MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Hi I just bought the same monitor and my macbook went crazy hot. I've been searching solutions whole day, almost thought about return that monitor. Finally found your thread. Just wondering is this still a problem? And im trying to increase refresh rate as what you did, however the drop down is locked.

The interesting thing is there is some other factor involved that I couldn't nail down.

When using a USB-C to MDP adapter, the Radeon power usage jumps to 19w.

But even at that power level, driving an external monitor, my MBP 16 never heats to the point where the fans go above 2500 RPM - a level that for me isn't even audible, so it clearly is a combination of monitor power and the specific application involved.

romain89 wrote:

Switch to internal graphics only. I don’t get loud fans with internal graphics only.

You can not run an external displays using Intel graphics. There is no pathway from Intel Integrated graphics to any external displays. When you connect an external display, ALL displays use Discrete graphics.

I suppose my screens are fake then?

This is my laptop hooked up to an external display (not clamshell). At work I use dual - 4k in clamshell. Neither options use the high wattage unless I am doing heavy work such as exporting video from FCP or big files in Affinity. Right now it's only 48 degrees C. Without the screens connected it can go down to 39 degrees C.

I believe there situations which trigger it and there are situations that don't.

I really think Intel and AMD are the reason Apple made the M1. They don't have control of the parts of the systems they don't make, and Intel and AMD don't care about Apple's customers.

DisplayLink technology creates a "fake" display buffer in RAM, sends the data out over a slower interface to a stunt box with DisplayLink custom chips that put that data back onto a "legacy" interface. It is not a true "accelerated" display, and it suffers from lagging.

It may be acceptable for a second display showing slow-to-change data such as computer listings, stock quotes, or spreadsheets, but NOT for full motion Video, and mouse-tracking on that display can lag, and can make you feel queasy.

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It is really nice to know that you can use a DisplayLink display if you MUST have an additional display for some of the types of data I mentioned. But that is NOT the same as the computer supporting a second, built-in, accelerated display.

These displays depend on DisplayLink software, and are at the whim of Apple when they make MacOS changes. There have been cases where MacOS changes completely Borked DisplayLink software, and it took some time for them to recover.

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I think the Big Surprise for a lot of Hub/Dock buyers is that they thought they were getting a "real" display, but actually got a DisplayLink "fake" Display. If you got what you expected in every case, I would not use such strong terms to describe DisplayLink.

I am still waiting on news regarding my MacBook Pro 16 that I bought a year ago, the one that gets melty-hot when I plug in my T3 Hub or my external monitors.

In the meantime, I bought a Surface Pro 7 (16 GB RAM, 10th gen i7) and it runs dead silent with the same 2 monitors and Surface Hub attached. So...yep. Waiting, but at least its quiet.

Read through the thread and you will find many solutions. I run dual 4K displays and have no problem. The fans generally run less than 2000 RPM. This really is a good machine, and very powerful. There are some scenarios that the AMD GPU Doesn’t like.

Another option would be to return this one and get the new MacBook Air. It has no fan at all.

I still don't agree, I have MacBookPro 13 2017 year, that does not make noises! Even then im using LightRoom editing photos. And it doesn't make flicking and something...

Why I need to search special "adapter", I'm already bought original Apple USB-C to HDMI... for almost 100 usd.

I know what you saying. But AGAIN if it would be Nvidia, It would not make such noises. AMD always have bad reputation about Heating. In past time that I have PC, I would never bought AMD cpu which is overclocked with crazy heating...

And yes I see those 18W power to GPU every time then im using TWO monitors for surfing ...

Sergei, no chance to consume less power with external display/s. If you'd like to avoid the noise then you have to invest in circumvent the root cause of the noise which is bad and/or defective software implementation for the eGPU. Means USB to HDMI or USB to DP adapter.

estebani wrote:

I personally come back here because summer kicked in in the southern hemisphere and it's become a lot more common for my MBP 16 to get really, incredibly hot. Like, more than uncomfortable to the touch hot above the touch bar. Do you still believe that's normal? Do you have one of these? Did you pay for it? If you do, don't you feel scammed yet?

Yes, I bought and paid for mine with my own money, and if I had it to do all over again, I would, though of course I'd opt for the 5600M GPU today as it's even more powerful.

This is the best and highest performing MacBook Pro I've ever owned, and I use it daily, sometimes with an external monitor and sometimes not. Beyond that, I have yet to hear its fans "ramp up" except when installing a new macOS version, like the upgrade to Big Sur (and even then the fans were not at a volume or frequency I would rate as objectionable.)

So I'm not sure why I would feel "scammed" when it does everything it was advertised to do and for me it does it quite swiftly and efficiently.

Hey guys, I've found an hilarious thing that stops the fan noise, temporarily though.

Checkout this unlisted video on Youtube I just uploaded. You won't believe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwNcQ3WX3n8&feature=youtu.be

Romain

Having the same problem; I have got no intention and possibility to update to 5600/M1 model. There is even no Apple Store in my country, closest one in thousands of kms. I can't use my external monitor most of the times, usual tasks doesn't require much power, so drawing it, with dGPU turned in, just to draw a bunch of pixels is not an option for me. There are people here that don't believe that problem is present, but it is. May Apple do a single decent thing, regarding this question, and Mail the 16-inch owners when the problem is resolved, if ever, and not make us check those threads every time, filling ourselves with disappointment again and again.

itunestux wrote:

And shows the level of noise of the fans is too high. Still no defect fixing. We‘re all still waiting.

Enjoy that wait; it's pretty clear at this point it's probably working as designed.

Whether you want to try alternative display adapters and such is up to you.

itunestux wrote:

As long as it is not proven working right a bug can be assumed.

It is working right. If it wasn't it would be quiet, overheating, and shutting down. Does this not make sense? this is why Apple came up with the M1. There is no other way around it when using the latest and greatest from Intel. People were upset that Apple was always up with the latest generation of Intel CPU, but then they did and now their upset because the fans work harder. The same thing is happening on the Windows side too. I see all kinds of Youtube videos showing the loudness of fans on windows trying to keep the temperature down on laptops.

Yes. Bought it in 2019, with 64 GB of memory and 4TB HD. As I am not doing any graphics intensive work, I decided against the 5500 and hey, the Apple 30" Cinema HDs worked fine for me all the while. No such luck with the 16" workhorse. I am getting the dreaded kernel_task slow-down at the worst possible moments. Kernel_task sees to it that overheating is combatted with "no operations" sent to the processor, so it rigorously slows down the system.

Good and easy answer usually. Brings the workhorse to a crawl.