MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

This is in reply to RICHD101 whose post is no longer here.

His post suggested that readers on techspot demonstrated that charging on the right side of the 16 MBP caused a significant decrease in heat vs charging on the left side when having other peripherals plugged in.

At the office where I have my 4k screens connected I do connect with the TS3+ to to the right side of the computer. At home I usually connect to the left but I don't usually have other screens connected.

Perhaps that will help others by changing the charging port.

I do know that when I connect my external SSD and edit video off the drive, the port connector will get very warm and so will the drive.

Thank you brycesteiner,

i appreciate you passing on the information

reported by Techspot where readers demonstrated that charging on the right side of the 16 MBP caused a significant decrease in heat vs charging on the left side when having other peripherals plugged in thus reducing noise fans.

I got a notice that the link was unrelated to the topic?

It was most certainly related and may explain why some of our machines are not seeing the heat and others are.

As for the screen corruption in the above post by pairadime - you should contact Apple right away. I don't think that's heat so much as defective. If it is heat bringing out the corruption then the tolerance on that chip is way too low and defective. The other thing you could try is if lightroom has an option to turn off Metal. I have seen funny screen issues that go away when Metal is turned off for that program. They update the program and then the problem is gone. I would report it to Adobe too and see if anyone in their forums is having the issue.

The Adobe programs have so much legacy code, IMO, that compatibility bugs crop up all the time and it doesn't seem to matter if it's Acrobat, Indesign or photoshop. I don't use Lightroom anymore (even though I have the license) as I prefer CaptureOne for processing my photographs.

I'm still testing if this is a real permanent fix, but I think I managed to fix the issue for my setup.

I used to connect my TB3 hub and display port monitor all via one TB3 USB-C cable on the left side of the MacBook Pro.

The hub is still connected that port, but I also connected the original MacBook power adapter to the right side of the MacBook.

This seems to fix temperature issues.

Also I noticed that the temperature went up because of a faulty TimeMachine Backup, which couldn't finish.

I deleted my backup and started a new Time Machine Backup that was able to complete and is now backing up every hour as expected.

Now my idle temperature is at around 67°C and fans at around 2350 rpm or even lower.

Disabling TurboBoost helps keeping the temp low, but is not needed. After temp spikes the fans slow down now and don't stay high.

Thanks ! Wizardthegreatest

I agree with you 100%

"usually people with most rank points provide most useful information. In this thread these are the people who keep repeating that the problem doesn't exist whereas people who are new to the community keep posting possible temporary workarounds to the problem."

We are grateful for your input!

Interesting discovery about high FPS usage. I have two monitors Dell Alienware AW3418HW (34" 2560x1080 G-Sync 165hz) and Dell S3220DGF (32" 2560x1440 FreeSync2 165hz).

Alienware via HDMI can only run 60fps and uses 20w. Alienware over DP can run 60, 85, 100, 120, 144, 160hz. All modes above 85hz use 5w.

HOWEVER, FreeSync monitor over DP can run either 60 or 165hz and both modes result in 20w. Over HDMI it can run either 60 or 144hz and 144hz mode results in 5w. I was quite surprised that this monitor in high FPS mode via DP uses 20w.

An upgrade about my situation with the 16" MBP fans.

As I said a few days ago, I have a MBP 16 with a second low quality monitor, an HP 27o (1920x1080) connected with the MBP through an HDMI and a USB C / Thunderbolt adapter. With this configuration the fans very frequently start at high speed, even before logging in (if I leave the startup screen for more than a few minutes)! Once I entered the system I installed iStat with which I can read the temperatures in detail of many internal components. In normal conditions, since the discrete graphics card is always on due to the second monitor, the overall temperature never drops below 65 degrees, while with some active process (for example: a download) the temperature reaches 100 ° rather frequently. In this case the fans rise above 5,000 RPM. I then installed Turbo Boost Switcher, as someone had suggested in this post. This widget allows you to turn off the microprocessor boost. With the boost deactivated the overall temperature never rises above 63 ° and the fans are fairly quiet (2500/2600 RPM). If I disconnect the second monitor and work only with that of the MPB and deactivate the boost, the overall temperature drops below 50°, sometimes even below 45°.

