MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

This is crazy, buying one the worlds most expensive laptops and getting the noisiest that can’t connect to external monitors without overheating and sounding like a jet engine. Apple can you please fix through a software update, or just recall the product.

MBP is always connected to the monitor via USB Type-C, this wire is charging and transmits video. The problem is that with minimal load (watching videos on youtube) fans start to rotate quickly. I do not understand why to use an external gpu (Radeon) when connecting an external monitor, when this task is easily handled by the built-in gpu (Intel Iris Plus Graphics).

Even as I write this post the fan speed has increased by 500 RPM. Are you saying this is normal? I had an old MBP 13 " 2017 the simplest configuration, it was also connected to an external monitor and I very rarely heard the fans rotate.

I’m have simular problems with my MBP 16” which is just one week old. The fans are loud with almost no load, 95% idle. I have my old MBP 15” from 2014 with much higher load Next to it and it doesn’t make a sound. I have talked to Apple about it and I will have a technician take a look at it.

The fans are active without an external monitor, but when a monitor is connected the fans goes crazy loud and the CPU/GPU temp increases.

I am considering to buy a 16 inch, 2,3‑GHz, 8‑core Intel Core i9-processor 9e generation. After reading all the posts here about fan noise, I now wonder whether I should go for it. From the posts it is not clear to me if there is a problem or not. Is not there anybody who is not having a problem? I am confused.

From this post (and my own experience) it is challenging to tell whether it is broken model or just unlucky patch); I am replaying the second one in hope for better experience; and will end up returning it if the problem persists as the noise is just unreasonable

alekseykurylev wrote:

...

I do not understand why to use an external gpu (Radeon) when connecting an external monitor, when this task is easily handled by the built-in gpu (Intel Iris Plus Graphics).

The design of the MacBook Pro15-in and 16-in is such that connecting an External display invokes the Discrete Graphics chip. The Discrete GPU has a substantial amount of private Display RAM available, so it does not slow down system RAM fetching screen data every 60th second when using "legacy" interfaces such as HDMI. Doubling the width of the display quadruples the number of pixels that must be fetched and re-drawn, so larger displays require MUCH more energy, especially when using "legacy" interfaces.

Only the 13-in models drive an External display with the Integrated GPU. The Integrated GPU is less capable and uses System RAM. The competition for main RAM when this feature is active slows down the entire computer. With a large External display using "legacy" interfaces like HDMI, it can slow the computer dramatically.

I'm in the middle of returning for a refund and going back to my older 2017 MacBook Pro 15".

Had enough of Apple, after years of screwing up the MacBook Pro range with silly keyboards and thermal throttling, we thought we got a model that would be finally acceptable. But now, can't even use it with a monitor without it going into insane fan noise mode.

Time to switch to PC, this is just no longer funny, what are we even paying the price premium for anymore? What a joke.

All units have the issue, doesn't matter what monitor. What happens is when you connect an external monitor, the dedicated graphics is used instead of the integrated graphics and for whatever reason, the fans go nuts. I'm just using a basic non 4k 27" monitor and even running zero apps or processes the fan goes nuts, unacceptable.

AVOID!

... and thermal throttling, we thought we got a model that would be finally acceptable.

This model finally has the Power/Thermal management required to NOT need thermal throttling. But when you ask it to run a big external display using a "legacy" interface, while doing a lot of other stuff at the same time, that takes POWER, generates HEAT, and runs the fan speed up higher.

This thread is too complicated to examine your individual situation, but if you start a new thread and post Activity Monitor > Energy pane or an Etrecheck report, Readers could help you figure out where the energy is being consumed.

I am not trying to make light of anyone's situation. It does seem that some of the Macs described on this thread have over-heating problems.

But some may simply have too much "stuff" running at the same time. And these new Macs don't throttle them back based on heat. Instead, they do everything you asked for. The resulting heat makes the fans spin up to deal with the heat that those requests generate. The punchline is: you may need to ask your Mac to do less gratuitous stuff in the background to get it "lean and mean" enough to run the fans on low.

When you use a "legacy" interface such as HDMI, it maintains the "heartbeat" refresh required by CRT displays. The ENTIRE screen data are fetched 60 times a second, rasterized, and sent out the interface to the display. That generates heat, and if you are NOT using a CRT display. it generates heat for no benefit to you.

