macbook pro 16 i9: noticeable thermal noise on idle while connected with an external monitor

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Level 1

14 points

macbook pro 16 i9: noticeable thermal noise on idle while connected with an external monitor

Hi,

I got the newly released macbook pro 16 inch i9 for around 2 days, I also own a late 2015 model macbook pro 13 inch previously. I noticed the thermal noise of the new one is significant louder than the old one, even it's in idle, but it's only while connected with an external monitor (through usb type-c cable).

The screenshot of cpu gpu temperature and fan speed:

But the noise level is similar to my 2015 macbook while it's not connected to external monitors, but the 2015 one is also super quiet while it's connected to two external monitors with some light work load, which 90% of time my mac was used this way. And I guess this might have something to do with the AMD graphic card kicked in when connected with external monitors.

Is this normal for macbook pro 16 inch i9? if so it's disappointing as I mainly use mac for coding and a quiet environment is appreciated. Or anyone has different experience?

Jeff

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Nov 30, 2019 4:32 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rallycar27

Level 1

19 points

Dec 4, 2019 2:23 PM in response to zmw85

I also bought a 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch with an i9 and am not happy about a noticeable, somewhat higher pitched buzzing sound while idling (that gets worse with a USB foot pedal I use to control audio playback). Does not sound like the fans. Sounds "electronic" and quickly varies in pitch, kind of like higher pitch Morse code when you put your ear near the keyboard.

I was able to completely silence this sound by using an apple called "Turbo Boost Switcher" that disables Turbo Boost to save battery life and run your computer a bit cooler with less fan noise, however, at the cost of slightly lower performance. When I use this app to disable Turbo Boost, the sound is completely gone.

Not sure what to make of this. Why would Turbo Boost be active in any way with the computer under very light load? And so why would disabling Turbo Boost result in the sound going away with the computer under a light load? Regardless, this is a great little app. There's a free version and a $10 pro version with some more features.

https://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/

https://marco.org/2018/07/31/mac-low-power-mode

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Answer 2

zmw85 Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 4, 2019 3:34 PM in response to rallycar27

What you described seems to be a different issue, what I noticed from pass few days use is the fan noise level has to do with room temperature a lot. As right now it is near summer in Australia, room temperature can easily get to 30, and the 2 fans are blasting above 3000rpm after a while of my routine usage, I’m a developer running code editors and compilers and some web browsing, nothing significant. In this environment the fan noise level isn’t good, especially in night when quiet. But during some cool days, room temperature around 22, fan runs at 2xxx, the noise which is much acceptable.

im going to live with this, it’s i9 8 core and fan is trying to keep computer cool, what can I say. But I think it’s something Apple may want to improve.

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