MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I am posting here because it relates to my previous posts regarding loud fans ramping up with or without

it being connected to my external monitor when running light applications of Logic Pro x . I just experienced a flickering screen and now my computer has crashed a couple times with the following messages:

BAD MAGIC (flag set in boot panic header), no macOS panic log available**

panic cpu caller 6 **

panic cpu caller 2 **

PLEASE SEE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/9DtpHesTWGU

I am past my 14 day return window that's why I have not returned it. I have an apple appointment today.The reason I am posting here is to share information and see if its an isolated issue?

TailsDog wrote:

knowsitsalls wrote:

This can be fixed in drivers. That falls under AMD's umbrella. Barking up the wrong tree, everyone?

How do we install updated AMD drivers on a mac?

Don't be too hopeful, I tried updating the AMD drivers to the latest ones in Bootcamp and it didn't help.

My machine overheats when powering two displays regardless if the lid is closed or open, the only time I have expected power usage is when the lid is closed and connected to one external display or not connected to any external display.

Soon as it's powering two displays it's game over and fans kick in and don't let go, Radeon high side hovering around 20W.

Interestingly at one point I had accidentally connected the same display to the MacBook with the lid closed and GPU usage was still at 20W.

Due to this odd behaviour my best guess is it's a firmware issue not a hardware or driver issue, might be a bit of a pain for Apple to fix which might be why they're hoping not to.

I just tried connecting one external display with the lid open and reduced the resolution of the external display to 1080p, the power draw remained stubbornly at 20W.

I wonder what sort of bug is causing the GPU to have such high power draw, clearly it's requesting the power for a reason but certainly the number of pixels it's drawing isn't one.

Also as slight tangent the CalDigit 3 dock I'm using finally managed to connect to two external monitors through as ingle thunderbolt 3 connection which is nice, so now there's just one usb-c cable connected to my laptop to run all my peripherals and screens.. gotta take the little ones as they come!

This machine is so close to brilliant it hurts, really hope Apple fixes it.

TailsDog wrote:

I think it's something to do with the WindowServer process misbehaving - often I see very high numbers for it in activity monitor under GPU and CPU Time.

That wouldn't explain why the same issue is happening in Bootcamp though, unless there's some sort of equivalent process in bootcamp?

That's true, maybe the high GPU time for WindowServer is some side-effect of something up with the firmware, hardware or drivers?

I mean sometimes I've seen it is ridiculously high like 2 million hours GPU Time in a single session.

Oh I think I saw a screenshot posted here showing a crazy amount of GPU hours on something, maybe that was the one?

I think it's a firmware issue just because on bootcamp I tried installing the latest AMD drivers (wasn't straightforward at all to do :-/) and it didn't resolve the issue on Windows.

TailsDog wrote:

How come then it doesn't draw so much power and heat when not connected to a monitor? How come it draws less power and makes less heat when connected to 2 4k monitors when the lid is closed?

I'm not Apple, so I can''t come up with a good thesis without speculating, which isn't allowed here.

salimsel wrote:

How was your experience with CalDigit 3 ? are the fans running smoothly without noise when you connect your MBP to an external Monitor or your are still facing the same issue with GPU.

I wouldn't be here if I wasn't having issues.

If anything it appears my experience is worse than others, some people here say their MacBook can drive two external displays as long as the lid is closed, mine can only drive one external display with the lid closed otherwise it's fancity, population: deaf.

TailsDog wrote:

Or wait until a class action forces something like with the 2011 AMD GPU issues - that took years...

No it didn't. Mine was replaced the second year, in 2013. Three days after diagnosis.

You need to stop with the misinformation. You're doing more harm than good.

I am talking about a suit that was actioned in 2014 that related to MacBook Pro 15 and 17'' models that were purchased in the year 2011. So if you check the dates it was at least 3 years for some people!

You can check online about it just do a simple search ;)

knowsitsalls wrote:

This can be fixed in drivers. That falls under AMD's umbrella. Barking up the wrong tree, everyone?

This is misinformation, it falls under Apple's umbrella to get this problem resolved. Anyone that has a problem should contact Apple about it, Apple needs to get it fixed and collaborate with AMD if that is were the issue lays.

You can not go to AMD and get updated drivers for a Mac as Apple needs to incorporate any drivers in an update.

Just to add that (as someone already pointed out before) the discrete graphics card gets active when I connect a USB hub. It shouldn't as nothing video-related is on the USB path... I see about 5W on iStat, whereas under the same conditions the Intel GPU usually runs at 0.5-1W... I'm just copying files between hard drives, etc... not even watching a video.

EDIT: Sorry for the last post. My mistake. I had the Graphic app opened in the background... It was because of that app that the AMD was active. Anyway, 5W seems a lot for such a simple project... nothing fancy.

Spinnn wrote:

EDIT: Sorry for the last post. My mistake. I had the Graphic app opened in the background... It was because of that app that the AMD was active. Anyway, 5W seems a lot for such a simple project... nothing fancy.

5W is acceptable for a spun up GPU at mostly idle (20w is not). Note that the intel GPU is tied into the CPU, so it shares the overhead of a spun up chip with that.

Someone here posted a method to disable dGPU on MB 15inch:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/disabling-macbook-pro-2015-dgpu.2225058/

Maybe a person with MB 16inch could check if this can be a workaround for problems described in this thread? I imagine that after disabling dGPU the Intel-integrated GPU will be responsible for the whole work, even with external monitor attached, so no more problems with over heating and max fans spinning.

I want to buy MB 16inch but I hold back until there is some nice workaround for this issue or Apple starts working on solving this.