MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Thanks for sharing. Same issue here with the 16-inch. Never had any issues on the 2015 Macbook either.

I reported it and after long phone calls and doing a lot of tests Apple says it is normal behavior. They didn't want to confirm that in writing though, only on the phone.

As I posted earlier, that is exactly my experience and the reason I came to this discussion group.

After detailed testing, resetting, and hours on the phone, Steve from Apple Support told me that it is normal behavior and he refused to give me anything in writing. So, it is "good" to hear this from others.

Dogcow-Moof wrote:

I put my head up to my MBP 16 and couldn't hear the fans at all at 2400 RPM. Complete silence.

The screen shot shows that it was a TB3 to mDP adapter; I paid $16.99 for an "ITD ITANDA" model at Amazon.

[Edited by Moderator]

You really need to see the ear doctor. I have a severally damaged hearing with a moderate case for tinnitus and I can hear 2400rpm from a 3ft distance. If you can't hear the sound even with your head against the mbp 16", most likely your hearing is even more damaged than mine.

I found a interesting information about the update of Big Sur.

According to the Chrome developers, there has been a bug specific to the MacBookPro 16" that has been causing blue or green squares to appear on the browser screen for some time, and Apple has finally fixed it.

(Google Issue 1068170 for more details.)

It's rare for the GPU driver to be updated for this model, so hopefully the fan issue has been resolved as well...

If you slog through the postings on the google issue cited (blue squares obliterating screen data) it looks like improved in 11.3, and Apple thinks it may be solved in 11.4, yet to be released at this writing.

What impact that may have on fans was not explored there.

raimiss wrote:

You really need to see the ear doctor. I have a severally damaged hearing with a moderate case for tinnitus and I can hear 2400rpm from a 3ft distance. If you can't hear the sound even with your head against the mbp 16", most likely your hearing is even more damaged than mine.

My hearing is fine, but thanks so much for your concern.

Dear all,

First of all I am sorry if it has already been posted here but I haven't read the 200+ pages...

I have of course the same issue with my MBP16 used opened and connected to my 27" Thunderbolt display.

It is exhausting for a 4000€ laptop.

Here is a video found on Youtube which explains perfectly what is the issue, according to me and to what I experienced :

I hope Apple will one day provide a fix, and not only by releasing a MBP 16 which a MX chip...

It is clearly a software issue, so by definition it can be fixed.

[Edited by Moderator]

My Posts often got deleted from Apple because of what I am writing...

hope this stays long enough before the Mod is taking it away...

APPLE KNOWS THAT PROBLEM AND THEY CAN NOT FIX IT !!

they keep it "low" and don't talk about because of Bad Press and lawsuits

that's the reason why they keep it confidential and say there is no issue.

just believe me when I say, I know that.

I hope for the new 16" MBP, I have since weeks the MacBook Air and it runs super powerful - don't even noticed a fan

bought 2 x 16" MBP in the last 16 Month for 15k € and they're unusable for location work - even without a 2nd screen when you run Logic its so ****** loud. The specs, speed and power is a dream but not for a laptop.

And I am not the only one with that "problem". Everyone around me has that problem.

Absolutely not a software issue, otherwise believe me, it would be fixed.

It's a hardware DESIGN issue. There is not enough space for the components to cool down and it's worst if you use the discreet GPU because that's the main culprit : the d-gpu draws too much power and heats too much !

If they provided a fix that basically force the fans to be low it would impact :

_Battery life : (overheat battery which would basically kill it)

-cpu / internal components : either diminish the life expectancy of the CPU or completely kill it in a few weeks.

There will never be a fix available. A working fix would diminish too much the performance or kill the components in a few weeks.

Is it our problem, that is Hardware or Software issue ??? - NO! its fault of APPLE.

I bought the PROFESSIONAL expansive laptop, for work as professional ... but now, i cannot.... waste of time

my wife macbook pro 13 - HAVE NO ISSUE with 2 monitors opened or closed shell mode. Is the size matter? - No!

romain89 wrote:

Absolutely not a software issue, otherwise believe me, it would be fixed.

It's a hardware DESIGN issue. There is not enough space for the components to cool down and it's worst if you use the discreet GPU because that's the main culprit : the d-gpu draws too much power and heats too much !

It's not a design issue.

The CPU and GPU draw generate a set amount of heat, and the fan works to cool down the interior for the amount of heat generated.

You don't like the speed the fan needs to run to do that.

You don't get me right, for me the issue is not the noise of the fans by it self. If I do something that requires a lot of power, I am ok to hear the fans. And in this case, we can speak about thermal dissipation issue.

The issue for me is that as soon as you connect an external display and still use the internal display, the discreet GPU drains 18W. This is a bug when you see that with 2 external 4K displays, it uses less than 6W ... There is something wrong with the driver of the dGPU and this have to be fix. The dGPU shall not use so much power just to display the desktop on a external display, I am not exporting a 8K video!

A 700€ Lenovo laptop handles perfectly 2 external displays in addition to its own display ... and in silence.

I just plug my external display, don't do anything and 5 minutes later my laptop is warm and the fans start to run :(

Dogcow-Moof wrote:

The CPU and GPU draw generate a set amount of heat, and the fan works to cool down the interior for the amount of heat generated.

Yes but the issue is that they should not generate such an amount of heat only to display something on a external display... Even the integrated GPU could handle could handle it, if only hasn't set a rule "external display = dGPU".

Please remove your blinders ;)

I know this thread is long, but the reason this is the case has been explained many times before and it has to do with the refresh rate of the external display, the interface used to drive it and timing at which the GPU must be driven to deliver flicker-free video on the display.

The most efficient means to connect a display seems to be via mini DisplayPort; the least efficient appears to be HDMI.

And why does the issue disappear has soon as I use it in clamsheel mode?

The dGPU not longer has issue with the refresh rate?

Some people has already tried to use SwitchResX to slighly reduce this rate, it works in clamsheel mode but not as soon as you use again the laptop internal display.

Why a laptop so expensive cannot deal with something that so much cheaper windows laptops handle perfectly?

It is like telling to an overpriced Audi's driver that he cannot cruise on the highway at the same speed than the guy with a cheap car without overheating its engine, when the other car can.

Explain an issue doesn't legitimate it to my eyes, not at this pricetag.