Hello,

I am researching purchasing an M4 Max 14" MacBook pro, with either 14 cores or 16 cores.

I would prefer 16 cores. But the extra cores could cause more internal case heat, which could cause the fan to turn on more or faster.

Does anybody have a real-world perspective on this (i.e. direct experience, not theory/opinion)?

I tend to run about 10 heavy stereo tracks (things like serum, reverbs, etc.) and then about 10 lightweight tracks.

I do not have an M4 max, but an m3 max.

I wouldn't worry about the extra cores causing the fans to turn on more or faster for a multitude of reasons, and while not 1:1, and my experience with my m3 max... it comes on so rarely, and when it does, I have to lean in to hear it...

If you want the extra cores, I would just get the product you want honestly.

20 tracks combined of both heavy and lightweight are no problem for my machine so I imagine they will be even less so for you with the m4 max...

thanks for the information. i ordered the 16 core m4 max. if my typical project workloads run on your m3 machine, they should work well on the m4 max.

the m4 max has 12 performance cores. my thinking is that the 10 heavy tracks can use high performance cores, with two left over for the master bus plugin chain and one more for maybe something like a reverb send. the other 4 cores can take care of less-intense operations. that's my theory of how it should work. i have no idea how the OS is going to actually distribute the workload.

i ordered the non-reflective glass version. that's a great option that was missing from apple's notebook computers for a while.

Yeah, I think you are going to love it... I'm not sure what cpu you are coming from, but I was coming from different intel machines, and it has been night and day... no longer do I have a hair dryer or leaf blower going on while working, as the fans only tend to kick in on things like stem separation or really pushing it.. (and again, the fans are decidedly not loud... as I have to lean in to be sure that it's actually them that kicked in, or if one of my 7200 spinners is up to something and confusing the source.....)


but even with the fans on, I'd be comfortable recording Paul Simon playing acoustic a few feet away to be honest kinda thing....

(one thing to note, the m3 line was more important for audio work to get the max version in it's distribution of P and E cores, and came with a lot more gpu cores, of which are not of much import to me currently as what I do... not sure about you, or your needs... but the base pro's on the m4 have a smarter distribution for audio work than that line iirc... and I'm sure you've done your homework... but just tossing that in...)

But regardless, you are going to have a great time with it, and I really hope you enjoy your new machine!

Presumably at the time where there's more noise in the 16-core the 14-core would have stopped functioning for the project, no?