PinStudios wrote:
So basically you have just proven that your macbook ramps up the fans just like any other macbook. 2500 is audible - not loud but clearly audible.
Not at all, not even with your head on it. Perhaps I have a magical sound deadening Mac.
If 2500 RPM is going to bother you, best get a new M1 MacBook Air or stick to an iOS device.
This makes me rather curious what you use your macbook for (i don't expect you to answer) since you "never heard fans ramp up" except when "performing a macos upgrade". Opening anything that loads cpu even by 15% will get it screaming @5500rpm if gpu runs in 20w mode.
That simply isn't the case. It's not like I launch apps then wait for the machine to cool before using it.
I do audio editing, Final Cut from time to time, and programming plus web surfing and the usual Zoom usage.
No noticeable fan noise, but in my configuration with the monitors I have on hand.
Cause right now it's you and 2-3 others who are fine with it and 250 pages of people (given 50% of comments are written by you, so it's 125 pages of other members) saying that computer is too loud when it shouldn't be based on previous experience (other macbooks with dgpu) and based on evidence provided in this thread (dgpu running in 5w mode with 2.5x higher load).
Honestly, I think the real problem is believing that an incredibly powerful Intel processor and one of the fastest dGPUs available means fans won't ramp up to high speed from time to time. I've stated that I can walk into Best Buy and do nothing more strenuous than pull up the Settings menu in Windows 10 on a number of laptops and hear their fans instantly jump up to speeds that would drive people on this thread insane. It's just a natural consequence of putting such powerful hardware into a constricted space. Apple never promised a silent experience and their thermal design is brilliant as it handles the load much better than comparable Windows laptops do.
Some here have played with display timings and have done other tricks to try and get the load down at the result of video performance that AMD deems unacceptable for their products. That's fine if it's important to you; Apple and AMD apparently don't deem it worthy of generating subpar graphics.
These devices generate heat, and that heat needs to go somewhere.
Most of the time the MBP 16 can handle it without the need to throttle. What's even more amazing is many people are doing the kind of tasks that really should be better done on either an iMac or Mac Pro and they expect a laptop to handle it quickly and silently. "My old MBP could do it" - yet its dGPU wasn't as powerful and you felt the need to upgrade.
If nothing else, neither Apple nor AMD were apparently happy with the situation because AMD did design and release the Radeon Pro 5600M GPU which uses less power at the cost of being much more expensive (as the more power efficient HBM2 VRAM is more expensive than the cheaper but more power hungry GDDR6 VRAM used on the 5300M and 5500M.) Apple is obviously further frustrated by the power demands of the Intel CPU or they never would've decided to move to Apple Silicon for new MacBook Pros.
Ultimately, if it bothers you, sell it and find something that does meet your needs. Get an MBP 16 with the 5600M, or a Windows laptop that's silent, if you can find one - certainly neither Dell nor HP make one comparable in my experience. Life's too short, and almost all businesses can find a way to leverage the increased productivity into greater client billings.
Using the number of people who post here as an indication of the feelings of the greater Mac community is also specious simply because the only people who seek out and post to this thread are people who are unhappy; owners who are thrilled with their laptops don't bother to come here and post that they are. I personally interact with a few hundred people who use MBP 16s every day in my job and they have no complaints. Likewise, a huge number of Apple employees have an MBP 16 as their personal machine that they use all day connected to external monitors either in the office at Apple (before COVID) or at home, and they have greater access to hold their coworkers' feet to the fire than we do. None of that, of course, changes the fact that you are unhappy or that other posters here or unhappy.
Thus my earlier admonition.
You can only deal with the equipment and options you have available.
You can either:
- Live with what you have and find a way to minimize the fan noise/heat generation.
- Sell your 5300M/5500M MBP 16 in favor of one with a 5600M.
- Sell your MBP and go with a Windows PC and Live with the negative consequences of that decision.
- Continue to complain here and be disappointed when the situation has not meaningfully changed this time next year.
This isn't to be dismissive or to belittle your concerns, it's simply being pragmatic and realizing that one has to make a decision based upon the products available.
