MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

For what its worth the overheating issue occurs in boot camp so it’s unlikely a macOS specific issue.

out of curiosity has anyone tried running their laptop connected to a Pro Display XDR or an lg ultra fine monitor?

Because he said nothing about his laptop reaching thermal shutdown:

Instead he feels the GPU is drawing too much power, requiring the fans to spin up to cool it.

However, the fact that the fans do cool it without reaching shutdown means it is not overheating per se.

William Kucharski wrote:

denizcan wrote:

It's so annoying that my 2015 gaming laptop creates a lot less noise than MBP16.. Does Apple use their products in house?

By the hundreds of thousands, including many tens of thousands of MBP16s, most of them connected to external monitors during the day.

So Apple employees are OK with unnecessary power consumption and annoying fan noise..

BTW, do they use their machines with 5K display? Because other than 220DPI, the fonts of MacOS are garbage.. I cannot tolerate the choppy fonts on external monitors so I prefer not using it..

Who cares about power consumption except when on battery?

If the fans bother you, I get it, but who cares if the computer is using 5w or 50w, as long as everything runs as fast as possible?

As far as the fonts, I couldn't say, it may just be personal preference as most things are; I do know most people use external monitors at the default "retina" resolution.

William Kucharski wrote:

As far as the fonts, I couldn't say, it may just be personal preference as most things are; I do know most people use external monitors at the default "retina" resolution.

Try using same monitor in bootcamp.. For instance try using 27" 1440p or 4K monitor.. You will see a dramatic increase in crispness of the text.. For "retina" you should use 4K @ 24" or 5K @ 27.. Even on that you will see thinning in the edges of the fonts.. Not all "t" will be the same.. Some will be thick, some will be thin.. If you start to see this you cannot undo..

In Apple you might find "retina" everywhere, however in real world you plug in the computer to 1080p, 4K etc.. If you manage to carry the dongle ofcourse... If the previous person was using a PC you will see a terrible degradation of the text quality..

I can't say I'm familiar as I can't stand to even look at a system running Windows let alone use it for anything. I've certainly never noticed issues when I've had my MBP 16 connected via TB3, but I don't have a 4K monitor.

Certainly fonts look fine on my 5K iMac.

denizcan wrote:

With what you said. Smoking hot GGDR6 RAM, full powering eGPU, why does it consume less in Windows? The circuit is the same.

The hardware may be the same, but how it programs the GPU may be entirely different. Windows may set a slower clock speed for the GPU, may not drive the GPU in the same way or a variety of other issues come into play.

My 5 year old gaming laptop with nVidia eGPU consumes around 15W when idle.. When I forcefully activate nVidia it goes to 20W for some period, then it returns to 15W as well.. Unless I do something in the application that uses nVidia, it does not add extra to the power budget.

You can't directly compare systems like this; your old gaming laptop used a different GPU architecture, had different VRAM, and so on.

@ahmedfromreservoir

You say your dGPU now uses 29W on idle since the 10.15.5 update, screenshots please?

I see no differences with the dGPU wattage / fans speed with my 3 monitors with the recent Mac OS update, always been 19W in Mac OS and 15W in Windows on idle.

I'm starting to understand why some people are defending Apple so much...

>in that it is unchanged while MacOS is consuming all the power.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, what I meant was that as the MacOS update did not change the Windows bootcamp behaviour so now it's clearly better than on MacOS which is now pushing higher power draw on the GPU and getting hotter much faster since the update

I can't really share a screenshot right now as I'm on bootcamp, you can just take my word for it or not, it's the internet after all :)

I'm happy for you that it hasn't gotten worse, clearly there are differences between devices - I know a small minority of people don't seem to have an issue at all with their MacBooks.

Alright my bad, I'm just so hesitant right now of keeping this machine or not and was really tired of the useless fight between the two sides. (Come on guys, debating about the actual meaning of overheating now?)

Apple gave me 5 more days to test with the new firmware, still not resolved in my case, but I'm now confused as ever. You guys say it's now worse, I see no differences and now one person on the macrumors thread says the wattage is the same but the fans are lower.

This is so strange

if you want to talk about cars, go to a Ford or Dodge forum.

Here you have another definition for you:

Dynamic frequency scaling (also known as CPU throttling) helps preserve battery and decrease cooling cost and noise on quiet computing settings, or can be useful as a security measure for overheated systems.

I have no problem with audible fans under load, I'm actually glad it's running hot and loud on my lap while compiling my code. The complaining I have is when using external monitors while browsing or watching a movie, which I think it's fair to expect to run cool.

No, the machine I want is not a Macbook Air. I find 13" too small to type on, and actually want performance (+noise +heat) when I need to get work done. I also want portability, so my only option for a new Mac laptop is the Macbook Pro 16".

Nor should you be expected to purchase a laptop made for an entirely differet purpose to what you need it for just because the one that is supposed to be built for purpose does not meet your needs.

It's like saying you should buy a Kia because your Rolls Royce is idling at red line.

William, what is the point to keep persuading people if people just don't get persuaded that way?

You just keep repeating what you have already said and keep going like that.

