MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

People have said before it's due to the way the dGPU is wired, apparently the way it is setup the intel graphics can't run the external monitor.

If you need an external monitor it's probably best to hold off until the issue is fixed, I'm sure most people here would agree. Alternatively you can use an iPad with sidecar but it's not really a decent substitute for a proper external display.

It seems widespread, I haven't heard of anyone that doesn't have the issue where it instantly draws 20w+ power and heats to a 20/30c+ extra when connecting a monitor and that's when idle.

Some people have had success using eGPUs and docks with the machine in clamshell mode.

The thing is when connected to a monitor you can't really use the machine for anything strenuous without it getting seriously hot. I can work using basic apps with the monitor and it goes up to 70c+ thats with the CPU just using less than 3% if i want to do anything that will really use the CPU or GPU I have to disconnect the monitor otherwise I don't know what will happen...

Has anyone taken there Macbooks to get checked at Apple store .

i took mine on Saturday it was my second visit for all of the heating and loud fan issues discussed above. I showed them video of the problems I was having.

there test results found no hardware issues and they said there was no way of reproducing my issues ..... they suggested that I update the drivers on my lg 34” ULTRAWIDE and to get rid of any 3rd party plugins.

if that doesn’t work leave the computer with them. I showed them ‘bad magic ‘ messages and they said I would have to call Apple care for error messages.

so I came home reinstalled a fresh copy of Catalina and the problems are still there.

i will inconveniently drop off my computer .

i just have a feeling that if they don’t find any issues ... I will end up with a lemon

We have 5 16-inch, and all of them are having the same issue, another user, Tim also have a lot of units and he is also experiencing the same issue.

Some people had their MacBook replaced 2 or 3 times and all the machines are having the same issue.

We have no way of knowing if all MacBook Pro 16-inch are affected but, in my case I can tell you that 100% of the machines that we have are having this issue and if we do a case study with the info we have available here of people using an external monitor connected directly to the computer, we can agree that all machines are having this issue.

All apple machines have issue with this no doubt. Last night accidentally stumbled upon the video about the Audio Engineer that built very expensive studio and could not use mac Book Pro because of the noise. He did not even complain about it, he just mentioned it as a fact. He invested a lot of money in specially designed desktop which is silent for the studio. He did mentioned that it costed a fortune to built silent desktop machine that can run mac OS. The amusing part for me was when he mentioned a noise from Mac Book pro as like this is normal for mac Book pro.

That was a strange thing to do.

Every audio engineer I know designs their systems so the actual hardware is outside the studio in an adjacent room, with only a display, pointing device and very quiet keyboard in the studio itself.

I know a few too and they all have their computers inside the studio.

On a side note, a few days ago I was watching an online coding session and the person was using a Macbook Pro 16-inch to code (connected to an external monitor) and it was almost imposible to hear his voice because of the fans noise, I even asked him about that and he said that the noise was annoying, so like some people mentioned before, Apple recommends this Macbook to be a good fit for podcast and streaming because of the Mic, well that is not true at all, only if you want to podcast or livestream a really loud fan noise.

I found a solution, buy a long cables and move the laptop in different room, than use the magic keyboard and mouse and noise problems are solved while looking for solution that will not require ton of dongles and cables.

I saw that video too, he talks about the MacBook Pro 16-inch as having a vacuum cleaner on (at around 8:05), you can clearly see that he spent a lot of money and he is a profesional and that’s probably the reason he bought the “Pro” machine, but like most of us here, impossible to use when connected to an external monitor.

iTech23 wrote:

impossible to use when connected to an external monitor.

Why is it "impossible" to use?

He spent all this money on acoustics and doesn't realize the computer should be in an adjacent room with only a display, pointer and keyboard in the studio?

Seriously, this is studio/sound booth design 101.

Analog tape decks were never in the sound booth or studio, nor should computers be, even if they're laptops.

OK again, nobody talks about sound boots, studios have many forms plus this machine is advertised as perfect for podcast authors and similar professionals. This was not the discussion about what studio you would recommend someone to build but the issue that all machines have the same problem, fan makes this laptop unpleasantly loud for anyone using external monitors let alone audio professionals.

From what you are saying the only solution is to " buy a long cables and move the laptop in different room, than use the magic keyboard and magic mouse and noise problems are solved." Thank you very much.

It is safe to say that if you use powerful Mac Book Pro 16 Inch connected to external monitors you also get the vacuum in the background environmental noise and this might not be problem for some but when you invest top dollar in top of the line products most of us expect that this kind of issues would not happen in 2020 and because of that it leaves a very bad taste. Apple already disappointed with ipads and iphones in so many levels and now it keeps this trend in laptops. It seems that the most important thing to apple is profit having seen how it deals with problems such as this and this makes consumers of their products suckers that will probably think twice before investing their hard spent money next time.

I will have to disagree with your statement about the iPad and the iPhone, specially the latest iPad Pro, is a beast (and it’s a beautiful device), and the iPhone is also a really powerful device and it has one of the best cameras available even now in 2020 that new phones from other brands are coming out.

Respect your opinion, maybe I overstepped talking about other products and problems and issues here. I really loved my ipad but it became useless quickly because of the planned obsolescence, just recently Tim Cook even admitted what they have been serving to their loved customers. Not sure if the latest iphone even allows you to choose your own browser yet, but the spy camera is perfect!

What “planned obsolescence?” All iPads receive updates for at least 5 to 6 years, and are usable much longer.

As far as browsers go, yes, all iOS web browsers need to use WebKit to process HTML, so they’re all basically interface shells atop WebKit.

What does either have to do with anything?