CPU or software malfunctioning

16-in 2019 intel MacBook Pro heat and performance:

This computer was built with a ninth generation 14nm Intel processor. The only way to meet the target performance was to make it a six or eight core processor. This processor generates an enormous burst of heat when it does Turbo Boost, and there is only one cooling rail shared by both the CPU and GPU. So getting Either side too hot ramps up the fans.

This processor was supposed to be an eleventh-generation 7nm processor, but intel was three years late, and started to ship its tenth generation 10nm processors much later.

The drive in this computer is more than 100 times the typical speed of drives in computers a decade older. If you have installed software that wastes computer resources on a regular basis, such as third-party Virus Scanners, speeder-uppers, Cleaner-uppers/Removers, Optimizers, third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive, or a VPN that you installed yourself, it will do busywork at previously-impossible speeds and causing seemingly-random panics, typically for access violations or page faults. — heating up at a ferocious rate.

This older junky software used to run as fast as it could, then would then have to suspend itself to wait for the disk drive to catch up before continuing to waste resources. With a really fast drive, that drive-speed restriction is gone. In many cases it still does not show up as using a lot of CPU, because it is doing a lot of intensive I/O, and not a lot of computing. That will still make your computer slow and heat up.

Apple DID redesign the cooling system for this specific Mac. New, high-efficiency fans are used. But for some uses, that is still not enough.

Some of the best practical advice is to install Turbo Boost Switcher and turn off CPU Turbo Boost. This reduces the huge sudden overheating brought on by Turbo Boost, that simply does not translate into real-world performance gains.

I don't see any known Bad Actors.

I do see a lot of network use:

Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

Process (count) Input / Output (Source - Location)

corespeechd 3 KB / 15 MB (Apple)

mDNSResponder 2 MB / 161 KB (Apple)

com.apple.WebKit.Networking 621 KB / 170 KB (Apple)

biometrickitd 201 KB / 54 KB (Apple)

remoted 44 KB / 57 KB (Apple)

I think you may be paying dearly for talking to the computer. You could restrict that speech-recognition to local-only by changing some settings.

you are also using resources just watching:

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

EtreCheckPro 14.80 % (Etresoft, Inc.)

WindowServer 9.76 % (Apple)

kernel_task 2.24 % (Apple)

Intel Power Gadget 1.28 % (Intel Corporation Apps)

com.apple.AppleUserHIDDrivers 1.20 % (Apple)

....also shows up a major energy user

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I think when you are doing graphic-intensive stuff, including Minecraft, you should consider QUIT-ing your Browser. Between WindowServer, Safari, WebKitNetworking, you are using a LOT of resources when your main focus is elsewhere.

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It may seem like heresy, but many users of this specific model Mac get improved performance turning Turbo Boost OFF. Install Turbo Boost Switcher and turn off CPU Turbo Boost. This reduces the huge sudden overheating brought on by Turbo Boost, that simply does not translate into real-world performance gains. But it Does translate into overwhelming heat buildup that causes you Mac to slow down to avoid overheating.

The manifestation of that slowdown is seen when KernelTask is using a very large amount of processing power -- it is idling in a cooling-loop.

¿do you have any external displays in use?

Run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. If there is an issue with the cooling system, then the diagnostics will usually detect it. If the diagnostics do not report any issues, then you likely have some other type of hardware issue...perhaps a CPU issue. Like I mentioned previously, the 2019 model (especially the 16" model) seem to have a higher rate of Logic Board failures than any other models.

As long as the fan is spinning and passes the Apple Diagnostic and there is no dust build up, the issue is going to be with the Logic Board. There is nothing you can do to resolve a Logic Board issue except perhaps perform a firmware "Restore" which resets the T2 security chip & firmware which requires reinstalling macOS using Internet Recovery Mode unless the "Restore" process pushes a clean OS to the internal SSD. I doubt the "Restore" firmware option will do anything, but you never know.

I haven't observed the thermal behavior in detail on the 2019 model to know what temps are at "idle" speed, but I do know with the older 2016/2017 models where the idle speed is 800MHz that there hardly any heat felt through the case....I'm not sure how another 400MHz would affect the temps. Sounds like the CPU is running hotter than what an idle speed would give it which too me indicates some internal fault unrelated to the fan itself assuming you have given the laptop enough time to cool the laptop since it can take a while to have the laptop to return to much lower temps. Unfortunately I don't currently have access to any 2019 model to check basic behavior.

MacBook Pro is optimized for portability first, and only then for performance.

This means it won’t have the thermals and particularly won’t have the cooling capabilities of a desktop.

This cooling for the processor, and the GPU, and the rest of the components. All produce heat.

With Intel, always expect to get base clock. Boost is mostly advertising, and is a short-lived sprint, at best.

