MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

There's quite a few people with this problem. It's especially prevalent with Chrome, and applications built on top of whatever framework that uses, and with Lightroom/similar Adobe applications.

People report turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome helps. I haven't found any solution for Adobe products.

I'd also like to note that the problem seems to have started with OS X 10.15.4. So there is hope that it is something that can be fixed.

Ok, so I have contacted Apple Support about the graphical glitches, the energy usage/heat when using an external display outside clamshell mode, and the kernel panics that happen when the machine is sleeping.

They had me reset the SMC.

I have faith that the reset will do exactly nothing, however I have documented the issues with them and am ready to escalate as soon as they return.

I highly recommend everyone else do the same.

DPJ wrote:

They may have you send it in for repair.

I meant suggesting an actual physical repair from Apple when we can safely assume every 16" has the issue when connected to the same combination of resolution, frequency and lid opened/closed.

I read people wasting their time sending the device and receiving it unchanged, saying the issue might be software-fixed in the future but with zero promise and having no obligation to do anything about it.

I understand that if the 2-weeks evaluating period is over, we should assume Apple won't do anything since the majority of users use the laptop with no external monitors even though they still proudly shows this slide in the product page :

A lot of people have the issue. Interesting enough, it appears to have started with OS X 10.15.4.

To me that means there may be a solution and it's not heat related damage.

And yes, the actual underlying data, the actual image or whatever you see as visually corrupted, is not actually corrupted.

Disconnect your external monitor and switch to the fantastic Intel integrated GPU that we have in these machines. Hit refresh and it will all be right as rain.

I did contact Apple Support and their first level solution was to reset SMC. I did that in good faith and will contact them again when it reappears. If it reappears again...

Hey Richd101, good to see you back, but wish it was in better circumstances!

Hey pairadime,

im still suffering loud fan noise with or without a monitor When running light applications of Logic Pro x 10.5

Disabling the turbo has helped me lower temperatures

it’s running around 50 c to 70 c and fans stay around 1700 rpm to 2800rpm ( without a monitor )

Please check out this video , it has some great tips to help put a band aid on things while we wait for some type of software update!

hang in there bro!

https://youtu.be/v9iAMqYQHY4

I have this exact thing in Lightroom Develop Module. Library is fine ( because previews?) and exporting a file that looks like that in Develop is also fine! It went away after restarting and thought it was fine after getting heat issue under control with Turbo Boost Switcher and TG Pro.

2 week old MBP 16. 32GB RAM 8gb AMD Radeon 5500

Grant:

I have purchased two 1440p 144hz monitors that I want to connect to my MBP and run in clamshell mode. Which connectors would you recommend for this? I have two USB-c to displayport cables, which I was thinking I could connect each to its own TB3 port on the machine. Is this my best hope of reaching a lower wattage for my external displays?

I realize you may don't know definitively, just looking for advice on what would be most likely to optimize my performance while Apple figures this out.

RICHD101 wrote:

let us know how the new one you pick up performs?

I was bluffing, we all know I'll have the same performance if I buy a new one. I'm not wasting more time doing Q&A with their product. I can't believe none of the engineer ever tried to use a second screen and noticed the excessive usage. I don't like the lack of transparency.

As much as I wanted to use MacOS this time, I think I'll wait for the new Dell XPS 17 to come out while watching these two threads.

William Kucharski wrote:

But if you want Apple to comment, that' just not going to happen.

It could happen if there is enough complaints about it. More people than ever will use their macbook at home during this summer and with the warmer temperature, people might notice it more. #NoiseGate

It's really disappointing because the 16" is such a great laptop besides that.

Quick update: can confirm that a USB-C to display port cable does not solve the high power draw (tried using a mophie usb-c to dispay port cable apple sells to no avail).

Bootcamp appears to have regressed in an update or something - memory clock is now pegged on max as is the power draw it induces regardless if running stand alone or connected, tried doing a wipe and re-install and did not resolve the issue.

jc_9 wrote:

William Kucharski wrote:

By allowing you to return it, Apple has solved your issue.

Come on! Apple has not solved the issue.

They have solved yours. You returned it, you got your money back, done deal.

Yes, this is the issue, it uses 36% of its power just to run two displays doing nothing. A 160 pages thread is not just about my personal issue.

