MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I think somebody already mentioned this before but I'm not 100% sure, the GPU time on the Activity monitor for the WindowServer Process (WindowServer is a system service that acts as the liaison between OS X apps and your Mac's graphics hardware) is definitely wrong, since this process is related to the graphic hardware (GPU), maybe this is what causing this crazy bug, as you can check on the screenshots, one of the is showing 1,963:42:00 (maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like this number is not correct), when this happened the fans were going at 4500 RPM with just Safari opened, I only had the machine on for a few hours so for what I can understand this info is wrong, so I restarted the machine without the external monitor connected and after 30 minutes I took another screenshot.

@Tails

Something is most certainly wrong with your laptop and/or setup.

I've spent a good portion of the day exporting 4k video from FCPx yesterday and I don't think it ever reached 70 on mine. It was still running smooth for other apps.

The only time that I have really noticed the fans when they shouldn't have been running was when the screen saver was on and I was running without clamshell or an external display. It did it for a short time and then stopped after I turned the screensaver off.

There is something not right.

Even right now after been working dual 4ks, of course i'm in clamshell, it's only 49.

I hope you can get it worked out. If I can help by running other tests here, let me know.

I use mine in clamshell mode and it never goes below 60 but it can get to 90+ just by browsing the web. As soon as I disconnect the external monitor the machine goes back to 50/48 and after a minute the fans go back to 1900 RPM. Check attached screenshots (the first 2 screenshots at 95 and 62 are with the external monitor connected in clamshell mode and the other 2 at 50 and 48 are without an external monitor connected)

I have 64 GB RAM

I changed the configuration to 1 4k plugged in directly, 1 plugged into the dock. and the screen open. The fans are still less than 2000 - silent. It's been about 10 minutes now.

I will leave it sit this way while I go and do deliveries.

So my fans don't get loud. The machine is pretty much silent. My machine is definitely hot. I almost wish the fans would kick on lol. See my iStats menu.

This is with 2 1080p monitors plugged into a Plugable dock. I had no issue with the same setup using my 2017 MBP.

Needed to do some more intensive graphics stuff today so unplugged the monitor, the machine is running at around a cool 40c. That's with docker, chrome, graphics apps running and an ipad with sidecar.

Plugged in the monitor and after about 15 minutes it starts to go above 70c

I'm also running Turbo Boost Switcher

Just wanted to chime in here. My 7 day old 16" MBP's GPU just fried / died today on the way to my gigs.

MBP 16.0 GRAY 2.4GHZ/32GB/5500M/2TB

I had been reading this thread. I use an external monitor. I had the TB3+ Hub connected to my computer with a Display Port connection to an older monitor. Since reading this thread and reading about the temperatures and wattages I only used my computer in Clamshell mode for the last couple days making music. I maybe had 2 hours of work with dual monitors until I found this thread and stopped.

Anyways, it died today. 7 days old, wow. Here are some pics of it's last moments. I have a video of it right before it died aswell but the forum can't upload it. In the airport I noticed this green line down the centre of the screen, then when I opened it on the plane the login screen looked like the second picture, then on login the screen went dark. On restart it looked like the third picture, and the screen completely died after this.

Thank god I brought my old MBP as backup just in case, unbelievable, and what a waste of time.

I just ordered another 16" in the hope it's better than my first one. Whilst chatting the the business manager sorting things out, I mentioned the reason why last model was returned and he said something I do not recall anyone else bringing up. He thought that maybe the more powerful GPU isn't actually being used [because the MBP thinks it isn't really needed] and the lesser GPU is the one doing the work, but struggling and thus getting hot.

He suggested in Power settings to force the more powerful GPU to always be used. He couldn't demo it on the shop MBPs because store models run a slightly crippled version of OSX to stop folk messing settings up.

Basically enable this.

Article on GPU preferences here.

https://osxdaily.com/2017/01/08/disable-gpu-switching-macbook-pro/

You can have separate setting for when you are using battery, because, you won't have an external monitor if you have no power supply to plug in.

I'm seeing really really high values now for WindowServer GPU time, even more than before:

Thats over 2 million hours of GPU time in just a few hours of real human time. That's WindowServer not the chrome Gpu renderer or some video software. There must be something wrong with that.

Hi,

I have also problem with too hot 16-inch MacBook used with external monitor connected through Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD.

My previous MBP 15 2017 had 43*C degrees when idling.

My new MBP have about 53*C degrees when idling and it is realy annoying. During web browsing temperature fastly reaches to about 60*C degrees.

BUT when I switched default monitor resolution to scaled resoluton (1920x1200 -> 1920x1080) my MBP 16 idling temperature drops to about 44-45*C degrees.

All given tempeatures was in clamshell mode.

Strange.

Jan

Window server seems to have a rather awkward GPU time in Activity Monitor. I also get the high fan noise and extreme heat when using an external monitor (using USB-c to DisplayPort cable from Ivanky). At the moment I'm not using the external monitor as I'm afraid the intense heat might damage some components in my new Macbook Pro 16 inch (core i9 2.4, AMD 5500 pro 8 GB).

Mine:connected to an old SAMSUNG SyncMaster 226BW 1680x1050 (DVI-USB type-C adapter) makes

no difference at fans, when I browse there (via Safari).

It gets a little bit warm all the time when connected to monitor (clamshell or not) but I barely hear the fans. When I play a game (via Steam) is an example...

I know that monitor's resolution is very low, but I'm afraid to change it with a new one @ 2560x1440, as I intended to do when I bought my MacBook, because of the things written here.

I would like to add, that I completely believe all of you who raise the issue of heating and fan noise. Unfortunately I don't have iStat Menus to make further tests.

If you go to activity monitor and show the GPU history window you’ll see the AMD Radeon has very strange 0 or 100 behavior. Apple just replaced my 16 inch only for the new one to do the same. I even bought an eGPU to reduce heat off the machine when connected to my LG UltraFine 5K. Not normal at all!

That's really strange - your 5500M looks how I was expecting mine to look! Both 16"' MPBs I've had (the original and the replacement I got yesterday) exhibit the behavior I showed, so assumed it was normal. Now I'm really questioning if I have two 'bad' ones. Seems highly unlikely though...

As for the eGPU, I went with the over-priced BlackMagic eGPU. Not the 'pro' one just the standard one from Apple for $699. It makes a world of difference as it's doing all the heavy lifting now powering my LG Ultrafine 5k, Parallels with a windows VM, and basic Chrome web page and video rendering. I just feel like I've gotten a raw deal spending this much on a MacBook Pro and needing to supplement it with an eGPU just to do basic tasks.

Here's the GPU History of my now three GPUs where the 5500M is only powering Slack. Hmmmm....

Slack is just a basic business instant messaging tool and not graphic intensive at all. I see the same behavior on any application using the 5500M. When an application uses the Intel 630 or the BlackMagic eGPU the history graphs look exactly as you'd expect. I wonder if anyone else is seeing what I see. I have the 5500M with 4GB (the config in stock at stores)

Here's my history from right now running on battery, using only Chrome and other basic office apps without the eGPU connected. The odd thing is that actual behavior of my system is not demonstrating anything wrong when not connected to my 5k monitor. For example I can run a 4k video without any sort of hiccups or glitching despite the weird history graph. It makes me think that the system is reading the data from the 5500M but the actual chip is working as designed - perhaps that disconnect is what's causing fan modulation and heat management to act odd.