and smart previews built beforehand. Strangely, that issue disappeared with LR 7.2 to return in 7.3. So, I believe it's an Adobe problem and not a heat issue with the iMac. That doesn't happen with any other software.

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Brainiac
      April 4, 2018

      I believe it's an Adobe problem and not a heat issue with the iMac. That doesn't happen with any other software.

      Most apps use only a small fraction of the CPU and almost none use the full capabilities of the graphics processor (GPU).  Thus, it's not surprising that many observe LR starting up the fans but not other apps.

      There have be a few intermittent reports of LR consuming a lot of CPU when supposedly no foreground or background activities are occurring. After verifying that LR isn't running any background tasks, run Activity Monitor.  When doing absolutely nothing, LR should consume no more than 5-10% CPU.

        N
        nunoferreira
        Participating Frequently
        April 26, 2018

        johnrellis

        My Lr is always at 125% of the CPU speed as you can see in the attached screenshot, which I find very strange. How can a software use 25% more CPU power than it's own processing capacity? All background tasks are paused, as usual. One thing is for sure. Lr is much slower especially in Develop mode and the fans are kicking at full speed since the update to version 7.3.

        Arctic Sounds
        Arctic SoundsAuthor
        Known Participant
        April 4, 2018

        Thanks for all your replies. I guess it will have something to do with i7 processor or maybe just something in the configuration of the fans. Definitely not a complaint to Lightroom. I hope Apple will be able to fix this soon with a software update, because it's not much fun working at a machine which makes this much noise...

          edmondl42655864
          edmondl42655864
          New Participant
          March 28, 2018

          I also got my 4.2 GHz i7 processor and 40GB RAM. When using Lightroom Classic, the fan kicks in whenever I am dealing with RAW files, either browsing or editing. It will quiet down again but then will engage on and off again. Jpeg files have no such issues. Also, when watching 8K videos on YouTube, the fan will be in full blast without stopping until the video is finished. Yes, annoying.

          Looty81
          Looty81
          Known Participant
          March 30, 2018

          Very interesting. I wonder if it's something with the i7's and the configuration as I don't experience this with my 3.4GHz i5 with 8 gigs of ram. Eventually I'll be upgrading the ram, but haven't yet. I'm also running a 1TB SSD.

          Looty81
          Looty81
          Known Participant
          March 27, 2018

          I just got a new 27 inch iMac and love it. However, I don't hear the fan sound you're speaking of. Although, I have the 3.4 i5. Instead of their fusion drive, I customized it to order with the 1TB SSD. The machine runs fine as is, but I'll be upgrading the RAM soon. I just didn't want to pay the Apple premium to do so, obviously.

          Just Shoot Me
          Just Shoot Me
          Brainiac
          March 27, 2018

          Looty81  wrote

          I just got a new 27 inch iMac and love it. However, I don't hear the fan sound you're speaking of. Although, I have the 3.4 i5. Instead of their fusion drive, I customized it to order with the 1TB SSD. The machine runs fine as is, but I'll be upgrading the RAM soon. I just didn't want to pay the Apple premium to do so, obviously.

          Not to derail this discussion but are you sure YOU can upgrade the RAM. I thought all new iMac computers were sealed. No removable panel to get at anything inside of them.

          Looty81
          Looty81
          Known Participant
          March 27, 2018

          You can't upgrade the 21.5's, but you can upgrade the 27's. :-)

          https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/21/how-to-upgrade-ram-2017-5k-imac-video/

          johnrellis
          johnrellis
          Brainiac
          March 27, 2018

          Most apps use only a tiny fraction of your processor's capacity. A frequent complaint about LR is that it is too slow, so Adobe has worked hard to have LR use as much of the CPU and graphics processor as possible. That consumes a lot more power, which generates a lot more heat, which requires fans to dissipate. That is all by design. Complaints about excessive fan noise should be directed to Apple.

          LR may be running some background activities increasing the CPU load:

          - It may be building a lot of previews (especially if you've just moved to a new computer).  This can take a long time for large catalogs.

          - If you have Sync with the LR CC enabled, LR 7.2 introduced a new background activity that computes a  one-time hash for every synced photo. This can take a while if you have lots of photos synced, but once it's done, you shouldn't notice it again.  You can either wait overnight for it to complete or disable sync and restart LR.

          - Face detection may be running.

          You can see which of these background activities (previews, sync, face detection) is running by clicking on the nameplate in the upper-left corner:

          Finally, there have be a few intermittent reports of LR consuming a lot of CPU when supposedly no foreground or background activities are occurring. You can check that by running Activity Monitor.  When doing absolutely nothing, LR should consume no more than 5-10% CPU.

            Looty81
            Looty81
            Known Participant
            March 27, 2018

            What do you mean by "one time hash"?

            johnrellis
            johnrellis
            Brainiac
            March 27, 2018

            What do you mean by "one time hash"?

            See this post by Adobe employee Simon Chen: Lightroom Classic 7.2: Long update waits when editing metadata on more than a few photos | Photoshop Family Customer Com…

            Just Shoot Me
            Just Shoot Me
            Brainiac
            March 27, 2018

            The thermal design of the newer iMac is bad. To thin a case, not enough air flow, equals fans spinning at MAX RPM to Try, I say TRY, and keep it cooled down.

            Arctic Sounds
            Arctic SoundsAuthor
            Known Participant
            March 27, 2018

            Nobody else has this problem? It's driving me nuts...

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