I got one, heard the fan, felt the heat. Switched on "Automatic Graphics Switching" in the power saver options and as I type it's on my lap as quiet as a mouse and as cool as a cucumber.
MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
71–80 of 311 posts
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#72This appears to be a software bug in macOS or AMD's drivers. Plugging in an external monitor at certain resolutions (1440p@60Hz in my case) will cause the AMD GPU to draw 18-20W constantly, no matter what it's doing. This causes the total system draw to increase from ~10W to ~30W. All that heat has to go somewhere. If I change the resolution of my external monitor to 1080p the AMD GPU drops to ~4W and the fans are qu…
Can you share how you're measuring GPU power draw? I have just migrated to a 16" MBP with the AMD chip, and also use an external display some of the time. Have noticed the fan noise and heat but it hasn't been a problem yet.
I use iStat Menus and look at the "Radeon High Side" sensor for GPU power draw under the Sensors menu icon.
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#73The thermal design of Macbook pros just isn't adequate for >4 core high clock speed CPUs, especially with a discrete GPU thrown in the mix too. I had one of those i9 2018 MBPros and it was always super hot. Much happier now with a 13" 4 core MBpro, it runs quite cool and without any fan noise most of the time. Built a separate AMD 3900x PC with an Nvidia GPU for heavy lifting, and can use that remotely with the MBpro…
For what it's worth, this only occurs when connected to an external monitor -- which causes the discrete GPU to overheat, even with no apps running. Using the built-in display (with the discrete GPU on) is fine.
I’m using 2 external displays (one 4K) and it’s not overheating and the fans are completely silent.
My 16” i9 is MUCH quieter than my 15” 2015 Macbook pro, and it’s not like i’m browsing Facebook: i’m constantly compiling and running tests on every file save.
My macbook feels warm but not hot, even when I touch it at the fan exhausts. I do notice my battery only lasting about 2,5 hours though.
Playing games it runs great and while you can hear the fans, it’s much better compared to my 15” 2015.
Personally i’m really impressed with the cooling and performance of the 16”
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I had to guess they know what they're doing engineering wise, but they're taking a calculated (and poorly thought out, in my opinion) risk that a small percent of people will regularly peg the cpu at 100% usage, and they're further relying upon clock rate throttling and the cpu die thermal sensor to keep things from melting down. Or the management/product design group has overridden the input of the people who act…
That's why I buy gaming laptops for my work needs even though I don't play games. Their heatsinks are generously sized resulting in good thermals and acoustics.
This has been true since the days of desktop computers, too (when laptop wasn't even an option). Gaming specs always make for simply great all-around machines — largely due to component specialization indeed, including thermal outtake.
Note that to this day it's magnitudes of order cheaper to build a desktop for crunching numbers. There's no beating the thermals of that, and thermals = cost either in money or time in this very physically-underpinned market.
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#75My new i9 15" is a lot cooler and more silent than the i7 2015 it's been replacing. I guess doing a completely clean install with nothing else than using iCloud to sync data from the old machine fixed a lot of software related performance issues that piled up on the old one. I expect the 2015 to be a lot better again after a clean install. I think most of the problems on the 2019 are software related.
Not seeing any of the heat / performance problems mentioned by other people, the only really weird thing I've seen is that the color palette was way too dark getting out of sleep until I minimized and maximized brightness. That helped until the next sleep where it was too bright this time and the brightness trick didn't work anymore. Finally fixed it by switching between another color profile and back.
Otherwise TouchID was pretty good, don't really notice the touchpad in any way good or bad and the touch bar goes largely ignored just like the row of keys it replaced. Keyboard action is nice, it's slightly more clicky than the 2015 but still has about the same travel.
I really doubt anybody still on a 2015 or older will regret getting the 16". Probably the software problems get ironed out over the course of the next months.
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#76What's disturbing is that Apple seem to be deleting posts: After attempting to be part of the solution; spending a ton of time testing, providing information in the community, communicating with Apple Engineers and Apple Business Team, our most recent post was deleted as "Speculative". We have spent over $300,000 on Apple hardware over the years both business and consumer and now our voice has been muted. How can we…
> How can we move forward using Apple?
And why should they? What's wrong with trying out something like Thinkpad X series[1] instead? Or Thinkpad P series, which can now come with Ubuntu LTS pre-installed. I wonder, if they would have invested so much time in fixing Dell's issues for Dell. Probably not. Why? Because there is no Dell's lock-in.
[1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x/c/t...
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#77This isn't surprising at all to me. All Apple has to do is put "i7" on the box and their customers will eat it up and then just browse Facebook and YouTube. Their whole shtick for years has been selling "pro" devices to regular consumers who aspire to be pros.
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was going to ask where that quote was from before realizing that there is a 44-page thread beyond the two highlighted responses.
Yes, and most of that thread is posts full of noise and faulty suggestions that add nothing to the discussion but serve to dilute the original post and the few posts with relevant information. Which is why I seldom bother with discussions.apple.com. It's a cesspit.
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Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha. I guess all fans are revolutionary then. But this one is is comes with extra revolution for every USB-C port you use.
Makes me wonder if there's technology for fanless fans, moving air without spinning fans.
Dyson's visually look like this.
https://www.dyson.com/fans-and-heaters/dyson-cool-overview.h...
Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)
#80Cook is a complete businessman, best at cutting costs, increasing profits and attracting customers to buy more. Don't forget that memory began to weld on the motherboard because this can only be replaced and not upgraded. He was a businessman, not an engineer or a designer, and that was the beginning of apple's decline.
This cliched argument is quite ironic and insane. A leader doesn't have to be visionary all the time. Just last week there was a news about Apple selling more Watches than the entire Swiss industry and no one would talk about Cook there but when things go wrong, we forget that it's someone in QA or Product but all the blame goes to how Cook isn't a Product guy.
> A leader doesn't have to be visionary all the time
Yes they do. If they're not visionary, then they're just a manager.
Apple grew because of a visionary, and now it shrinks because the best a manager can do is try to maintain the status quo in the face of changing factors. It's fundamentally a losing battle.