The Mac will reduce performance to reduce heat to try to avoid permanent damage.

For this case, one other detail that can throttle performance is clogged cooling paths.

I suspect this MacBook Pro is headed for a discussion with Apple or an authorized repair provider, though.

When performance lags, often the reason is not strictly CPU, not strictly graphics, not necessarily I/O or disk speed, but often a combination of many factors.

Rather than spend a lot of time playing "20 questions", We use a well-respected "Discovery" utility, Etrecheck, to create a report of what's what inside your Mac. The report is pre-laundered of all personally-identifiable information, so it is safe to post back to the forums.

Download Etrecheck and run, then "share" the report to the clipboard, start a reply on the forums and click the "additional text" icon in the reply footer, then "Paste" and the entire report will be available for analysis.

Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community

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BobyCog wrote:

The thing is, I get less than base clock. The base clock of my cpu is 2.3 GHz but as I said I get 1.2 GHz.

I will try to use the turbo boost locker

Computers are systems, all of which produce heat, and thermal throttling can then effect some or all of it. That load can be due to clogged cooling, or problems with some component (e.g. weak or failing battery, overheating SSD, macOS bug, etc) producing excessive heat or excessive throttling, or just more load than can be cooled, and all of which usually means a discussion with Apple. Contact Apple Support.

Were there an easy and reliable means to remove dust, I would have suggested it.

This means you can either acquire the skills and tools (and risk tolerance) to disassemble the MacBook Pro and remove the dust—assuming dust-clogged cooling is the issue—or can request the assistance of Apple Support.

There are tear-downs posted.

Or check with Apple Support, and they can diagnose and verify and resolve the issue. Apple usually performs some diagnostics and provides a free estimate. If you have paid for AppleCare+, use it.

From supporting thousands of our organization's Apple USB-C laptops (most being 2017 models), I have learned that the two most common reasons for the CPU to be running at idle speeds is due to thermal throttling or power related issues. However, in a few cases I have not been able to determine why the CPU is operating only at idle speeds as both temps & power seem to be Ok, but the utilities to view these things are much too limited to be certain. In those cases, the Logic Board needed to be replaced to resolve the issue.

The 2019 MBPro in all its incarnations seems to have the most problematic Logic Boards of the USB-C Macs, but I think I've seen more reported issues with the 16" model. It is possible your laptop actually has a defective Logic Board.

Unfortunately Apple crammed the i9 CPU into this laptop to make it work....it was more for show than anything else since the i7s are barely able to be cooled in these laptops, with the i9s Apple had to do a lot to make it as functional as it is.

Turbo Boost happens only when the processor is so lightly loaded that the clock speeds can be turned up with impunity. When the processor is working, even under a modest load, Turbo boost is impossible, because it generates too much HEAT.

What is your GROSS complaint?

lagging performance?

fans too high?

too hot?

if you asked users how to their computers faster, they would say, "a faster processor." unfortunately, we have reached the end of the line on what the electronics can do at a particular feature-size, and have been forced (because there is no alternative) to go with MORE processors instead. Optimizing execution over an unknown number of processors is a classic unsolved problem in Computer science.

Apple and others have embraced an improvement embodied in Apple "Grand Central Dispatch", which works (with programmer assistance) to unwind the loops so that each trip through the loop is split off as its own additional task, and then all the tiny tasks can be scheduled and worked on, on however many processors are available.

This may mean that high-powered software has so many tasks that have been created, processor activity NEVER returns to the baseline it started at. As soon as intensive processing starts, tasks by the hundreds are created.

Turbo Boost requires that all the processors but one are nearly idle, so it may not return until that intensive software quits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch

BobyCog wrote:

How should I explain my problem to the apple employee?

It also really helps if you can reproduce the issue on demand in front of the tech.

FYI, Apple usually will not accept information from third party apps or utilities so using a third party app to show system temps or power levels will probably be ignored by Apple. There are a couple of methods of getting CPU frequency and CPU/GPU temps using command line utilities by only using built-in macOS resources and utilities, but they are very limited and can vary between OS versions & hardware versions. Even with these commands an Apple tech may ignore the information as they are not trained to work this way and may not understand what they are seeing. An AASP tech is more likely to accept information from these command or even third party utilities, but not always...depends on a tech's background and initiative.

To show CPU speed/frequency:

sudo  powermetrics  |  grep  -i  'system average'

To show CPU & GPU temps:

sudo  powermetrics  -s  smc

Both of these commands will continue running & updating about once a minute until terminated by pressing Control + C with the respective Terminal window/tab in focus.

I never understood any reason for Turbo boost, since it can only be used when you are doing single-threaded operations under light loads. It always seemed like complete specsmanship to me.

But this is a marketing document with the Intel "company line":

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/turbo-boost.html