MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I'm not sure what you were expecting, but once again with a Dell U2717D connected to my MBP 16/5500M, with the USB-C to mDP adapter and a mDP cable running from the adapter to the monitor, it does draw 19w, but the fans also never go above 2500 RPM despite running full screen 1080p video on the Dell while surfing the web on the built-in display.

Well then Apple didn’t took that in consideration when they designed this machine and that is the reason the machine becomes almost impossible to use when connected to an external monitor.

a few days ago I had zoom and another app open and the fans were running full speed the whole time and then machine stared throttling big time, the mouse pointer was moving 2/3 seconds slower than usual, a “pro” machine that can’t handle 2 apps open at the same time........

Glad to see this worked for you. Unfortunately, I bought mine in November of 2019 and naively thought Apple wouldn't sell something that performed like this. And not fix it. And not publicly acknowledge it is a problem. And put apologists on the message board who deny it is an issue and call it a feature.

Someday, all of us who are running the 5500 here will get compensated for our misery with this defective model. It is clearly defective, because the 5600 doesn't perform like the 5500 when connecting an external monitor.

William has worked hard to keep expectations low, but we will all hang in there until this is fixed, or until Apple offers us a replacement.

Thank you so much for your post,

I am sure all of us experiencing heat and fan noise feel very cheated knowing the 5600 performs as expected in comparison to the 5500.

Please hang in there .

I bought mine in November 2019 and became aware of the noisy/heat/external monitor issues after my 14 day return period had expired.

very disappointed . This known problem now affects resale value so i stand to lose a lot of money to try and upgrade to a 5600 model......i have apple care but i keep getting nowhere with there ( reinstalling OS etc....) i hope Apple will have mercy on victims regarding this issue.

The 5600 is new tech, it was introduced earlier this year.

The Vega Pro 20 is generations old.

Both use HBM2 VRAM but when released the 5500M with higher power draw GDDR6 VRAM was the higher performance choice; independent benchmarks showed the 5500M to be about 9% faster than the Vega Pro 20 on the Geekbench 5 Metal benchmark.

The 5600M is much faster than the 5500M but is both newer as well as significantly more expensive. As has been stated before, that's the tradeoff with HBM2; it draws less power but is much more expensive.

Geekbench 5 Metal results:

• 15" MBP w/Vega 20 4 GB VRAM: 23,556
• 16" MBP w/5500M 8 GB VRAM: 28,748
• 16" MBP w/5600M 8 GB VRAM: 43,144

As I’ve mentioned there are multiple PC laptops that are louder fan-wise just using the internal screen.

Right now the best way to protect yourself from “fan noise” in an MBP 16 is to opt for the Radeon Pro 5600M GPU.

Hi All,

It's been long a coupled of months doing work off my 11 inch 4GB RAM MacBook Air 2011 with 3 Dell 25" monitors attached 2x via USB DisplayLink + 1 x HDMI (a lot more comfortable to work with than the new 16 inch one). Hopefully it was worth the wait and Apple is on the right path to restore my confidence in their products one day.

I just spoke to my Apple business rep about purchasing the new M1 chip MacBook Air or Pro (really happy that I got rid of the 16 inch hair dryer sitting on my desk after one month of use and decided not to invest further long-term in Intel + 5600M).

I've looked at specs and must say am a bit disappointed how little differences is between the new Air and Pro such as both have only two USB-C ports (not a very pro thing), same native and external screen resolutions, no difference really in cores if one upgrades Air to 512GB SSD plus other not very insignificant to me improvements to sound and battery. However, the big pros for me are the Air has NO TOUCH BAR and NO FANS!! Hence decided to get this one as a temporary machine before Apple release a new MBP 16 inch M? chip version. This time I will let others test before forking out so much money again in order to avoid the same mistake I did with the current Intel 5500M model.

Now, the business rep is now saying when I purchase through my business account apparently there's a different return policy and "change of mind" no longer works so beware. I'm still awaiting answers to when the policy changed and whether it's a result of their recent thermal design problems and subsequent wave of returns.

Keep safe and let's hope we won't have to participate in such long forums again in future with the new products.

