MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

I’ve been monitoring this thread since I purchased my 32GB 2.3 GHz 5500M device a month ago. Interesting observations on my part. I only use mine for audio production and have 2 external 1080p monitors connected via 2 external USB-C docks. I have my unit on a metal mesh stand that tilts the rear up to aid in cooling. In my case the fans don’t ramp up at all (1850 rpm)if the system is idle (it doesn’t matter if it’s in clamshell mode or not). However, the unit gets hot to the touch above the keyboard and on the Touch Bar. Once I open a DAW program and load a song to work on it slowly ramps up to 3800-4200 rpm and stays there. My music program is peaking at 15% CPU. What’s interesting is that if I remove the laptop from my studio and use it stand-alone, I get the same result. When I look at “about this Mac” while the machine is on but nothing running it shows the Intel graphics but if I load my DAW (Studio One) this changes to the Radeon and the unit heats up and fans blare.

My MBP 16 never had the problem of the fans running hard. The only time they would turn up was during heavy use. Even going to the the Apple website and looking at that page does not make any difference on mine. I did have other issues that have since been resolved. If I say much more, my post will get removed.

I'd return it ASAP since you're still in the 14 day return period.

TBH this is such a bad experience compared to when I got my 2013 13inch Macbook Pro which had really few problems. There's no fix in sight so there's no way I can recommend the Macbook Pro 16 inch if you want to use an external monitor.

I was thinking of switching to windows when I wanted to upgrade and then the 16 inch came out and that's what I got but now I really regret it.

:(

Macbook Pro 16", delivered March 4th. Just wanted to add my name to the list of those experiencing this problem. Using the LG 27" 5K monitor I'm seeing ~19W on the Radeon card, and ~59º C temp minimum on the CPU core with basic applications running. I followed Max Yuryev's advice and installed Turbo Boost Switcher. That mitigates the problem to a degree, but it's hardly ideal.

My 2016 Macbook Pro 15" was pretty hot when using this monitor, as well. But this is definitely a different level.

I would advise everybody who can to return their Macbook. If you are not depending on it for work or maybe you can use anything else for work then just return it. If you want to use the laptop with an external monitor and you want a silent laptop then this Macbook is not the laptop for you. If a fix would be available then maybe it would be in a Macbook pro 16" hardware refresh. Can't see how a fix for this is not out yet if it is fixable...

Well I don’t regularly use an external monitor and it’s the best MBP I’ve ever owned.

By all means, take advantage of the 14-day return policy to see if it meets your needs and return it if it does not - as should be the case with any Apple product.

Yeah, I'm not sure that cleaning the fans will help much in this situation.

sippinyellow wrote:

Take it to Apple Store you could if you want to open it up and clean the fans but this might be a bigger problem.

What is slack?

Mine was running Affinity Designer, Publisher, Photo, ADobe Indesign, VNC, Mail, Adobe Acrobat, Libre Office, Messages, and Parallels running Windows 7.

If you turn off Slack does it still do that? Did you see that you can view the GPU only and show what is doing that?

I bet that shows the key if there is something wrong.

Hi Bryce, yep both 16" MBP's were/are fully up to date with MacOS 10.15.3. One was purchased 45 days ago and the other purchased yesterday. Do you think there is something else I can update beyond the standard MacOS update? Doesn't look like I can force firmware updates on a Mac.

Hopefully Apple looks at this. I think this is showing something more than the other things we've been looking at. There is clearly an issue here with some of these that is not normal. Obviously not all are doing it as mine shows.

I don't think any utilities will show what is causing these massive spikes for some and not others. This could really explain why the fans are kicking on even if the temperatures are not bad.

@Tails

Why? I don't know but this clearly shows something in the graphics is wrong and probably not the cooling system itself. This is the most distinctive difference we have seen and shows something not right. Mine was even playing two streams from two browsers simultaneously and having both 4k streams running. It also proves that both sides were right about their computers and it isn't made up nor is ever computer effected.

I hope it is fixed in 10.15.4 for everyone.

I wondering now if there is a bad batch of AMD chips that may have went out. If it's not fixed in the next in the next update I'm sure the GPUs are defective on these showing this symptom:

Here is my chip set info in system info:

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M

  Type: GPU

  Bus: PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width: x8

  VRAM (Total): 8 GB

  Vendor: AMD (0x1002)

  Device ID: 0x7340

  Revision ID: 0x0040

  ROM Revision: 113-D3220E-190

  VBIOS Version: 113-D32206U1-019

  Option ROM Version: 113-D32206U1-019

  EFI Driver Version: 01.01.190

  Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported

  gMux Version: 5.0.0

  Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

I wonder if we can nail down the serial and revision info for the good vs the bad numbers.

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M

 Type: GPU

 Bus: PCIe

 PCIe Lane Width: x16

 VRAM (Total): 4 GB

 Vendor: AMD (0x1002)

 Device ID: 0x7340

 Revision ID: 0x0040

 ROM Revision: 113-D3220E-190

 VBIOS Version: 113-D32206U1-019

 Option ROM Version: 113-D32206U1-019

 EFI Driver Version: 01.01.190

 Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported

 gMux Version: 5.0.0

 Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

So mine looks about the same but I only have the 4GB version, I wonder if that makes a difference here?

I also have the 4GB version and my info looks exactly the same:

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M

 Type: GPU

 Bus: PCIe

 PCIe Lane Width: x16

 VRAM (Total): 4 GB

 Vendor: AMD (0x1002)

 Device ID: 0x7340

 Revision ID: 0x0040

 ROM Revision: 113-D3220E-190

 VBIOS Version: 113-D32206U1-019

 Option ROM Version: 113-D32206U1-019

 EFI Driver Version: 01.01.190

 Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported

 gMux Version: 5.0.0

 Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

Now I'm wondering if it's limited to the 4GB models?...

After 2 visits to Genius Bar and there diagnosis

not finding anything wrong with hardware

I called Apple supporting spent 2 hours running tests with them and unfortunately the fan noise and heating issues continued even without being plugged into an external

monitor.

its been a very frustrating situation.

ill keep you posted!

Apple support suggested I drop off the computer to Apple store repair.

my computer to Apple repai

Dropping off my MBP

I tried this test on Apple's website playing the video on Safari for 20 minutes. No fan noise at all and a very slight amount of heat over the Touch Bar. Ran the same Avengers movie in Chrome for 10 minutes. No fan noise at all and the same amount of heat over the Touch Bar. BTW I have a keyboard cover over my keys to protect them from grease and wear while typing. Keyboard covers generally reduce a small amount of airflow and still no fans running while playing the Avengers video.