MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

What has been relayed to you is what AMD has said on other forums regarding their GPUs:

It's still not a bug though.

Multiple displays with different resolutions, refresh rates, timings and or using different display adapters/connections requires more resources from the GPU, this can move the GPU up into the next memory clock state to compensate and avoid issues such as flickering or corruption.

If all displays are identical, using the same resolution, refresh rates, timings and using identical display adapters/connections then the GPU may be able to run two or more without moving up into the next clock state. It can vary from Bios to Bios and GPU to GPU, but the expected behaviour is increased clock speeds so this is not something we can change.

https://community.amd.com/thread/214891?commentID=2793350

You can feel free to accept it or not, but they're the ones who would need to make any changes and they feel it is working as designed.

Price points have nothing to do with it.

Note also the dGPU only drives external monitors and the onboard GPU drives the laptop screen, so clamshell mode shuts off the internal GPU, reducing the heat generated somewhat.

Those "much cheaper" Windows laptops don't have anywhere near as powerful a GPU.

Dogcow-Moof wrote:

What has been relayed to you is what AMD has said on other forums regarding their GPUs:

You can feel free to accept it or not, but they're the ones who would need to make any changes and they feel it is working as designed.

So Apple should maybe set their computer in a way that would allow them to use external display for simple task without using the dGPU ...

Note also the dGPU only drives external monitors and the onboard GPU drives the laptop screen, so clamshell mode shuts off the internal GPU, reducing the heat generated somewhat.

So if the lid uses the internal GPU, and I can honestly believe you, can you explain me why the power consumption of the dGPU drops from 18W to 5W as soon as I close my MBP? There is an issue here and that's it. If not and according to what you said, there should be no impact on the dGPU power consumption by closing the laptop.

I work with a office's tasks oriented 700€ laptop all week, he manage perfectly 2 external full HD screen without noise and is just a little bit warm.

The few times, I used my personal MBP 16 instead, for exactly the same use, it is much more warm and the fans start frequently.

As a consumer, I don't want to have to understand VRAM issues or something else, I just want to have a least the same experience with my overpriced MBP than the one I get with my simple plastic Lenovo laptop when I ask him the same things.

I thought I wasn't asking for the moon...

I agree with you, even if I do prefer a silent but efficient fix to public acknowledgements. But if it is like for the butterfly keyboard ...

I can't imagine that a company like Apple is not able to solve a bug like this. They simply don't want for an obscur reason.

Consider also installing Turbo Boost Switcher to reduce the stupidly-high heat contributed by the CPU under Turbo Boost (which can only be used under light loads anyway). For most purposes, the small reduction in compute power is negligible, while the reduced heat generated is worth the trouble..

I can recommend Targus DOCK570EUZ which gives me option of 4 displays (I use with 3x EIZO 1920x1200 and display of MacBook) I use my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 with mac OS 11.4. If I use with eGPU AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB i have the usual fan issues. With the dockingstation from above it works with the same fanspeed as without anything attached to the MacBook. Very calm. I use Citrix with a lot of ConfCalls through the day. This solved the issue for me.

I'd installed the Turbo Boost Switcher a couple months back and it's definitely helped keep my sanity. I'll run my 2 - 27" monitors when running Pro tools while on a Zoom meeting, along with some browsers open and if it starts to get too loud for the project I'm working on (or to the point I can't hear the Zoom meeting), I'm forced to [Control+Shift+Command+E] and disable the turbo boost. It really is a shame we have to deal with this, but, so far the small reduction in compute power hasn't noticeably affected any of my tasks when the turbo boost is disabled. I am pretty disgusted with Apple, but whatever...my mistake, I guess... I'm definitely thankful for the earlier recommendation on the Turbo Boost Switcher!!

Selzere wrote:

You mean that you use 3 FHD monitors and the LID without activating the dedicted GPU?

I would have never thought it was possible.

It's not.

There is no pathway from the integrated graphics to the external display. External displays alway use the Discrete Graphics processor (on models, such as most 15-in and 16-in, that contains both).

Good to know!

It can be an alternative at a "reasonable" cost regarding the confort it brings. Indeed, it is a high level hub that allows you to still plug only one cable to your MacBook Pro. But if it keeps it cool with 2 4K external displays, it is something it will consider for sure!

What I found out after going through and reading on a lot of forums and something that worked for me was replacing all the cables with higher spec cables. For example one of my monitor used a HDMI cable that was cheap and probably supported a older HDMI protocol.

With the bad HDMI cable connected to one 4K monitor and another 4K monitor connected using a thunderbolt 3 cable, the CPU usage on my MBP 16 would hover around the 70% mark.

I replaced the bad HDMI cable with another thunderbolt cable and the now CPU idles at 3%, temps are at 57 degrees C for the CPU and GPU is at 57 degrees C too.

I think before we try to do anything else, its important we look at the cables being used to connect to monitors, I think that makes a difference.

Hello

I can hardly read all 275 pages ... sorry for that, but I bought a MBP16" some months ago and this evening I got the problem with running fans on high speed for the first time while there was in fact no CPU load (I was reading).

I have iStats running and it showed up normal / average temperatures, whereas the area right above the touch bar was quiet hot (and still is very warm).

No external monitor, just a external SSD connected by USB sitting on the couch ... I am wondering if this is not software related in a way (running Mac OS 10.5) as it appeared for the first time right after the last updates :-(

Regards, Dietmar

i just upgraded to Big Sur and the overall Temperature got even more with the 2nd screen attached to the black magic external eGPU.

before i start logic its around 3500 rpm and after starting LogicPro the fans are running 5000 plus more.

holy moly !!!

hope tomorrow comes a MacBook Pro that deserved the Pro in the name again.

for me the problem only exists when i have the lit of my macbook open when connected to a external monitor.

in clamshell mode (lit closed) it works fine

when opening up the lit the amd gpu goes to 16w of power on idle.

lit closed only 4w

I'm so glad to see this thread exists. My fans are on constantly, whether I'm connected to the power supply / external monitor or not.

You could argue that it's Chrome / Webstorm / Outlook but I don't have this problem on my M1, and that those apps are actually not doing anything.

It feels like the built in GPU just causes everything to overheat even just sitting there - this 16" has an i9 and the top tier GPU and it's basically just a red hot plate that I have to type on for 8-10 hours per day.

Hi

I encountered similar problems with the basic model with 512GB SSD - I would have taken the 13" M1, but I was told M1 is not able to emulate x86 HW with VMWare at the moment (or even a few months ago) which I am using a lot.

Regards, D