If your display has a modern DisplayPort family interface available, just switching to that interface gets rid of the "heartbeat" refresh. Only the screen changes are sent when needed, so that when the screen stops changing, the link goes nearly quiet. The voltages are also somewhat lower. so between those two, the energy consumed is less.

DisplayPort family displays have an internal screen buffer, so they are not the lowest-cost displays. But refresh comes directly from the buffer in the display itself, so they tend to appear flicker-free at any refresh rate.

Another quick way to tell if performance or temperature problems are used by "too much stuff" in the background is to restart in Safe mode, and see if the game problems occur in Safe mode. (Hold Shift at startup, and be prepared to supply your username and password, even if you normally auto-login.)

Safe Mode loads a very small set of Apple-only extensions, not including graphics acceleration, and NO third-party extensions. Screen re-draw will be wonky and slow, but ultimately correct.

If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, it is caused by "something you added".

I think there are few issues here:

1- There are definitely cases of defective Macbook Pros in this thread, and it is pretty much understandably disappointing.

2- In my case, I had several talks and discussions with Apple tech support, and it was clear there is something wrong that isn't clear even for them to know what's going on.

3- Several people on this thread are comparing to older versions of MBP (including myself), and I think that's fair. I paid thousands of pounds/dollars to get a higher specs device for better performance and I don't expect it to be louder; I expect it to be better in every aspect.

4- If there is anything about compatibility with connectors whatsoever, Apple should be the one to define that instead of letting it for the user to figure it out

While I do agree with you that there are many ways to improve things and do better debugging, I don't agree this is task on the user to spend hours and hours to figure out while all they have done is cloning their software from older to a newer machine.

P.s As a matter of fact, I happen to have a DisplayPort to USB-C cable that I just used instead of HDMI, and yes I do notice slight improvement, yet not good enough; still there is fan noise while the machine is 90%-95% idle

I do not work for Apple. My interest on this thread is analysis of what is going on. I am not suggesting that doing this extra debugging is the "approved method" for getting resolution for any specific Mac owner. What I am trying to do is make suggestions about why this different design may be behaving differently than expected, and trying to make the case that not everything is a design defect.

Some of the "issues" Users have cited here are on computers that are working as designed.

These computers are far more capable than the previous generations, and if a User has a dozen background tasks running to do everything under the sun, these Macs, will, for the first time, actually do all that stuff and more, but Not get thermally throttled. But that will cost you in fan noise. That is why the suggestion of restarting in Safe mode has some merit -- to see if the issues are caused by extra added "stuff" or by bona-fide system processes.

There is always the possibility of Sample Defect -- a problem that occurs in just one or a few computers. If this were exactly the same blatant design defect with each and every sample, this thread would already have thousands of "me, too" posts. and we do have precedent for Apple not being able to detect some problems initially, but only able to do so over time when faced with mountains of complaints and returns.

They are already investigating the 13-in model, and have issued new initial charging guidelines cited several times on this thread.

This post could have been written by me, I have the same experiance and the same monitor DELL U2715H. I have tried both USB-C to HDMI and USB-c to displayport, no difference.

I have a clean OS installation and I have reset SMC. I will try to reset NVRAM today as well, but I do not think it will solve the problem.

Computers whose internal temperatures approach the boiling point of water, 100 C/212 F, have a serious problem, and should be sent for service.

Computers whose temperatures are in the neighborhood of up to 60 C may be functioning as designed. Remember that the temperature throttling on older Macs is less likely to kick in. Be sure you have:

• Fully charged the battery for 8 hours or more, at least once, preferably while the computer is OFF.

• Run software update to incorporate the latest changes, including possible fan profiles changes.

• Run a clean MacOS (no add-ons) either by doing a re-Install and NOT adding your Applications back in, or running in Safe Mode.

• Reset the SMC

If you have done all of those and fan noise is still intolerable, your computer may need service.

Me too. Brand new MacBook Pro 16”, specced our to i9 with 8GB graphics card. I’m shocked at how often the fans spin up and how hot my Mac gets. External monitor (4K) seems to cause it even when my Mac is idle. Lightroom also seems to be a culprit. There just doesn’t seem to be any logic between workload and temperatures. Having come from late 2013 MacBook Pro 15”, I’m really surprised by the difference. It’s disappointing - this was an incredibly expensive machine - nearly double what I paid for the last one. There must be something wrong here.