MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

In my case I completely understand how a laptop is supposed to work, but I think you are missing the point of the discussion here, most of us completely understand that the machine will get hot under heavy or medium load (especially a laptop), but this is not the discussion here, the problem here is that by just connecting an external monitor the machine will get really hot (even when in sleeping mode) and the fans will go crazy (When using zoom I got people saying that it sounds like a vacuum), any other MacBook (Air, Pro or just a regular Macbook) won't behave that way and like I said before the MacBook Pro 15-inch with the Radeon Pro Vega 20 is almost as powerful as this one, only 9% difference) and it doesn't behave this way.

So whatever the reason for this problem, software/driver/hardware if you use common sense you can agree that it shouldn't behave like that.

TailsDog wrote:

DPJ wrote:

The MacBook Pro conforms to real world physics just like any other notebook - the CPU, GPU and battery can be adversely effected by excess heat, there is nothing magical in the MBP to prevent that and that is a fact! If that last statement is not a fact please disprove it.

My MBP 16'' is running hotter than all previous models I've had over the last 10 years. It's not just spikes in heat when doing video decoding or something, it's constantly hot when connected to an external display.

The thing is, you don't know what "excess heat" is, as neither you nor I have the design parameters Apple used when doing the thermal engineering for the MBP 16. If the heat was "excess" Apple could certainly run the fans even faster to cool the interior further… but they don't.

I don't mean to say what is going on is normal - I don't know that - but it may also be well within the thermal design parameters for the MBP 16.

I went through the same thought process and action you just mentioned.

2019 15.4" with I9 chip also has the fan problem. sticking with my 2018 I7 until the coast is clear.

i dont mind the keyboard cause i have a separate keyboard i use

You'll have to get in touch with Apple Support directly about your issue. This is a community-based forum only and no one can put out unconfirmed conclusions as it's considered speculation. Only Apple can provide you that information directly when you reach out to them for support.

DPJ wrote:

"So I would like to request that you post scientific proof that the Intel gpu in the 16" machine is a lower grade than AIR's or 13" MBP."

I'd be happy to do that but certain individuals on this thread have been requesting that the thread remain on topic, and your request of me is off topic, so we'll leave it at that. Have a good day. 😊

The exact answer I was expecting.

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So the kernel panic... I was testing out an 8k video (more on this later!) in clamshell mode and then the MBP went to sleep like it should due to inactivity. I went to wake it and it wouldn't wake. I had to open the display and start it up manually via the touch id button and it started from shutdown. It indicated it had a panic and I submitted the info to Apple.

"panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff8011291b2c): Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while entering darkwake on way to sleep. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily. Thread 0x74.

Backtracing specified thread

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address"

Now, this may be the regular on wake kernel panic that is known. To avoid this, I have been making sure to always manually put the machine to sleep instead of letting it fall to sleep. This happened because I set my sleep time super low in order to avoid any type of screen saver that would start spinning my fan and raising the MBP's temperature.

Now, the video... It runs like crap on the external display. Period. It's choppy. It's unwatchable in Quicktime, meaning it just chops up and it's unwatchable. It runs in VLC but not too well.

With NO external display, the video runs in VLC. acceptably But get this, it never switches to dGPU. When I manually switch to it, it runs worse with the dGPU. Very odd.

[Link Edited by Moderator]

I am also having a similar problem with my 2019 16 inch MacBook Pro, and it is not monitor dependent either. Anytime I am loading the CPU from 7 - 10% the fans run obnoxiously loud, to the point that I can hear the noise over videos with soundtrack at half volume. I have dealt with Apple customer service and they have helped me run diagnostics (diagnostics showed no problems), SMC reset and now want me to back up my data and re-install Mac OS completely. Other than that they would have me send the computer in to have the hardware diagnosed and repaired. However, I am hesitant to send in the computer because if they don't find an issue or decide the fan noise is "normal", then I am out of luck because they have nothing that technically needs to be repaired. Yet it seems that many people are running into this issue... not sure exactly what to do at this point.

Interestingly enough I have not had this problem with my 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro. I guess I assumed that I was upgrading to a computer that could run the same work load while being more efficient... I guess I was wrong and should have stuck with my 5 year old computer for better performance. At least the 16 inch MacBook doesn't come with the butterfly keyboard. That I am thankful for.

Well my post was practically the same, linking to the article about charging on right side produces less heat. So it would seem to be random otherwise why out of 2 posts talking about the same thing and linking to the same content does one remain and the other get removed?

It would be unusual for them to optimize the weaker GPU, on a machine that's deemed professional and up to the task of working with such media as a flagship portable machine.

I have a lot of optimism after someone in here recently posted that Apple said they're aware and are working on it. We know the iGPU can run 8k video and run the external, they just have to let us use it and optimize for it and fix whatever is going on with the dGPU and its software.

Exactly, it's always been that way. I have a couple of friends with the Lenovo X1 Extreme and the Dell XPS 15. Both have the Intel Integrated Graphics and the dGPU. Their dGPU's are activated when connecting monitors or running discrete GPU-dependant applications. People cannot simply choose to use the iGPU just they feel it will run external monitors or that it can do the job of the dGPU. It's not just an ON/OFF switch by Apple. The 16" has a brand new dGPU from AMD so other manufacturers aren't currently using it. For some to say it's overheating and causing fans to blow leading to possible hardware failure when there's no other manufacture to compare this with is speculation only at this point.

Thanks William, unfortunately my Mac is now a few months old. At first I thought the noise was due to the fact that I had transported three generations of Macs through Time Machine (I know that, at some point, some old and useless processes can overload the new PC). A few days ago I made a reset from scratch, installing all the software directly from their websites, unfortunately without solving the problem. On Monday I will contact Apple support and I will hear what they have to say to me. I can't move the MBP to a "machine room" because I'm not organized in this way. In addition, I have a guarantee and Apple is bound to find a solution.

:-)

"It is an increase of power and extreme heat, even when idle, when a monitor is connected and the machine lid is open. "

See that has not been my experience at all. So you're saying that just connecting your 16" MBP and doing absolutely nothing causes the system to get extremely hot right away and fans to instantly blow loudly?

I posted here some information that may help you all to understand what the problem is all about: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251329522. I also added a comment with some results, after many tests that I've done.

If you have the same problem feel free to share it there. Contribute there your thoughts, and any information that you've got from Apple support and engineers.

TimUzzanti wrote:

So, people should still buy a 16inch MBP if they can't hear people on video conferences and can't hear you because of fan noise or the machine is at 100 degrees Celsius for long periods of time and / or throttling etc? Ignoring the fact that the recent MacOS updates have made the 16inch MBP even more unstable in different ways as well.

That is not good at all. I have been in zoom meetings, in fact I just got out of one, and have not had the issue even with it recording one my 4k screens. It went up for a little when it first started but then it went back down. Right now with both 4k's connected and running parallels I'm at 59C. When I disconnect for the evening I'll be between 43 and 50C. It runs warmer all day about 55-63C but nothing that I wouldn't expect from any other computer (and much cooler than my 15"). If I had your experience I couldn't recommend them either. My biggest issue of all has been Catalina but I haven't had any issues since 10.15.3

If we had a ZOOM meeting between all of us - which probably wouldn't be productive - would your's really get that hot and would we be all able to hear yours? I assume it's much hotter with Chrome?

DPJ, by now you should know (if you were to listen what others are saying of course) that 65C is not normal idle temp as running high FPS displays gets it down to 50c. 65C is JUST bellow the threshold when fans spin up to ~3.5k RPM.