We get your argument from the very beginning, it's just that we don't agree. That is it. Simple.

You are welcomed to bring any new thoughts here but please don't keep repeating your arguments. It is really annoying to see these posts again and again.

People come here because of a problem and they need to get the problem addressed.

If people don't find it an issue, this thread will die down naturally.

I can't say I'm familiar as I can't stand to even look at a system running Windows let alone use it for anything. I've certainly never noticed issues when I've had my MBP 16 connected via TB3, but I don't have a 4K monitor.

Certainly fonts look fine on my 5K iMac.

I do not say "use Windows".. Just be aware, there is a big room of improvement.. Please walk outside of Apple world and you will see 1080p displays, even with VGA input.. 5K iMac is ~220 PPI, so it hides the choppy fonts as internal display of MBP16..

he hardware may be the same, but how it programs the GPU may be entirely different. Windows may set a slower clock speed for the GPU, may not drive the GPU in the same way or a variety of other issues come into play.

I do not care what Microsoft does.. What I care is it runs cooler.. From what you say what Apple does is ALWAYS TRUE.. If its implementation consumes higher power, than it is the only solution?.. :)

You can't directly compare systems like this; your old gaming laptop used a different GPU architecture, had different VRAM, and so on.

Actually I can.. What was the word Apple likes to express strongly.. "The experience".. My power hungry "HIGH PERFORMANCE" beast creates less noise unless you require it to roar..

When a car proceeds up a long mountain road, the engine works harder, and it will produce more heat.

This is what you do with the discussion.. Driving it to up a long mountain road..

We all have enough background with when CPU/GPU gets hot.. We are using desktops, laptops, macbooks, phones, even embedded systems.. If we were in 1990's, it was OK a device consuming maximum power on idle.. Today it is unacceptable.. For me, an environmentalist, it is homicide..

My point is only that if absolutely silent operation is your major purchasing criterion, you may want to purchase a different machine that has that as a specific design factor.

So, what you are saying is Apple cannot make this machine silent with software update.. Howcome Microsoft does? The noise is a feature, we are using it wrong by using it with external monitor.. Aside from noise, CPU accelerates less because of headroom, but who cares?

I'll do what you say though.. Unless I need to develop for iOS I'll stay away from those crippled, uncared machines.. Looks like we are left alone with this problem.. Like we are with garbage bluetooth, touchpad, GPU drivers in bootcamp..

denizcan wrote:

Please walk outside of Apple world and you will see 1080p displays, even with VGA input.. 5K iMac is ~220 PPI, so it hides the choppy fonts as internal display of MBP16..

Well, not a problem for me as I wouldn't use my Mac with a 1080p display. I understand there are those that must, though, and certainly if Windows does better it might be a better choice in those particular situations.

I know for a while the native macOS Terminal didn't do as good a job of scaling fonts for display on retina screens used at alternate resolutions as others did, so that's why I tend to use iTerm instead.

I do not care what Microsoft does.. What I care is it runs cooler.. From what you say what Apple does is ALWAYS TRUE.. If its implementation consumes higher power, than it is the only solution?.. :)

If minimizing power consumption is your goal, that's fine. I've mentioned that for me if it's the tiniest bit faster but uses 25w more of power, I have no issues with that, I didn't buy my system to be a power miser, I bought it to be as fast as possible.

Actually I can.. What was the word Apple likes to express strongly.. "The experience".. My power hungry "HIGH PERFORMANCE" beast creates less noise unless you require it to roar..

If you enjoy comparing drastically different systems, that's fine, but I suspect said high performance beast doesn't compare when running performance benchmarks.

We all have enough background with when CPU/GPU gets hot.. We are using desktops, laptops, macbooks, phones, even embedded systems.. If we were in 1990's, it was OK a device consuming maximum power on idle.. Today it is unacceptable.. For me, an environmentalist, it is homicide..

That's your personal preference; I personally don't care about power consumption as much as I do performance.

For example, I like the sound of class A audio amplifiers that suck 1500w at idle, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and I don't shut my audio gear off (nor any of my computers, actually.)

We all have different factors that are important to each of us, and if power draw is primary for you, this may not be the system for you long-term.

That's not a horrific statement; I doubt you would purchase a Ford F-350 pickup truck that gets 8 MPG when your goal was something as fuel efficient as possible.

So, what you are saying is Apple cannot make this machine silent with software update.. Howcome Microsoft does? The noise is a feature, we are using it wrong by using it with external monitor.. Aside from noise, CPU accelerates less because of headroom, but who cares?

We don't know what Apple can and can't do, but we do know that sound level was not an advertised feature of the MBP 16.

The CPU doesn't have to accelerate if it was already running quickly.

I'll do what you say though.. Unless I need to develop for iOS I'll stay away from those crippled, uncared machines.. Looks like we are left alone with this problem.. Like we are with garbage bluetooth, touchpad, GPU drivers in bootcamp..

That's your opinion; despite complaints seen here, millions of people use their devices daily with absolutely zero issues whatsoever, whether it is from Bluetooth or any other part of the system.

I hope you search forums for alternate products and see the issues they are having as well.