MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I've been holding myself because this forum is heavyly moderated and censored.. That makes writing any note meaningless..

People do use zoom.us widely, and it does not make machines become a hair dryer.. If it is OK for you that Apple has not advertised that connecting an external monitor caused UNNECESSARY HEATING, just because of that, it is OK for you that machine heats, than good for you.. We get your point.. However, we are not new to the laptops/computers. We had many of them, some of us even repaired some of them.. It's obvious that it is not OK for us..

I am pretty sure they will silently fix the issue in new 16".. Or they might announce an ARM machine that is dead silence with the same power of 16".. That would be their selling pitch.. MBP16 would be the advertisement of the new ARM machine.. etc..

Remember Apple is a marketing firm, not a computer company anymore..

Why am I spending time on this page? I don't know..

People seem to think that this forum is "censored" but posts are only removed for violating the Terms of Use you, I and everyone else here agreed to when creating an account.

You can re-read them at the link below, if you like:

Apple Support Communities Use Agreement - Apple Community

Violations of those terms is the only reason posts are ever removed, and posts are only removed by moderators, who are Apple employees, not by myself or other contributors here.

I'm not new to laptops, either, but nowhere in Apple's advertising does it claim MacBook Pros will operate silently; no laptop that I am aware of does.

iOS devices do operate silently, because they don't have fans, but that's another topic.

I get that you would prefer the fans not run at the level they do, and that's fine. If it's within 14 days of purchase, or if you purchased your laptop at an Apple retail store within 14 days of their closure due to COVID, you will be able to return the unit for your money back.

(If purchased at an Apple retail store, you will have 14 days after Apple Stores reopen for general customer traffic to return your product; many are open now but just for Genius Bar appointments and for curbside delivery of product, not for general customer shopping or returns.)

Apple sells an awful lot of computer hardware for not being a computer company anymore.

It's not just me, many thousands of people around the world are absolutely thrilled with their MBP 16s, but as I've said from the beginning, not everyone will be thrilled with every product.

Trust me, it's best to not engage :) These people have different agenda here. Replying something to a person that only goal is to keep posting useless information just gives them more reason to post that again :D Some people here consider that 3000$ machine not being able to run zoom is by design and multiple members of this thread weren't able to tell these people otherwise in 180 pages of discussions :)

Hey everyone, maybe it's time to agree that we can disagree on something. Some may feel uncomfortable by loud fans and argue that previous Apple MacBooks were quieter performing the same or similar task loads. Other may feel 100% OK about loud fans and feel satisfied that the machine is able to cool off so much heat, which in itself is true.

So it is a matter of preference. If we agree to disagree on this preference, we can go back to the essence, being an objective discussion about what we experience, what the symptoms are and what we can and cannot do about it.

For those whose preference is the former (no loud fans) the 16" MacBook Pro may - at this point in time - not be a viable option. And given their preference (which happens to be mine and of most here) it's very much OK to rant a bit and say the computer has issues (which in my personal opinion it quite does).

Those whose preference is the latter are obviously very happy with it.

iTech23 wrote:

Yes it does run Zoom and thanks to that I found a new special feature on my computer, now when I'm using zoom I use my computer as a heater for my office as well.

I do that regularly with my two momoblock audio amplifiers for my stereo; at idle they measure at 118ºF 24 x 7. 😁

There are also multiple Class A mono audio amps that idle at 750w of power consumed and sit at around 135ºF at idle. 😳

Then there is tubed gear… 

Just wondering if this issue was being solved. My company just bought for me a MacBook Pro 16 inch with Radeon and I have heavy duty graphic tasks, but the fans start even with heavy excel files with pivot refresh and filters...Does anybody know if a stand that allows air flow help? I can't work with noise and am obliged to wear headphones...

William, you're an army of single man and I wonder what is your motivation to spend so much time in this thread arguing with ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE on the subject!

