MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I'm having the same problem.

Apparently, when I connect an external display, the fan speed reduction is extremely slow, I think.

This is a screenshot of the Cindori Sensei at idle.

Each graph of the flat CPU core shows that it is not doing any tasks in between.

The fan speed is over 5000 rpm. It's dropping slightly, but will go up again soon if I do any tasks.

At this time I was connected to a 4k display in clamshell mode and the resolution was set to 2560 x 1400.

FINALLY!

I'm posting this as a confirmation of a reportedly "fix", which is using a Type-C to Displayport (which should support 4K and 60Hz).

Just bought the following cable, and the moment I connected my MBP 16" to my DELL U2515H (2560x1440) and enabled 60Hz (instead of 58.9 that my previous cable supported), everything fell into place, just like they're supposed to. FINALLY.

Average Temp: 50°C

Radeon High Tide: ~4.5W

Cable: https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_85257/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en

Monitor: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DELL-U2515H-ADZG-25-Inch-Monitor/dp/B00P6O3YYO

iStats Screenshot

My Macbook stays at 50°C, and my fans at 1800RPM (0%) while I'm currently browsing 7 tabs on Chrome, running Adobe Illustrator & Sketch.

Now, my only concern which I'll need to test by the end of the week is a dual-monitor setup. That is, by using the same cable mentioned above at both my monitors (since they're both the same model).

1 What happens when not in clamshell mode?

Unfortunately, when the lid is open, Radeon High Side jumps back at ~17.8 W and the temperature at ~65°C which then results to enabling the fans at ~15%.

2 How does the system hold up during sustained / longer sessions?

I've been designing a website using Adobe XD, Adobe Illustration, Sketch & 4-7 Tabs on Chrome all at the same time, during the last 3 hours and the fans never went over 1900 RPM (2%-3%). They've been the most quiet 3 hours of productive work I've had since I bought this machine, literally.

The only time I noticed the average temp increasing at 65°C is when I exported a .PDF file from Photoshop, which lasted about 30 seconds. The fans went up to ~2.150 RPM for a minute, dropped the average temp at ~55°C, and then dropped at 1800 (0%) again. All that happened without a single decibel of sound, as this machine is supposed to do.

3 how is Radeon High Side reading developing when actually using GPU intensive loads?

I did a 3D rendering process in Adobe Photoshop of quite a big file, and while rendering the stats were as shown bellow (which I believe is pretty normal based on the fact that it was a 3D rendering process?)

Clamshell mode.

The fans went full on, and once the 3D rendering finished, they kept spinning at ~5k RPM until the temp dropped at ~50°C and they went quiet again at 1800 RPM

ahmedfromreservoir wrote:

Powering a single external display irrespective of resolution with the lid open pushes the fans to 5000RPM on idle.

That is simply not true, I have proven that with two different monitors, a Dell U2717D and a 30" Apple Cinema Display; this is after playing full-screen HD videos on the Dell for over 15 minutes from YouTube via Safari while reading Apple Support Communities on the laptop screen:

I like data, so…

It's a bit warmer today, so after 30 minutes, my fans are a bit higher, but here's after 30 minutes of full screen HD video on the Dell U2717D while I am actively using the laptop screen at the same time.

Fans are right around 2400 RPM, which is still no big deal, I don't hear anything with my ear up to the MBP 16.

Isn't data great William - I've noticed something else interesting. On your machine, your left fan speed is slightly higher (2400 left vs 2200 right) and the "Airflow Left" temperature is slightly higher (46°C left vs 38°C right). This makes sense: I understand the dGPU is on the left, you've just been hitting the dGPU, so the thermals are higher. That all sounds good to me.

Right now, I'm in a Teams meeting, fans are blasting (5200 left, 4800 right). dGPU is working at about 25% while the CPU is around 21%. What stands out as completely different is my Airflow Left sensor reads 33°C, while the Airflow Right reads 47°C). That's a massive difference.

The left hand fan is working hard, but it looks to me that the heat transfer to get the heat away from the dGPU just isn't happening. Not only is the difference between left and right airflow very big, but the difference in left airflow between your machine and mine also seems to be huge.

Looking back in history, the Airflow Left sensor is always around the low to mid thirties. I'd be really interested to know whether others who suffer fan noise are seeing a similar thing.

For posterity, here are some charts showing what I'm describing.

Sensors while running Teams (and yes, Teams is an abomination, but we all have to live with it):

30 day airflow temps:

My display set up:

I can confirm significant CPU performance hits with dual display. The thermals of the GPU running at 20W+ is now knee capping my workflow.

Adobe Lightroom image export - left is with a single LG 5K display connected, right has a Dell 2560x1600 display connected as well.

The CPU performance falls off a cliff in the dual display configuration, yet still remains at 65 degrees C. With a single display, I see the CPU hit around 80c, suggesting we are seeing a power delivery problem, or an over-zealous software-based thermal throttling workaround implemented in the OS, that's clearly aware of the Radeon's power draw, and kneecaps the CPU to prevent molten lava.

What's really interesting? I'm seeing a 40W consumption difference on the CPU, which is more than the 15W delta we see on the GPU... there is something very unusual going on with the power delivery mechanics of this system that seem to extend beyond thermal throttling. At least I've now identified the cause of almost all of my performance issues!

I'll be logging this with AppleCare tomorrow.

So Time goes on and i have a really success Storry.

Yesterday I had the possibility to use my MacBook Pro 2019 16" on a Thunderbolt 3 Dock (I-Tec Thunderbolt 3 Dual 4K Dock (TB3HDMIDOCKPLUS) 60Watt - ) with 2 external monitors and opened MacBook Pro for a whole day.

Otherwise I have an external monitor - Samsung 34" 3440 x 1440.