At first I thought the problem was due exclusively to the graphics card always on, now I think it is a complex of things that cause the high internal temperature. Certainly the boost has an important responsibility, which is why I will continue to use Turbo Boost Switcher, at least until Apple has solved the problem.

I hope this can be useful for someone.

Note: in normal conditions the MBP does not show any difference with or without boost, regarding the performances.

I've done the exact same thing, use turbo boost switcher and it's worked the same for me as you've described.

Fans not gone above 2,500 and temp not about 65 connected to 2k Dell monitor with thunderbolt to DP cable.

When not connected to a monitor everything runs way cooler anyway, 35/40.

As you say, I'm also OK to use this work around for now in until there is an official software update from Apple to address the issue, fingers crossed.

I'm just glad I can now listen to music at my desk with headphones without it sounding like I've got a hoover running on the desk too!

I, like many by the sounds of it, am very annoyed that this problem has not been fixed. I can not use an external monitor the way things are now. My neck is killing me. Apple, get this fixed or pay for my future chiropractor. Such an expensive computer and yet this? Please hurry up and fix this.

(Macbook pro 16 inch, core i9, 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4. No problems until I attach it to an external monitor and then the fans go nuts and it heats up greatly).

"My neck is killing me. Apple, get this fixed or pay for my future chiropractor. Such an expensive computer and yet this? Please hurry up and fix this. No problems until I attach it to an external monitor and then the fans go nuts and it heats up greatly)."

If you want to be heard this is the wrong place. This is a community-based forum made up of Mac users only. In a way you're preaching to the choir. Not sure how using an external monitor with your 16" MBP with fan noise is causing you neck strain? Please reach out to Apple Support and voice your concerns. Contact - Official Apple Supportsupport.apple.com › contact

If I can't use the monitor (because when I do, the computer noise is bad, and the heat is bad for the computer), then I'm looking down and not straight ahead at the monitor. That, if you understand English and ergonomics, should have been very clear. Apple support looks at these threads when making decisions. They sometimes even offer ideas on how to fix problems that are brought up on such threads. Hence, yes, preaching to the choir but also to the choir "masters" (using that term lightly of late). And yes, I have been in contact with support.

This is a friendly community discouraging others from posting here is inappropriate.

Eindaj stated he has “No problems with his MBP 16... until He attaches it to an external monitor and then the fans go nuts and it heats up greatly).

Eindaj Welcome to the forum I understand your frustration sorry about your neck : (

but this is an ongoing situation for many of us.

Please read past posts from this thread ..

you will find many helpful suggestions and theories as to what might be causing MVP 16s

to heat up and cause fans to spin at high Rpms.

Did you happen to read the thread? There are many people who have found how to fix this but some have been pretty good solutions for the issue that have opened the door for more control over the system. Some have found that changing the port in which the computer is charged helped. Others have found that Turboboost doesn't really help with speed but it does with temperature but turning it off. For some the CalDigit TS3+ dock works well (that's what I use because it's easy to connect and disconnect from the office). Some have increased their external monitor to 85+ hz and that drops it down quite a bit.

If you are having issues and you know your machine is defective you really need to contact Apple Support. Do not wait.

Thank you brycesteiner

I certainly did wade through this thread trying to work out ways to improve things. I did try all the free options that were posted but nothing has worked so far. I am in consultation with support too. We shall live in hope and in ignoring DPJ.

Hi pairadime,

Just wanted to let you know that I was working on RAW images yesterday in Adobe Bridge 2020 (in clamshell mode, connected to an external 4K display) and saw the same things happen when I opened the images in Camera Raw. Opening them in Photoshop's Camera Raw also showed the same results.

I think that the only thing we can do when this happens is to disconnect the monitor and reset the GPU.