MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Please tell me which laptops with the same GPU you have compared the MBP 16 to?

You simply can’t compare the MBP 16 to any previous MBP as there has never been one this powerful released before.

Some with similar GPUs on PC cards have said they require a lot of cooling in that factor too.

My issue is your complaints are not with anything the MBP 16 was claimed to do (once again the issues with eGPUs excepted) but rather that your expectations of the device weren’t met.

What I have continuously said is if this same GPU exhibits different behavior on Windows PCs or if this issue goes away when running Windows, then it leans towards being a macOS issue.

Otherwise it may simply be a matter of that model of GPU generating a lot of heat when driving an external monitor.

I’d like to know the root cause too, though a large part of me feels these fan speeds are simply what is required to cool a CPU that powerful with that powerful a GPU within a tiny form factor.

Anyone that has managed to get this issue escalated to an engineer, do they open a ticket which they need to update within a certain timeframe? Are these tickets just being left open or are they closed off without any resolution?

The MacBook Pro 16-in with its updated cooling system was thought to be the answer for pro users who wanted their MacBooks to be able to do extreme number-crunching and/or extreme Graphics, without the throttling required because of limitations of cooling in previous models. Some of the postings on this thread indicate that many users like the ability to push faster and run larger external displays, but do not like the actual noise generated when running their MacBook Pro at extremes.

This article below suggests that the solution to this may be an upcoming configurable "Pro mode" where users can select an optional "I want the fastest performance, whatever the fan speed" mode. Default would continue to be, like previous MacBook Pro, limited (but reasonably quiet) performance.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/performance-oriented-pro-mode-for-macs-found-in-latest-macos-beta/

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You are wrong, I had a Macbook Pro 17 inch in 2011 and it was the most powerful machine at that time, of course every year when a machine is released it will be more powerful than previous generations but none of the previous MacBook Pro that I have before (including the Macbook Pro 17-inch) had this issue when connected to an external monitor. a "Pro" machine that gets the fans to more than half of their speed just by connecting an external monitor, are not Pro at all (sometimes up to 4500 RPM by just browsing the web).

Once again, you are claiming a defect based not upon the machine not meeting any advertised spec, but because it doesn’t meet your expectations of it.

The MBP 17 was also larger and had to deal with dissipating fat less heat.

Grant Bennet-Alder "do not like the actual noise generated when running their MacBook Pro at extremes."

We can understand heat and loud fans when you are running things at 'extremes' the problem here is the macbook pro 16in will get hot and spin up the fans when there is nothing really happening. You can't tell me that just plugging in a monitor is taxing the system! My tiny phone can connect to an external display and it doesn't even need a fan.

The point that some people aren't getting is that this issue is occurring when the CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD etc are not being pushed at all and while it may not be an absolutely critical issue it's annoying and should not happen on a modern notebook at this price point.

There are people in this thread who are just enjoying provoking you by being nonsense and act up to make the problem “a customer problem”. Please save your energy, they are nonsense.

I personally tried three different MBP 16” and they are all defected and I ended sticking to my older and quieter 15” model and returned the 16” inch.

with that said, please keep posting about the issue you have so people who are thinking about buying this model, or just bought it, can tell that it is a product issue and not their issue and take the appropriate action based on that

I did not rule out the possibility that some Users own MacBook Pro 16-in that has a "sample defect" a problem that occurs in only a few samples of the product.

I was only suggesting that possibly the solution to 'ordinary' problem that "it makes too much noise under heavy loads" may be to re-introduce the throttling that was the default on all previous model MacBook Pro.

[Edited by Moderator]

According to the Trade Press, the cooling system on the new MacBook Pro 16-in model was improved about 28 percent. There are also reports that Thermal Throttling was removed. However, it may be that the new hardware can exceed that increased cooling ability, especially when multiple facets of the new Hardware are invoked at the same time. Upgrades include:

• Increased memory size, requiring a new very hot memory controller to address the additional memory capacity.

• more memory chips, which produce more heat.

• new hotter Processor chips, with more processors inside.

• larger internal displays with more colors

• new hotter Discrete Graphics chips

• far larger external displays than ever seen before.

• external displays using '32-bit color'

• very large displays connected with HDMI rather than DisplayPort family.

Another possible unintended consequence is that without CPU throttling, processes that were limited before, now run in a nearly-unlimited fashion. The easiest examples I can think of are the unrelenting reading and checking of files by Virus scanners and third-party syncing programs like DropBox. (Apple syncing uses the File System Event Store, and thereby avoids never-ending file scanning).

If there were a way to restore throttling, it might allow Macs that have 'sample defects' to be separated out more easily.

Actually, there is a way to throttle the cpu on every Mac. You can use Volta app where you can set power limit manually. I’ve been using it on my every MacBook Pro (2016, 2018, 16”2019)

But this is not the case here. The issue here is that there is some sort of unjustified high power draw when both internal and (probably) any external display are used at the same time (long story short).

On 2016 and 2018 model connecting an external monitor results in 5W increased power draw of the entire machine. But on the 16” it’s 20W. Tested on exactly the same external monitor, resolution and refresh rate. It’s huge waste of power on nothing, just generating more heat.

Integrated graphics is not wired (has no pathway to) external displays.

are you working with Apple support? can you describe your experimental setup (output shown above) to document it, then let them know it is here?

I was talking to Apple support via the live chat and then I got cut off when I did an SMC reset and every time i go back to any support pages I am blocked so I need to head to an apple store when I have time.

So here is the thing, according to the page about these new GPUs https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/radeon-apple-5000m-series it mentions 'lower power transistors' and 'lower power consumption compared to previous gen' so what we are seeing is that is not the case for a lot of people, there is actually higher power consumption than the previous even when not running anything. This leads me to believe that this is a software issue, maybe the drivers as people have said before or possibly the way the OS handles the window management over multiple displays?? Of course there could be a batch of dodgy GPU chips but what are the odds of that considering how widespread this problem is?

I don’t mind the word guess, but I also wouldn’t state that is improper operation of the GPU; I don’t know and driving an external display, especiallly if it’s 4K or higher, is NOT a trivial thing to do.

i mentioned that some have stated a GPU like the 5500M takes large fans to cool when on a PC Card, let alone shoehorned into a laptop.

So for you it's ok to have such a powerful computer like you mentioned with such a powerful GPU and to use 100% processor power just by watching a video on a website? (Oh and my monitor is not 4K, in fact I just checked and the Retina display has a better resolution than my external monitor).

I would say it is within normal operation of the GPU for the memory and processor to be maxed out if it were processing video, rendering a 3d game or something like that, however just connecting to a monitor and doing some very basic tasks should not be taxing it like this.

The fact is that the 5000m series GPUs are meant to be more efficient but what we can see in multiple cases is that they are behaving worse than the previous generation under the same conditions.