And I have new insights:

Next the fans were always between 2700 and 2900 rpm. But that was completely ok, otherwise I wouldn't report.

Radeon needs about: 19W - with and without dock

The histogram (below are the images) shows that the left side of the MacBook Pro became much hotter the days before. But still cool enough that the fans did not turn up to 55xx rpm.

So it's hotter but the fans aren't freaking out.

I made a video (below). There I show all performance data of the last 7 days. The remaining 6 days were without dad dock.

The dock got warm but not hot.

The monitors were connected via HDMI to USB-C cable and DVI to HDMI.

They were not 4K monitors - I think they had HD resolutions.

All the cables were connected to the dock and the dock was connected with only one TB3 cable.

What I find strange, is that the temperature was higher on the left side (thats ok, when power and monitors on the same cable/port). But the fans behaved more normal and the watts of the radeon were constant. Thats what stange is - but it's positive.

I would have expected the air to go even more crazy when the temperature rose.

So now I bought today a better version of the dock. Now and I'm curious if it works (85W and 1,5m long TB3 cable - instead of 60W and 70cm cable). Unfortunately no SpaceGray but I might let it disappear under the desk.

I made a video with the sensor data of the last 7 days - to see how the MacBook Pro behaves without the dock and without.

https://youtu.be/P8uGhZ8atQA

Maybe this helps some one. If this is the solution for now, i am fine. Would be better if i have known this, and don't spend that many hours to figure out how to solve the issue.

Now comes the Picures.

Thunderbolt left Proximity - where the TB3-cable is connected, is also much hotter

Thunderbolt right Proximity

Fans - Leftside - (where the cable from dock were connected) - are ok by 2900

And Watt-Usage was always the same when external Monitors are connected

just me two cents

Once again, has it ever once gone into thermal shutdown?

If not, the system is handling it as well as it can, certainly much better than if Apple didn't put the amount of thermal engineering work they did into the MBP 16.

It's not perfect, but they do what they can.

itunestux wrote:

Is it possible for you to share the configurations worked in SwitchResX? I did also try but 59.950 as well as 60.0 did not work. Going to 50Hertz let my Eizo EV2455 and EV2457 say wrong signal. I agree - it has to do with the drivers.

Sure

I was trying with the configuration that someone posted some time ago but it didn't worked even with the clamshell mode. But I've changed refresh rate from 59,950 to 59,750 and when I close the lid, power consumption drops from 18W to ~4W. Fingers crossed, let me now if it works for you.

Hi All,

I've been reading all these messages which presume will get us nowhere as customers are at the mercy of Apple. If there's not going to be enough pressure and fines nothing will happen and we'll be forced to live with our devices until they replaced by new ones... saying that I just sold my MBP 16 today with a slight loss (the preson buying won't be using external monitors). I just couldn't live with this laptop anymore. There was a brief temptation to go for the very top spec Radeon 5600M, 2.4Ghz, 64GB RAM etc. but then thought no one here has confirmed the fan/heat problem's absolutely solved as well as about the past and how Apple have been treating us loyal customers when they make mistakes. I'm simply tired of being a guinea pig in recent years.

My old MBP 17" lasted me a good 10 years (it was loud and producing heat too, possible cause why it died because of a known GPU and solder problem caused by that heat - a pattern of mistkes?), now am back on my other 9 years old MacBook Air 11" hooked up to the same 2 monitors via StarTech USB-DP adapters + DisplayLink driver and 1 via native video DP output - all Dell U2514H. I'm a happier person, working in a much more quiet environment. I've lost 5" in one screen and wish there was a Macbook Air 16" that'd probably better serve my intended use (2 x USB-C ports only problem could be solved with an adapter capable of handling 3 x 1-2K resolution monitors)... I know, Apple can't satisfy all. One other thing that was really annoying me was every time I unplugged monitors they'd loose rotation and arrangement settings! That was happening even though they were reconnected to exactly the same ports and nothing else was connected in betweeen.

So from this (rebooted the machine and lost screens settings again!):

Back to this:

Best,

David

[Edited by Moderator]

jc_9 wrote:

davidsadowski wrote:

alexktv on the macrumors thread said he was using two monitors (2K & 4K) + the internal display and had an average of 8W dGPU consumption at idle. (vs 19W using the 5300M / 5000M).

That's what I get all the time at idle with dual 4k screens connected.

That doesn't seem to be different than the 5500 now.

Hi, as everyone, I have the same issue and tried several solutions. The only that has worked so far is to use clamshell (fans' rpm come then around 1900 : see screenshot attached).

Of course, this is not the way I was expecting the machine to behave and I have also scheduled an appointment at a Genius bar ... Like you, I'm not expecting a lot from this appointment and will try to get an exchange for the same machine but with a 5600 graphic card instead of the 5500M I have (I'm even prepared to pay the difference as far as I can use this machine like I want to).

It seem that the fan starts to really go high when the ADM Radeon memory is full.

Notice in the graphics below how the fans go to full speed when the memory reaches 100%.

This is on a Macbook 16 with an external display attached. Radeon power usage is around 20W.

Memory usage ADM Radeon

Fan levels

MacDeivid wrote:

As an example, yesterday, after 6 hours with my MacBook Pro fans continuously at 5300rpm a kernel task appeared consuming ~1500%CPU and everything started to be slow and impossible to manage. Guess what... disconnecting the monitors did the kernel task disappear.

Yeah, the kernel_task being over 500% happens to me too. It means the Macbook Pro 16" is overheating and kernel_task is creating "fake CPU" usage to try to slow everything down and cool things down in desperate attempt.

This bug is awful and makes the MBP 16" basically unusable with external monitors. This is my activity monitor showing kernel_task going crazy after watching 10 minutes of twitch on my external monitor.

Awful job, Apple!