New Macbook Pro 16 inch Overheating

I have a similar problem on my 2019 MBP 16" laptop.

Intermittently, the laptop temp skyrockets from average temps (55–60 C / 130–140 F on CPU Core 1 temp sensor) to absurdly high temps (75 C / 167 F) that make the laptop painful to the touch in the area near the speaker vents and especially so above the menu bar (above/around the control strip). Simultaneously, during those heat spikes, I have noticeable degradation of performance.

This seems to happen regardless of my usage habits or apps I have open. 

I noticed the heat issue when I first set up the laptop (bought brand new), but I thought it might just be some background processes with caching/cleanup or whatever other things happen in the background when setting up a new computer. So, I didn't return it. But, this remains to be an issue.

It's unpredictable. Occasionally, I've returned home to find it in the middle of a "heat flash". Other times, it will go for hours with no problem. It happens whether it's plugged in or not.

For anyone else troubleshooting, here are some details about my setup usage habits, and steps I've attempted. Nothing has worked and the problem persists.

Specs

• Overview
  • macOS Catalina version 10.15.7
  • 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core I9
  • 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
  • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB
  • Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536MB
• Display
  • 16-inch display (3072 x 1920)
  • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB

Typical usage

• Plugged in (via CalDigit TS3 Plus) that has some accessories connected to it:
  • Some midi devices (turned off until needed)
  • 1 external hard drive, low RPM and separate power source
  • Sound mixer, also separate power source
• Note that I've tried plugging charger in directly, without connecting the CalDigit TS3, but it did not resolve the heat issue.
• Wifi enabled
• No external monitor, keyboard, or mouse
• Nothing connected via Bluetooth
• Propped up to permit airflow all around the laptop base
• Laptop keyboard, lights at lowest setting while still being on
• Display brightness typically 50–75%, leaning more toward 50%
• Display open
• Ambient temp is 18–20 C / 64–68 F
• App usage
  • During work: 
    • 3 Safari windows with maybe 3-10 tabs each, varying throughout the day. Sites are typical for my role — gmail, calendar, one or two google documents/sheets, Jira, and some miscellaneous sites for research
    • Slack
    • Zoom (main app open, occasionally have a call, and occasionally share screen/video during the call)
    • Occasionally Figma, but only when needed
    • Occasionally Spotify, but not often
  • When not working: 
    • Either: Only Ableton open, everything else closed
    • OR: 1–3 Safari windows with a few tabs each (email, some text-based news sites, articles, etc), occasionally Spotify, occasionally Discord
    • Only one user logged in at a time
  • Background apps
    • Macs fan control (in response to this issue, in particular)
    • NTFS for Mac (although closing this has no effect on the heat issue)

What I've done so far

• Checked activity monitor duding these points in time. 
  • WindowServer seems to consistently have a surprisingly high %CPU (i.e., I see it go over 100% during the heat spikes).
  • Otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary or excessive.
• Turned off automatic graphics switching.
  • No effect, symptom persists
• Turned off transparency.
  • No effect, symptom persists
• Checked contents of /Library/LaunchAgents AND ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • A license service (iLOK) for audio plugins that I use on Ableton
  • Paragon software notification agent (supports NTFS for Mac)
  • Nothing suspicious
• Checked contents of ~/Library/Application Support
  • Nothing suspicious
• Checked contents of /Library/LaunchDaemons
  • Nothing suspicious
• Checked all applications, nothing out of the ordinary 
• Checked Preferences > Users > (each user) > Login Items
  • Very few items here
  • Nothing suspicious
• Cleared all caches/history/etc from Safari
  • No effect, symptom persists

I'm at a loss. The intermittent heat spikes (and corresponding performance degradation) are particularly a nuisance when creating music. Despite being the primary driver behind my purchase, I wouldn't trust this device in a live music performance setting. 

I'm disappointed, to say the least. 

I too facing same heating issue on my laptop new macbook pro 16 inch.

I contacted customer care and they asked me give it into service centre. It is brand new apple not even it is completed 2 weeks after i purchase.

First apple product and not happy with it.

Same here. First apple product I am not happy with either. Sent it in and also noticed high usage of RAM along with this heating issue. Even after sending the product in apple care and support "could not replicate the issue" they know this model has issues, so many are complaining about the heat issue. Be aware potential buyers not all apple products live to the expectations. The product is only 1.5 months old. This will be the last apple PC product I buy ever.

My mac book pro 16" is just 2 weeks old. I called apple customer customer care many time about issues and i did all troubleshooting steps as they suggested and finally gave my laptop in I Car service centre but no use, still heating issue is there. Can one suggest what else i can do fix it.

