MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Dear TimUzzanti

Thanks for posting your problem in Apple Discussions. You came to the right place !. In this case your MacBook Pro may be defective. I recommend you to contact Apple Support ASAP. Apple also has 14 days return policy and you can get the MacBook replaced with 0 cost or refund.

Sincerely,

OK4

I have the 8 core version, the fans are inaudible under normal loads and it stays cool to the touch. Under really heavy loads it can heat up fast, but the sound the fan makes isn't annoying to me. More like a gentle soothing white noise. ;)

On my Windows desktop at work, a relatively powerful machine, Chrome would start about 7 instances of its Software Reporter software and pin the CPU at 100%. I had to add two registry keys to disable Software Reporter. I love Chrome's developer tools as well, but Google.... I wonder if it was doing something similar on your Mac.

I had the same issue, and already ordered a new one and will send the defected one. I didn’t get a replacement with 0 cost (at least temporarily I have to stay without a laptop and pay the price twice since it is a CTO device)

I just bought the 16-inch and found the exact same problem. My 2015 version is just at the same room and runs exact same software and is very quite. I am very disappointed and plan to return it if there is actually no solution for the problem.

Just noticed:

Are you running any applications in OS-native full screen mode? I noticed that when I run my IDE (Jetbrains PHPStorm) in fullscreen - the GPU is taxed like crazy and the system heats up so the fans start spinning.

Running PHPStorm in non full-screen and the system is cool and the fans stop.

I did a complete OS reinstall and just watched some YouTube in Safari with the two monitors connected and installed iStats menu. It didn't take long until the fans were up to 3300 rpm and stayed there. Just watching YouTube in Safari. When doing the same thing in my Mac mini the fan went up around 2200 and then quickly went back down to around 1700. And the mini had lots of apps installed.

I installed Lightroom and just viewed some RAW photos taken with Olympus MFT camera the fans went up to over 4000 and stayed there until I quit Lightroom. Did the same thing on the mini, the fan stayed at around 2000 and went up in spikes when doing some editing, but quickly went back down.

This is incredible. The mini costs almost a third of the Macbook. I'll just upgrade my mini with an eGPU and more RAM, and it'll be an amazing machine.

My mini is the base i5 with 8GB RAM, the Macbook is the base i7 with 16GB RAM.

Quite strange the amount of noise the fan makes on the new 16inch MBP when connected to external displays. Really quite disappointing considering the amount spent on the machine. I hope apple can find a fix through a software update.

I connect an external display and at minimum load (normal Safari surfing) the fan speed rises 3000rpm-4000rpm. The sound of the fans is very audible and annoying. The lower part of the body under the Touch Bar, in the middle is very hot. Using a laptop without an external display does not solve the problem, the cooler also work at high speeds with minimal load.

MacBook Pro 16" Intel Core i7, 32Gb, 512Gb, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4Gb

Display DELL UltraSharp u2719dc 27" (2560×1440, 60Hz)

The lid is closed but actually it does not matter. Sometimes, the lid is open and I'm working on 1x 32" EV3285 at 3360x1890 (60Hz) and the fans are also spinning like crazy.

I just restarted and opened Safari again and right now, it's pretty silent. Maybe something is going crazy when you have not restarted the system for a long time? I will observe it.

I have the fan noise issue as well on my brand new MacBook Pro 16" with 2,3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 just using Safari.

I just ordered my replacement from Apple (at no costs), they were very quick to offer. I will report if the new one has the same issue, in around 2 weeks.

I’m using an Anker usb-c -> hdmi dongle that I used with my 2018 MBP. Never had the issues I explained above with my new 16”. And it isn’t even a 4K screen, so I question whether the dongle is the culprit.

I just got off the phone with Apple. This time I had to repeat everything to a new person. I called them. But I gave them the old case number.

We tried it in secure boot and with a new user but the temps were still higher with the external monitor (60°C instead of 40°C in idle).

A new machine will arrive in January and I will test again. When temps go down okay, otherwise I'll return the machine and get my money back. Never had noisy fans with all the Macbooks I used.

The USB-C dongle worked fine with the 12" Macbook, the 13" Macbook Pro and my last 15" Macbook Pro.

YMMV, but I have now been running a couple of days with the lid closed and no application running in full-screen mode. Using two external 4K monitors hooked up (one USB-C and one Moshi DisplayPort adapter). The system has behaved much better! Fans are silently running at around 1400 rpm and temperatures have dropped at least 15°C across the system.

WindowServer process is no longer running GPU time like crazy.

Happy camper for the moment, but keeping fingers crossed.