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MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

We are testing two new 16-inch MacBook's before doing a rollout across our organization. Under low loads (25% cpu utilization), fan noise will get annoyingly loud. We're not doing any GPU related and more routine work such as: using web applications, debugging web pages, Microsoft Teams conferencing (audio/video) with a handful of people, Photos downloading from iCloud, Mac Mail downloading a new mailbox from Exchange.


We DID NOT notice this on our 2015 MacBooks and this might prevent us from continuing the 16-inch MacBook rollout in our organization.


Interested to hear others experiences.


Tim

MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 21, 2019 11:34 AM

Reply
4,224 replies

May 4, 2020 1:28 PM in response to TailsDog

TailsDog wrote:

Following your vehicle analogy - If a new 2020 RS3 is said to be more efficient than my current 2018 RS3, and I upgraded, and found it used more Petroleum, I would not be happy about it.


Certainly, that happens a lot in the auto world and it depends upon your use case.


Many newer "more efficient" cars do indeed operate more efficiently in a particular mode or modes but end up using more gas overall in others.

May 4, 2020 1:31 PM in response to TailsDog

TailsDog wrote:

A supercar is inefficient - A MBP 16'' is advertised as being more efficient that the previous generation, not just more powerful! Likewise with the GPU.

You have stated numerous times that Apple said this 16" is more efficient. I haven't asked before but can you post a link showing this? I have seen apple claim to have better cooling - and I agree that it is - but never seen where they advertised it for energy efficiency.

May 4, 2020 1:34 PM in response to TailsDog

I think that's rather disingenuous.


The Business Team was as helpful as they could be, and they stated the issue would likely be fixed soon, which is usually the case.


There appears to be more here, possibly even the fact that the system is working to at least some degree as designed, so there was little else they could do.


By extending the return period they also went out of their way to ensure a happy customer, or at least as happy as they could be in this circumstance.

May 4, 2020 1:51 PM in response to TimUzzanti

No, but you shouldn't be surprised when it heats up and the fans turn on to cool it.


There is nothing the MBP 16 is advertised it can do that it can't.


You're complaining of excess fan noise and heat, which is not specified anywhere in any Apple ad or in the technical specs for the machine.


I am assuming your employees don't have external monitors just to attend Zoom meetings with, so if they are going to regularly need a large, high resolution external monitor to do what they do then yes, I would recommend an iMac or Mac Pro for what they do, depending upon what it is.


Who should buy an MBP 16? Anyone that needs the most powerful MacBook Pro Apple has ever sold.

May 4, 2020 1:54 PM in response to TailsDog

TailsDog wrote:

There are links in this thread from a while back, it was discussed before.

Here is one: https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/radeon-apple-5000m-series

thank you for providing that link. I noticed it doesn't say anything about being power efficient.


I assume, and I believe that you do too, is the processor is probably much more efficient in watts per cycle but claiming that equates to energy efficient, like the A13 chip, but probably is disingenuous.


I would love to see a Mac that runs on Apple's own engineered chips as they really seem to be fantastic in heat to performance ratios.

May 4, 2020 2:09 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

So, people should still buy a 16inch MBP if they can't hear people on video conferences and can't hear you because of fan noise or the machine is at 100 degrees Celsius for long periods of time and / or throttling etc? Ignoring the fact that the recent MacOS updates have made the 16inch MBP even more unstable in different ways as well.


All of which a MacBook Air can do without issue when using external monitors.


Telling people to move their laptops into different rooms, disconnect monitors every time they want to do different kind of task. or put it in a freezer to operate normally is just absurd.


We don't have users asking to process Bitcoin and complaining about fan speed or being throttled. People are complaining about simple tasks that push the 16inch MBP into weird behaviors that Chromebooks could do better and shouldn't.


All this talk about vehicle analogies are just attempts to deflect from the defects! I want to coin that phrase :)

May 4, 2020 2:25 PM in response to TimUzzanti

No one is telling you you can't do those things, but, once again, your experience is going to be non-optimal.


You don't have to put your computer elsewhere, but if the sound of a fan in a laptop is going to offend you, it's a viable solution.


If a MacBook Air can do what you claim, why did you buy your staff MBP 16s? I assume because they had other work to do, and that the MBP 16 would make them more productive at doing.


If you want to use a Chromebook, that's also your decision.


The fact remains the MBP 16 didn't operate the way you expected it to, but It never in any way failed to operate in the way it was advertised to.


For it to be defective, it would have to not meet the given specs, and I see no proof of that.

May 4, 2020 2:43 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Well, we come full circle and the laptop isn't defective. I have seen that is your common answer in other topics as well. I really wish I could stop my subscription to these posts now that we are in the process of returning them. It is a shame that moderators haven't learned how to respond to customers and support them instead of telling them they are wrong in every way!

May 4, 2020 2:53 PM in response to TimUzzanti

TimUzzanti wrote:

So, people should still buy a 16inch MBP if they can't hear people on video conferences and can't hear you because of fan noise or the machine is at 100 degrees Celsius for long periods of time and / or throttling etc? Ignoring the fact that the recent MacOS updates have made the 16inch MBP even more unstable in different ways as well.

That is not good at all. I have been in zoom meetings, in fact I just got out of one, and have not had the issue even with it recording one my 4k screens. It went up for a little when it first started but then it went back down. Right now with both 4k's connected and running parallels I'm at 59C. When I disconnect for the evening I'll be between 43 and 50C. It runs warmer all day about 55-63C but nothing that I wouldn't expect from any other computer (and much cooler than my 15"). If I had your experience I couldn't recommend them either. My biggest issue of all has been Catalina but I haven't had any issues since 10.15.3


If we had a ZOOM meeting between all of us - which probably wouldn't be productive - would your's really get that hot and would we be all able to hear yours? I assume it's much hotter with Chrome?

May 4, 2020 3:36 PM in response to TimUzzanti

TimUzzanti wrote:

It is a shame that moderators haven't learned how to respond to customers and support them instead of telling them they are wrong in every way!


Given a moderator has never posted to this topic, you simply have no basis for that statement.


If the comment was directed at me, I am not a moderator, never have been and I have explicitly stated that more than once.

May 4, 2020 6:12 PM in response to TimUzzanti

TimUzzanti wrote:

William,

So, I should buy my employees a MacBook Air or a Mac Pro to have video meetings if they are using external monitors (which they all do).
...


If they all have large displays, they don't need a really big built-in display.

The 13-in MacBook Pro announced today is much lighter to carry around and does not have the GDDR5 display RAM that eats up 15 Watts every time you fire up a heartbeat-refresh external display.

May 4, 2020 10:30 PM in response to wealthandnecessity

Maybe it's time for people to move on with the new 13 inch MacBook Pro with 10th gen Intel integrated graphics. It won't have overheating problems like this while still offers decent GPU speed.


2.0GHz quad‑core 10th‑generation Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz and 6MB shared L3 cache

Configurable to 2.3GHz quad‑core 10th‑generation Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz and 8MB shared L3 cache

Intel Iris Plus Graphics

MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

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