MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I have Adobe Products installed, Photoshop and Light-room but not running, also I have UAD Mk2 Audio Card over thunderbolt and I though this might cause the problem because they still did not updated the drivers for new version of OS so I turned it off as well. Now when on battery and two additional monitors turned on working in vscode and having browser opened with three tabs, fan becomes louder. When I turn it on power It becomes really loud very quickly. Even after turning of all the applications fan keeps raging until restart ... So for now I just run everything on battery and than recharge ... and I have to restart from time to time to cool it down. I just wander if I invested in better graphic card would it be nosier or with less noise ? Overall impression with my MBP 16, it looks great, keyboard feels great, I like the OS env but with the 32 Gbs and i9 I expected to be able to run quite a few programs simultaneously without feeling I am sitting in the data center. You can imagine what happens when I open my DAW (ableton) where i push the cpu to the edge ...

In my case and for what I read most of us here, there is no high CPU usage, that is the reason we think it's an issue, because if you are running an app (you are compiling a video for example) and it taking a lot of CPU usage, then it's normal for the fans to run at a high RPM, but in my case I'm just browsing the web, no process in the activity monitor is taking more than 4 or 5% usage and the fans are running at 3000 RPM or more (sometimes all the way to 4500 RPM), this is always when an external monitor is connected, if not the machine works just fine.

I just returned my i9 and ordered your exact same 2nd configuration. Are you still having fan issues with your 5300 4gb? Does it only happen when a monitor, or two monitors are connected? I was hoping the 5500 was the culprit. If so this i7 5300 is going back. Any insight would be much appreciated!

I bought my third MBP 16 yesterday. The problem with the external monitor was repeated. I tried every possible option. Today I can say with confidence:

1. This is a problem on all MBP 16 (5300 and 5500);

2. Everyone has the same symptoms. When connecting an external monitor, the radeon power consumption increases to 20w. the case under the screen gets Very hot. Fans increase their speed to 4500rpm with minimal system load (watching youtube videos).

3. A closed or open MBP 16 cover does not solve the problem;

4. Resetting NVRAM and SMC does not solve the problem;

5. Completely reinstalling mac os doesn't solve the problem;

6. The problem is observed on all external 4K and 2K monitors;

7. Disabling the True Tone parameter does not solve the problem;

8. The problem is not resolved in the latest version of mac os 10.15.3;

9. The problem is not observed when connecting two external monitors!!! Which tells us that this is a software problem and should be fixed by updating mac os;

10. Technical support does not recognize the problem!

We need to get Apple to listen and start dealing with the problem. Be sure to call Apple tech support and get them to start sorting it out, don't just return the device. Get Apple experts to run all possible tests.

I have tried using only one monitor and it was fine BUT I've been running them through the dock because it has HDMI. I only have 1 cable of USBC to HDMI. Do you want me to try connecting it directly for a longer period of time?

Hello Alek,

Yes, I have 2 4k displays attached and am not having problems (I was having issues with clamshell mode but they were fixed in 10.15.3. See here:

I did an experiment to see if it made any difference:

Both 4k screens connected but now one is directly connected to the laptop:

Next I disconnected the TS3+ dock altogether and had to find an apple brick and cable and used only 1 4k screen:

I had to use my phone because the keyboard is connected to the dock and I lost my USB A to C adapter.

The fans nor the usage went up at all based up whether I had external screens connected - 1 or 2 - or if they were connected without the dock.

I have no 3rd party utilities installed other than the caldigit utility for the dock. I've only been using the Apple activity monitor. I did run etracheck but it's not on all the time. Etrecheck can sometimes find problems with the software.

Sorry for the messy desk in the pictures.

Even though my system is running great, I did notice the voltage numbers were higher when the screen was plugged in directly. I had it plugged in this way for an hour and the fans never did race but they were on. The system temperature was actually lower.

This is an interesting and helpful utility. I'll check out some more and see what other circumstances makes this change and report it.

I wonder if this is just a matter of AMD driver issue. Is this the difference when automatic graphic switching is enabled? Perhaps the AMD is sleep at 7 volts but at 20 volts it's enabled?

Faced with the same problem. When an external monitor (Dell U2715H, Type C -> DisplayPort) is connected, CPU 60-63C, fun ~2200-2400, RHS ~18W.

In safe mode, RHS ~10W, which is closer to the truth.

I really hope it can be fixed with a patch. Apple, fix this situation.

I have heard of this issue but have not experienced it at all on my MacBook Pro (2019). If I run boot camp with windows 10 and run a game then the fan will come on but that is a situation where the CPU and GPU are under extreme loads so it is not surprising that the heat is going up and the fan needs to run.

I don't think people are being disrespectful, just trying to get to the bottom of the problem, and focus on what is causing the issues here. If you read the whole thread most people are having the heat problem when connected with a monitor and when it is not connected it is working as normal.

This is from Tim the original poster: "That said, it IS related to having monitors connected and the internal GPU within the MacBook, along with the CPU and the overall heat that both generate."

So you seem not to have a problem with your MacBook 16'', what I was asking is, are you using a monitor or not and have you tried with a monitor?

"Actually the OP of the thread did not talk about external monitors at all"

That is not true, please read what he said in this thread in his updates, he says that it is related to using an external monitor multiple times. Please don't give people misinformation.

It does sounds like it is actually a bug that can be fixed via software, I do notice when I close the lid the temperature starts dropping instantly.

It's very easy to replicate the problem so it shouldn't be hard for Apple to see it for themself's.