MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I strongly disagree with this, there is nothing acceptable about the thermal performance of this nearly $4000 laptop.

There is no technological rationale for Apple to have designed this machine this way. It is defective, since no other past flagship models have performed in this manner.

Regardless of the resident board apologists' opinions (and they are entitled to their vast minority opinions here), the problem remains unsolved by Apple after 10 months.

That's your opinion, but I suspect Apple's engineering team feels differently.

As has been discussed before, I'm sure part of the issue is that Intel is behind on their roadmap, and the initial design was based around the promise of a next generation of higher performance and perhaps lower power processors, but in the end we got stuck with 9th Generation Intel Core CPUs just like the last MBP. The thing is we got a much more powerful GPU, and there are definitely use cases where that outweighs any concerns about fan noise.

Perhaps the first generation of Apple Silicon MBPs will solve this problem, who knows, and certainly the 5600M GPU is more efficient and solves at least some of the issues due to its use of HBM2 rather than GDDR6 VRAM, bringing the clock speed, power consumption and heat generated down - though obviously at a price.

The MBP 16 is the classic case of you can't please everyone.

All I can say is that having spent time with an HP Spectre x360 with a similar GPU (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, TGP 50w, so the same as the 5500M and it also uses GDDR6 VRAM) and CPU (10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H), Apple did a wonderful job with thermal management as its fans spin up to levels people here would consider unacceptable sitting idle driving its beautiful OLED screen - no external monitor involved.

That's of little comfort to those who are annoyed, but sometimes the best you can do is meet the specs you are advertised to, which the MBP 16 does.

William Kucharski wrote:

If fans spinning at 2400 RPM are noisy to you so be it, but you also won't find any other high performance laptop that suits your needs.

"Heats up" depends largely upon your monitor and its connection method.

You make it sound like the issue is universal, and I (and others) have posted data that shows it is not.

If it bothers you and you are within the 14 day return period, feel free to return your machine for a full refund.

The issue is universal though, fans should stay at around 1800rpm with GPU enabled hooked up to external monitor, that would be the expected behaviour for a 2019/20 laptop. The GPU should use around 5w at idle even with 3x 5k displays attached.

The reality is, the GPU goes to 18watt in all but a few edge cases, and adds 14 watts of heat to the system that was not intended to be there. This means the intended "quiet" operation of the laptop that Apple wanted, never happens.

Wether your machine runs at 2400 rpm or 5000 rpm is irrelevant, as the problem here is not the fan speed, but the heat output of the GPU at idle.

Only way I can get my GPU To 5 watt is by changing 1 of my 1440p monitors to scaled 1080p mode, with laptop closed, and turning off the other one. Obviously not what I would expect from a laptop at this price range.

Starting the laptop up in safe mode (with shift pressed at bootup) the GPU goes into "Safe mode" and consumes .. 9watt with/without screens, closed/open laptop, I can even hook up 3 4k screens and it doesn't care same wattage, proving that it has nothing to do with external screens, but everything to do with bad hardware/software engineering.

Yes, I would agree Apple‘s engineering team feels differently. They produced a mistake in the thermal re-engineering and also shipped software with defects in into the market. The specs are unfortunately not honestly say the notebook can only be used in loud environments.

The defect in drivers was also with the newest iMac. Just with the last update from today there was a fix for graphic driver.

If there is the need to have support for HP the forum here is most likely the wrong one but it is recommended to switch to a more HP dedicated forum.

I first hope that the fix of the defect with the 5500 can be done fast and I trust the team will not do again the same mistake with the new notebooks. I think as soon as Big Sur users who really need to concentrate at work should try a 5600 with HBM2 and if the defect with the dedicated GPU and displays attached is fixed or at least not recurring.

What Apple could do is providing with the option to go over integrated intel graphic or dedicated. 95% of users in this forum would run with the dedicated only if required but not as standard. And would profit from no unnecessary noise.

What Apple could do is providing with the option to go over integrated intel graphic or dedicated. 95% of users in this forum would run with the dedicated only if required but not as standard. And would profit from no unnecessary noise.

The Radeon GPU is hardwired to the Thunderbolt ports, so you can not use iGPU For external monitors.

Call it a defect or mistake or whatever you want - but the facts state otherwise.

I will mention that Apple can't provide the option to "go over integrated graphics" - there is literally no connection from the integrated GPU to the ports, so external monitors can only be driven by the dGPU.

Call it a defect or mistake or whatever you want - but the facts state otherwise.

Facts in the universe where majority participants of this thread live state exactly that. Maybe facts are different in your universe ;)

Personally, I would return it. I think it comes down to personal preference. I am running the A2141

2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory and none of this is an issue for me. I have ran every resolution with 1 and 2 monitors and it takes some time for my fans to come on. Even when they come on the fan noise is minimal.

I returned previous config and got a replacement with the 5600- so far so good

"The defect in drivers was also with the newest iMac. Just with the last update from today there was a fix for graphic driver. "

I was also thinking of getting the new iMac, do you have any link for that problem?

thanks

I got my new macbook pro 16" with the 5500 three weeks ago and also experienced the awful fan noise with my ultrawide-monitor connected. It doesn't matter if i plugged the monitor on the left or right connectors. But i now was able to completely eliminate the problem with deactivating the turbo boost ( i use "Turbo Boost Switcher"). Since i deactivated the turboboost, the fans are constantly between 1800 and 2300 rpm, so practically noiseless. At first i considered returning the macbook but after discovering the mentioned solution, i'm fine now.

ChrisBln82 wrote:

But i now was able to completely eliminate the problem with deactivating the turbo boost ( i use "Turbo Boost Switcher").

So you bought a laptop with an i9 processor, but disable turbo boost, which means you essentially could just have bought a much less powerful CPU .. boost is what gives the mobile GPU's any power.. now you just have a macbook air hidden in a gigantic body.

I'm having the same issue. I had nightmare of contacting apple support and they are not helpful at all. Support engineers keep interrupting me and not listening at all.

After escalation I was requested to send laptop to their factory free of charge. But I'm not sure if apple will find something before.

I'll make sure to record couple of troubleshoot videos and share them on youtube before I send it.

Case: ***

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

Hi OliverWolf

Unfortunately this defect is not accepted from apple as such. Imagine you need to produce sound and need one or two external displays. Nobody told you this won't be possible anymore. And all MBP before worked silently and you were used to buy a new one all the years and you were just plugging in. Not anymore with the new MBP .

There is a way. Buy an external USB graphic card like a club 3d usb to hdmi adapter. Takes a little bit longer until the displays start. On the other hand the RPM go below1850 wich is Apple-typical again. Unfortunately it is not delivered directly from Apple with the MBP...

Or you buy an external GPU (eGPU): Box with silent fan, silent powersupply and a temperature controlled Radeon. Is about 1'000 USD.

itunestux wrote:

Unfortunately this defect is not accepted from apple as such. Imagine you need to produce sound and need one or two external displays. Nobody told you this won't be possible anymore.

That's not true; I and others have found their MBPs to run silently or very nearly so when connecting to external monitors via a USB-C to MDP adapter rather than via HDMI.

I would really like this was right and all from this forum would have a solution. Unfortunately it is not the case and playing down the defect is not of help as the power consumption jumps and the fans get immediately mad. I of course tried USB-C to DP, USB-C to HDMI. The result is the same. Monitor detection and settings are defective. It is like having a car and always tapping the paddle full throttle - even at the traffic light...