David

For those who are interested : The new M1 Silicon macs are very impressive. I received my first one today. It is very fast and completely silent (MBA - no fan). You all know that I have no problem with heat or fans on my mac. The only time they kick up is during exporting video or really pushing Affinity Photo. I got the MBA for my wife for Christmas to replace her 2008 MBP that she uses everyday. It's been a good machine but I think it's time to retire it.

Some notes that I came up with for the new M1 before I boxed it back up.

1. boot up is not instant. It's about 10 seconds or so.
2. wake up is instant but I never had an issue on my Intel MBP waking slowly (unless it froze)
3. The Mac OS must be updated to 11.0.1 before an external screen will work. If you don't, it just won't recognize anything at all. It doesn't matter if the screen is plugged in directly or plugged in through a dock (Caldigit TS3+).
4. One external screen only - dual 4k external, or whatever you like, is not compatible with these first of the new generation. I'm sure this will be overcome with the next model, right??
5. The CalDigit TS3+ Dock kind of works with it, but not fully. After updating to 11.0.1 the screen that was plugged in and one screen worked, but it was like a strange double image, almost like a strong halo around contrasting edges like font.
6. RAM doesn't seem to matter. This seemed true on the iPad Pro, but I wondered about the computer. I saw one reviewer have a slew of applications open including exporting video and it ran like nothing was running. I'm not sure what to think because it defies everything i've known about memory for the past 30 years. I got the 16GB model because i'm hoping this last another 12 years for my wife.

The machine is super speedy. Battery is tremendous compared to my 16" MBP. Video exporting is so fast nothing else compares. the MBA will slow down a little but doesn't seem too restricted.

I think this will machine will become the new standard for audio editing and recording. I also think this will cut into Apple's sales of their high end models because it's so fast.

itunestux wrote:

Yes, Sergei_Usatov, this is a defective implementation of the drivers.

Not defective; you’re willing to put up with possible visual artifacts that AMD is not and value low fan speeds over the best visual experience.

AMD and Apple are not willing to make that tradeoff.

You can even watch easy videos. As long as Apple does not fix the heat issue which comes up used a direct attached display. I do not know where you took your experience about the lag which is simply not true.

No issue, driver do not require kernel module and is ready for Big Sur already. MacBook Pro is working silent now and the there's not really a lag. I can just recommend it. However, I invested also in a eGPU with an Radeon 5700XT. However, since the quality of the dual HDMI adapter is so good I do not use the the eGPU lot of time.

Furthermore, the DisplayLink is also the solution for the new MacBook Air M1 where only one external display can be attached.

Sergei_Usatov wrote:

I still don't agree, I have MacBookPro 13 2017 year, that does not make noises! ...

My experience is completely different. I had a 2018 MBP and still have a 2019 early MBP (15") and the fans both were loud and would kick up faster than my 2019 16". This 16" MBP has been my best experience with heat and noise that I have had.

romain89 wrote:

Hey guys, I've found an hilarious thing that stops the fan noise, temporarily though.

Which makes complete sense; when activating Siri, the Mac momentarily spins down the fans so it can hear you better.

So who wants to try that TB to MDP adapter (difficult to find by the way) and finally see that it seems to work with one screen, then buying another adapter to try the second screen and finally see that the same effect happens, that's to say fans ramping up max?

trevormeier wrote:

My previous six top-end MacBook Pros worked just fine plugged into external displays without excessive noise or power usage. So having one out of six not behave this way is hardly expecting something magical. It’s a defective design.

They also did not have a GPU as powerful as the Radeon Pro 5500M.

If you've owned vehicles with a four cylinder engine for most of your life then purchase one with a V10 you can't be shocked when your gas mileage drops into single digits.

It doesn't matter what you use it for, it's the capability that may draw power.

This isn't meant to be a freeform discussion, it's meant to be a forum where people get technical answers to technical questions.

There are myriad other sites where you can commiserate over what you feel were poor design decisions on Apple's fault.

The Vega 20 was more powerful for its era, but cannot do what the 5500M can. The 5600M can run at lower power because it uses HBM2 VRAM, and the 5500M used GDDR6 which has higher power consumption but is less expensive. You can only use the technology and products available at a time the system is designed.

The "issues" you describe are simply what is required to provide the performance promised using the technical capabilities available for the price.

It's always a trade off, which is one reason Apple is moving to Apple Silicon for future models and why they offered the 5600M in the MBP 16.