MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

RICHD101 wrote:

My opinion: Apple should drastically reduce the power consumption of the AMD GPU. Sacrificing 20W on a laptop for doing nothing more than moving the locator in your DAW is absolutely unacceptable.

Yep agreed, especially considering the 5500m is in other laptops now which don't exhibit the same sorts of issues.

Ultimately this is Apples machine which they sold with promises and guarantees, failing to meet them it's their obligation to repair/replace or refund if the laptops are just inherently defective.

I'm waiting on the replacement logic board, will let you know if it fixes the issue otherwise it will be time to escalate and cost Apple a sale 👌

ahmedfromreservoir wrote:

Yep agreed, especially considering the 5500m is in other laptops now which don't exhibit the same sorts of issues.

Do you have pointers to these?

I can find no use of the Radeon™ Pro 5500M in other laptops, and it appears the GPUs may be Apple-only:

Radeon™ Pro 5000M Series

When searching for other platforms that use it, they all use some variant like the AMD Radeon™ RX 5500 Mobile.

Since they're different packages on different dies, they're not directly comparable.

Ultimately this is Apples machine which they sold with promises and guarantees, failing to meet them it's their obligation to repair/replace or refund if the laptops are just inherently defective.

Certainly glitching graphics are defective, but simply high power usage and high fan speeds isn't in and of itself a defect unless you can tell me what advertised "promise or guarantee" they fail to meet.

If offered a refund, by all means, take it.

I'm sorry I must be misunderstanding you because from the sounds of what you're saying you're arguing from two GPUs based on the same architecture the one which has a lower clock speed runs hotter than the more powerful variant? 😂

Sorry it might just be the sound of the fans on my MacBook distracting me as they try to keep things under control, I'm sure you'll clarify with something that makes more sense?

ahmedfromreservoir wrote:

I'm sorry I must be misunderstanding you because from the sounds of what you're saying you're arguing from two GPUs based on the same architecture the one which has a lower clock speed runs hotter than the more powerful variant? 😂

Unless you know the precise specs and how the dies were laid out for the chips, that may very well be the case. I suspect no one outside AMD could say so for sure.

Quite a while back a company I was working for had some strange heat-related issues with IBM processors that were completely ameliorated when the next revision of the processor used a slightly different manufacturing process that was more thermal friendly. Nothing in their specs noted the change and IBM themselves never advertised the change, but it solved our issue completely. Looking in a parts catalog you would have seen no difference whatsoever.

Sorry it might just be the sound of the fans on my MacBook distracting me as they try to keep things under control, I'm sure you'll clarify with something that makes more sense?

Explained above; you can't compare them if they're different dies or even different production levels, too many variables can change.

Quite a while back a company I was working for had some strange heat-related issues with IBM processors that were completely ameliorated when the next revision of the processor used a slightly different manufacturing process that was more thermal friendly. Nothing in their specs noted the change and IBM themselves never advertised the change, but it solved our issue completely. Looking in a parts catalog you would have seen no difference whatsoever.

Oh so there was odd thermal behaviours with those processors which when looking at the spec sheet made no sense indicating there was an issue, whatever the issue it was identified and silently fixed.

Interesting... I wonder if we can draw any parallels here, if only I could get over my cognitive dissonance I might be able to see it.

The radeon high side power usage has changed since updating, now when connected to an external monitor it's hovering around 22W and going almost as high as 28W when playing a 1080p video (instead of hovering just below 20).

I have to turn the volume waaaaay up just to hear the audio of a video playing over the sound of the fans - what a great user experience, clearly people who think this is acceptable of a machine and not a defect have very little understanding of technology.

Unfortunately the replacement logic board for my laptop has been delayed to late next month as well :-/

ahmedfromreservoir wrote:

The radeon high side power usage has changed since updating, now when connected to an external monitor it's hovering around 22W and going almost as high as 28W when playing a 1080p video (instead of hovering just below 20).

I have to turn the volume waaaaay up just to hear the audio of a video playing over the sound of the fans - what a great user experience, clearly people who think this is acceptable of a machine and not a defect have very little understanding of technology.

Unfortunately the replacement logic board for my laptop has been delayed to late next month as well :-/

On 10.15.3 if I do a 4k/8K video I can force the radeon to goto 22-24watt .. but a 1080p video keeps it at 18-19w for me.

What version did you update to btw?

I'm happy you even got the choice of a mobo replacement, my Apple case have been closed, and they have said its "normal" behaviour.............

**** that sucks, what country are you in? Here in Australia I can probably force apple to give me a refund or replacement instead of waiting for a fix.

Did you go to an Apple authorised technician or thea pple store? I think the authorised technicians are more likely to be empathetic because they aren't tryng to tow the company line.

I'm on the latest.

Yes, Radeon high side is around 20W just by connecting an external monitor... Not normal, I would guess. My main question is whether this issue will be resolved with a software update or through hardware revision, which would mean a replacement mac or logic board... couldn't Apple help us users by making some kind of statement about this? I'm still within the return window... but I need the macbook to work...

Tim wrote:

if you are not experencing the issue why are you telling people they can't compare it to a previous MBP they own? If you are unaware how hot the machine gets, how can you tell the noise and the heat isn't an issue? Why are you telling people a monitor shouldn't be used with a 16inch MBP and they should get second laptop or buy a MacPro? I have no idea why your posts have been allowed. You are literally arguing for the sake of arguing which violates the terms of service. It is not fair to users on this community.

I am agreed with you.

William Kucharski wrote:

I already said you cannot compare an old MacBook Pro to a newer one.

William, I will explain why it is important to compare, it's actually part of the troubleshooting process! To elaborate, if I have a MacBook that doesn't work normally when connected to an external device what you are advised to do is check and see if the device is working normally in a different setup. So in this case I would try my monitor and cable with my old MacBook if it is woking normally then it can give an indication that there isn't a problem with the monitor and cable setup.

It's called the process of elimination and it is a fundamental technique when troubleshooting. You could check with an engineer and I think they would agree that in a multi component setup we need to rule out which components might not be working correctly.

I just experienced this the other day while running my external LG ULTRAWIDE 34”

While running a very light session of Logic PRO X.

Computer got hot and Fans ramped up.””

https://youtu.be/9DtpHesTWGU

prior this happening my computer and fans run hot and fast with or without my external monitor when running Logic

i have an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow.

Blue Pixel Tint on internal and external display with AMD on

artist999 wrote:

Blue Pixel Tint on internal and external display with AMD on

I'm surprised more people don't notice the blue tint, this happens on all MBP 16'' with 10.15.3. The work around is switching off True Tone and Night Shift.

Thanks for your hints!

But for me these are a bit too many bugs and needed workarounds for a premium product, that should work straight out the box to be expected and is sold since over 3 months now. I am out and back to my 2015 MBP. Shame on Apple for the lack of support and software engineering.

artist999 wrote:

This MacBook AMD Combo is still beta.

Will return my 2nd MBP 16 tomorrow and wait until apple fixes these issues and buy again. They had enough time and evidence. So i think they cant or dont care.

I agree it's not production ready, the thing is, it's been out for months now so I don't even know if they will be bothered to fix it at this point. You might have to wait until they release the 2020 model...