When you say browsing, what tabs you have open? Facebook with video autoplay? YouTube? You can switch in Activity Monitor to Energy tab and see what app is consuming energy.

Do you use external monitor? External monitor uses discrete GPU which produces more heat...

These laptops have powerful CPUs and GPUs. These computers should be way larger to provide proper cooling. Look at other mobile workstations from HP, Dell, Lenovo and see what sizes are these. You want thin, you suffer the fan noise...

I bought Macbook Pro 16 inch December 2019, only after the seventh time of using it, while I was watching a youtube video, having nothing else opened the laptop started to overhead, then it kept shutting down the whole system.

I took it to apple center, after a week, they called saying they could not figure out the exact source of the issue, and advised me to return it back and re-purchase another new one. which I did, and I thought that might be just unlucky piece of Macbook Pro.

I got my new Macbook Pro 16, yesterday it is the second time using it, just installing my programs where it started to overheat and the fan sound was very load.

I had put almost $4000 for this piece with Ram 32GB, 1T storage, and the latest core-i9 processor! I had an older version of Macbook pro, with away less qualification at work, that works almost without any overheating issue while I have all my programs open even over a several days.

I think this is a manufacture problem with this Macbook Pro 16 inch.

I'll return it back, and re-purchase an older stable version of Macbook pro.

I hope that apple would realize and admit this issue with the 16 inch mac soon and take all the pieces of Macbook Pro 16 inch off the market and save their customers time and headache for having alarming problem with such an expensive investment.

I had the same problem, and found a solution for my new Macbook 16 (I have the default configuration).

I went to activity monitor and saw that a process called 'InternetSharing' was consuming the highest amount of CPU and had the longest amount of CPU hours.

I went to system preferences/sharing and unclicked 'Internet Sharing' from the list, and saw in Activity Monitor that the process was no longer consuming cpu cycles.

It immediately began to cool down - 3 minutes later and it's at room temperature!

Hope this helps.

I tried to look after this process and I don't find it.. my problem is overheating and the battery draining like crazy.. in just one hour of normal browsing and a 10 minutes facetime call, more than 30% is gone.. ffs

Thank you for sharing the information about the activity monitor. I had no clue that software could cause the temperature to rise. Checking out the activity monitor showed me that excel was consuming lots of energy and I have not clue why but when I closed it, the problem was solved.

Chrome... its using 30% of your CPU.. not a hardware issue. Chrome will almost always demand turbo-boost due to the VP9 video codec, which enables 4k playback on sites such as YouTube, which Apple does not natively support. In any event, the temps are not an issue, but the fans are. When the first core turbos the fans were programed to preemptively spool to avoid the thermal throttling and heat soaking the latest 15" models were experiencing. I believe they provided an update which changed these profiles back to something more reasonable. Also, i know the fans (and overall temps) operate a bit higher when plugged into an external display. I hope you can finally enjoy your purchase. I know I love mine...

Had the same issue today with a brand new Macbook 16", found out that there was an issue with Nortons AV which I installed, it was running a process that was continous and overheating laptop, once removed machine went down to normal state and fan did not constantly run, now in the process of looking for a new AV that wont cause the same issue

snehal112 wrote:

...

also noticed high usage of RAM

then your premium quality Macintosh computer is working as designed.

Memory management for Mavericks and beyond

Here is an in-depth article:

OS X 10.9 Mavericks: The Ars Technica Review | Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/

Here is a "Glossy" article:

Understanding Memory Pressure in OS X Mavericks

https://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/osx/understanding-memory-pressure-in-os-x-mavericks/

Here is a Mantra to help you manage Mac Memory after Mavericks:

"Unused RAM is Wasted RAM"

If you want to impart important information, Many readers are here because they prefer the WRITTEN medium.

Technical information presented by "talking heads" is not something I can assimilate easily.

Please write, or reference written material.

Does anyone know a way to tweak the power settings for the discrete graphics card (dGPU)? I reluctantly accept the fact that I can't switch it off when using an external monitor, but would it be possible to tune it down a little? For what I do, the integrated graphics would suffice easily. So if there is a way to reduce the speed and power consumption of the dGPU, that would help a little.

I see links where such tweaks for the CPU are described, for instance by switching off turbo boost. If something similar is possible with the dGPU I would like to know more about that.

Thanks!

fransgl wrote:

...

Does anyone know a way to tweak the power settings for the discrete graphics card (dGPU)?

...

When using an External display, Closing the clamshell or disabling the built-in display with an nvram setting has been found to sometimes reduce the Speed of the display RAM, and cutting its power substantially (by as much 8 to 10 Watts).

Some users also found that setting the display refresh rate very high (WAY above 60Hz) sometimes resulted in the same reduced speed/power for the display RAM.