Not your call. You didn't choose the GPU, you didn't design the machine. Apple knows if it's unacceptable as does AMD. So far, neither of them have said anything about it, so it's just your preference that it use less power. If they wanted to they could have the GPU consuming 50w at idle, that doesn't mean its a bug per se, just that it isn't performing to your expectations.

Yes, the whole deal for the laptop is acceptable, most people don't even use external displays but the dGPU over-power consumption needs to be addressed.

You feel the power consumption and heating are too high, and are complaining about it here, but far from all of them have been returned so many don't really have an issue with it.

The bottom line is that Apple solved your problem by giving you a refund.

If it's a bug that is fixable, Apple will.

I've been dealing with this issue, since I got my machine 6 months ago, I spent SEVERAL hours, reinstalling macOS, talking to Apple support, sending files and screenshots to the engineers, resetting the machine several times, trying different cables, different refresh rate, turning off the machine every single night and a lot of other stuff that I can't even remember right now.

If you take that in consideration I spent more money using my own time that the actual cost of the machine.

So far for me it's been a really bad experience. I probably owned more than 100 Apple products in the last decade and this has been my worst experience by far (second one was when the thunderbolt display was released and I had to deal with an issue for almost 6 months until they finally fix it).

The bottom line is the heat and power issues are just the machine working in a way you would prefer it not.

I've stated several times, the machine is not reaching thermal shut down. The machine is not failing to operate. It's just running its fans at a level you find unacceptable but that was never specified in any way, anywhere.

For sure, and it's just YOUR opinion. It doesn't make machine less broken that you think that it's not broken ;)

P.s. I still don't mind you answering all the questions I had for you 10 pages back ;) Yes, the same questions that you avoid to answer all along as they would make you admit that it's broken :)

Oh, that would be the case, but in this case it exhibits bunch of weird behaviors, which you claim are to be expected, but can't explain how / why. In particular why 2560x1440@160hz results in dead silent machine running at 50C, while 2560x1440@60hz results in fans running at 5500RPM and 65C. This is with HDMI interface. Also why GSync monitors only run 50C via DP cable, whereas freesync monitors run 50c via HDMI cable. There were bunch of other questions, should I repeat them? It seems we are back at "this is not broken" track, when there's more than enough data to support the statement that it's broken, and you so far have provided 0 data to support "it's not broken" theory. I wouldn't count your opinion as reliable data to support that and please correct me if i'm wrong but that's all the data you provided to support your statements.

The fans that are running when they shouldn't run is the sign of it being broken. Or would you expect your AC fans to be running when the system is off? I wouldn't.

That so called 3rd party utility with "dubious accuracy" (omg this is soooo funny) is an app that reads numbers that device OS publishes :D so unless you are saying that macOS & bios provides "dubious accuracy" this statement is funniest you written so far :)

After a bit more investigation I've found bootcamp has not regressed, the display running at native resolution on Windows causes the GPU to ramp its memory clock speed to maximum, what seems to have happened on my bootcamp is the AMD GPU is not disabling even when not connected to an external screen which is a seperate problem.

Still not sure why seemingly arbitrary resolutions cause the memory speed to spike, some higher and some lower resolutions work fine then an in-between resolution doesn't. 1920x1200 is fine, 1920x1080 isn't but it's not related to aspect ratio either because 1400x900 hates the GPU as well.

Clearly an issue with the AMD drivers in navi opus: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/issues/929

Previous videos I have shared, fan running at near max with no CPU or GPU load: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0iUYJChWkI

GPU memory speed going up to maximum when switching scaling mode using the AMD drivers in bootcamp (this does not even involve a resolution change!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-MbwxfR--s

There is no doubt now that there's something seriously wrong with the 16" MacBook Pro and the issue is almost definitely caused by the GPU and hopefully it's just bad drivers.

If one good thing can come from his maybe Apple will finally make nice with nVidia, the MacBook would have been so much better with a GTX 1650ti or dare I dream an RTX or Quaddro flavoured card, then I could do away with my Windows machine for dev work altogether.

Anyway like others I really want to love my MacBook, and like most people buying into an Apple product I had expectations on which Apple mostly delivered. I just want to use it without having to apologies to people on conference calls about the sound (or just using my phone to make video calls as a 'solution' akin to returning the laptop to solve a problem 😂).

The whole situation is quite ridiculous, very disappointed in Apples inability or unwillingness to fix this.