MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

Do you use your machine with an external display and opened lid ? In this configuration it will be extra ~20°C what can make thermald daemon crazy, as it has quite low thresholds. I don't believe there is an MBP 16 that works without extra heat in this configuration.

I didn't say these issues happen for everyone, it clearly does work fine for some people in certain situations. A lot of people however are experiencing the same issues.

I have the 2.3 i9, 16GB with 5500M 4GB linked to a LG 34WK95U

I don't disagree that there are a lot of things to like about this MBP and of course nothing is perfect, I just really hope that there can be a fix for these problems sooner rather than later.

It's cold winter where I am now, in the summer the ambient room temps will go up and if it is not fixed it will make this problem even worse.

TimUzzanti wrote:

Totally agree. This is supposed to be a professional machine that is supposed to be hooked up to a ton of devices to do some heavy lifting...

William, I have an off-road vehicle I would be happy to sell you... but you have to keep it on the road. It doesn't work well off-road.

Actually, you have that backwards.

You bought a laptop that can be connected to all kinds of external devices, so you bought an off-road vehicle but are upset at its highway manners.

If your primary use case is connected to one or two external monitors, get an iMac Pro or better yet, a Mac Pro.

fmorga wrote:

William,

if we go far away , according to Apple on the official web you can read following: “The studio three-mic arrays rivals professional third-party microphones, for creating superclean podcast or music recordings on the go”.

If you have the MacBook connected to an external display or hub, the fan cause so big noise (Some people measure 50, 60 dB ). With such a noise I don’t think so you can create a SUPERCLEAN podcast.

"super clean podcast or music recordings on the go."

Most people "on the go" aren't carrying an external monitor or dock.

I actually 100% disagree with you William. It is the portable use case that makes the MBP the computer I have chosen for 14 years.

Also, another point; I am not a video editor or developer, I just want a powerful machine that won’t break a sweat doing the easy stuff. That includes just plugging in a monitor.

Ok, everyone doesn’t have this problem, but enough of us Radeon 5500 users are having it and there needs to be a solution. I would happily return mine for a standard graphics version and buy a Razer Core X and get my power on the desk with the portable form factor.

it isn’t about unreasonable expectations, it’s about it working the way it was pitched by Apple.

Sorry to jump in, Bryce, what model do you have? Do you have the Radeon 5500M?

I have the same issues as TailsDog, my config is 6 core i9, 32 GB, R5500M 8 GB

I would still buy one, but I may have skipped the Radeon graphics and bought a Razer Core X for the desktop. But I LOVE the machine otherwise; best one I have owned except for this issue.

"It really is a great computer with lots of of power. There is just lots of negativity here, and from many that don't even own the machine. "

I agree with this. There are people here telling others to cancel their orders and not to buy the machine. Not everyone experiences such issues but people on forums want to project negativity when they aren't happy with their MacBook. The thing is some people forget that Apple does use their own computers and they even advertise the MacBook Pro connected to external displays. Come to reason if there was a major issue Apple would experience it as well.

William wrote:

Most people "on the go" aren't carrying an external monitor or dock.

That sounds to me that Apple already knew about the fan loud defected Issue , but they decided to launch the product anyway , just adding the ending “on the go” to avoid potential future problems.

As you confirmed with a connected display you can not even record anything with such a noise. If not just ask to Siri.

One thing we have to remember, back in 2011 there was a widespread AMD Radeon GPU problem in MacBook Pros, the lifespan of the GPU was shortened do to heat issues. It took years to sort that one out, it is very well documented online.

What can be said is with the current batch of 16'' MBPs many people are seeing thermal issues related to the GPU.

For that reason it might not be advisable at this point to make a purchase until this issue is resolved, people not seeing a problem today could have problems down the line just like the Radeon GPU issue back then.

And how are your counting these 632 people? What source confirming this? The number from the first post doesn't confirm anything. Also I hope you realize that under 1000 complaints after several thousands to millions sold is not really big number. Also once again, Apple does use their computers, especially with external displays. If this issue was so major they would be or will be working on a fix.

Indeed and it sounds like the tip of the iceberg looking at other forums and blogs.

One thing I will say is a lot of people with this problem are not negative, they are looking for solutions and spending time troubleshooting, optimistic even. The original poster has spent months on this, they are dealing with a lot of machines and even been sent new units from Apple and from what I understand 100% have had thermal issues surrounding the GPU.

I want to share some additional info, today I got the best USB-C to DisplayPort cable that I was able to find (and the most expensive one). I've been using it for almost 2 hours and it seems to help a little bit, I'm still getting 19 watts but the fans only went to 2600 RPM so far (I still think it's high just for browsing the web) but it's way better that I what I was getting before. Right now they are at 2200 RPM while I'm typing this message. I will keep using the machine for a few more hours and I will share any additional information.

I think that we can all see this must be a widespread problem with the amount of views and posts on this single thread. If we compare to most of the other threads in MacBook Pro support this one is many times higher.

Also remember the view count for this thread was reset a week or 2 back.

Bryce that is very good news, as it means to me this machine doesn't have to run with the fans over 2K when the Radeon is running at over 20 W. I appreciate your running it for over 10 minutes, as my machine would never stay quiet for that long. The only way I can get that result is to run with turbo boost off which is a small price to pay at this point.