Yes, I had something very close to shut down due to – well – quite heavy conditions last days: about 30ºC in the room and noticeable amount of dust collected in air flow channels due to my lack of attention. MBP shut down looks like heavy CPU thermal throttling down to 1Ghz. After cleaning vents the situation got somewhat better. So you have your single report.

BUT NONETHELESS I want to point out:

• drawing 18W of power in 60 hz mode and 5W in 144 hz mode hints of some software bug in GPU driver.
• justifying fans spin just because I use external screen while idling/with minimal load is ridiculous. I had MBP 15/2016 with radeon 455 and 10 y.o. HP with discrete GPU. None of this kind of issues with same display.

This is what different people are trying to tell you. If you're okay with fan spinning – we absolutely see that. Сome on! Apple in it's thermal design approarch tended to let their computers run on hotter side so they are more silent!

I really wish this issue to be fixed. And I really hesitated about getting into this discussion

I’m far from a “single man”; literally thousands of people use MBP 16s connected to external monitors every day happily, including large numbers of people in Apple’s engineering groups both in the office pre-COVID and now at home. I know for a fact that many engineers did as many here do, and carried their laptops home with them and back to the office to be used with external monitors, external keyboards and Magic Trackpads as pseudo-desktops. Others of course use iMacs and there are Mac Pros around as well.

You report “hints” of issues given nothing other than your assumptions (the same with your “very close to shutdown” comment.)

Statements about what power draw is “acceptable” are nothing more than your preference and statements that it must be a bug are as well.

Statements about what past MBPs did or didn’t do are just that, statements about past devices that had different design teams, different design parameters and likely different design goals.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out the power draw or heat issues or bemoaning the fans, nor is working out how to minimize what you feel to be an issue; the problem I have is when it is then described as “broken” or “useless,” which is clearly not the case.

We will of course eventually find out if these issues were a bug or not if the behavior changes in a future macOS update or major release.

Hi William, by now we have acknowledged that your preference regarding to loud blowing fans differs from the rest of us. For each to have their own opinion is perfectly okay. nothing wrong with that and in general this adds to the discussions here.

But I ask you: are you at all aware that this discussion is only partly rational (fan noise or not, when, which setups etc) and largely emotional (disappointment and worry)? And are you aware that your input in this thread is aimed firmly and indefatigably on the rationale and that you at least appear to be totally missing the emotional side of disappointment?

William,

It is irresponsible to diagnose anyone’s computer without physically 

diagnosing it. It is irresponsible to tell people who’s computers are running extremely

Hot and experience fans ramping up to 5000 rpm under light tasks that “

 it's handling the task in a way differently than you expect

i feel your answer might be misleading to less tech savy customers . Based on your answer should we all stop looking for solutions?

I am documenting this post as I have not said anything that would warrant me to have my

post deleted. Please let us discuss our issues

with this problem . Please these are difficult times for our local communities and African Americans ...

Apple just added a new high end discrete GPU to the MacBook Pro 16-inch, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, what is interesting is that the new GPU uses HBM2 memory, this type of memory provides higher bandwidth while also utilizing less power.

"LESS POWER"

Maybe this is their solution........

Note the new 5600M GPU is rated at a "Total Graphics Power" of 50w, the same as the 5500M and 5300M.

wccftech: AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU With 8 GB HBM2 Memory Announced For Apple MacBook Pro – First Navi Design With HBM

So now the natural question - does this actually solve the heat issues or at least mitigate them to some degree?

If they don't fix the defective driver/GPU I'm not holding my breath that this will be an actual fix.

My Rolls Royce continues to idle at red line, certainly different to what I expected 😂

I don't know how anyone would know yet, as they were just announced today and the Apple Store web site quotes "Fastest" delivery dates starting June 23.

However, their TGP of 50w means they certainly have the capability of using just as much power as the other two GPU options currently shipping.

For people who pay the extra amount of money for the 5600M, speed would be the most important factor, not power usage or heat.

Peak clock is lower thought. Might be able to consumes less watts for the same usage compared to the 5300M / 5500M.

Is it common for Apple to release more dGPU options for their Macbook Pro after their initial release?