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MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

discussions.apple.com

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Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#111

Post by smashedtoatoms »

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #73
antalk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 g…

This has been my experience as well. Fans kick on on long compiles, and that's about it.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#112

Post by ardy42 »

alwayseasy wrote: post #34
lqs469 wrote: post #21

Cook 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.

What metric are you using to point to Apple's decline since Tim Cook came into the company? Product lines, revenue, customers, market cap, employees, daily client interactions, brand value, customer satisfaction?

> What metric are you using to point to Apple's decline since Tim Cook came into the company? Product lines, revenue, customers, market cap, employees, daily client interactions, brand value, customer satisfaction?

Not everything can be measured, or measured practicably. Qualitative judgments are valuable.

Looking at things too much through the lens of metrics can make you blind to many things.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#113

Post by kevingadd »

gnudad wrote: post #28

This 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…

fwiw NVIDIA GPUs have had a similar behavior under normal conditions on Windows forever. After following up with tech support about it, the explanation provided can basically be summarized as 'the higher the resolution + refresh rate of your attached monitors, the more demand placed on the memory controller and scan-out, which means a higher minimum GPU and/or memory clock to drive it'.

My current RTX 20xx card can drive two 4k monitors at low clocks, but the 9xx series really struggled and the 10 series still needed to clock up some. I suspect something similar is probably happening here with the AMD GPU if you're running the laptop's integrated retina display along with a 1440p60 external display, it's probably forced to clock up to drive that many pixels. I'm not really sure how AMD could get around basic hardware limitations here unless they have a really clever way of driving displays at a low memory clock.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#114

Post by fortran77 »

zymhan wrote: post #85
krn wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Oh come now, you surely understand that you cannot just drop in a Windows or Linux PC as a replacement for a Mac, just like you couldn't do the opposite. Organizations have management tools, single sign on, and software that may only run on one OS. Suggesting a ThinkPad or Dell as a replacement is naive. If an organization wants to change the computers it gives it's employees so dramatically, it will take some transi…

I switched from Mac to Windows 10 and it was painless.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#115

Post by fortran77 »

jhabdas wrote: post #16
dragonsh wrote: post #11

I was planning to buy MacBook 16-inch as I am still on 2014 edition which in my view were one of the best MacBooks. I simply hate that unnecessary Touch Bar, was hoping Apple will remove it but didn’t. Thought then of getting 16-inch as they have an esc key. Waiting for this kind of review, I will put on hold purchasing it until get a clarity on fan noise. My current old MacBook fan do make some noise but only under…

mid-2014 editions had only one flaw: macOS. Easily remedied.† † https://habd.as/post/invisible-arch-linux/

BTW

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#116

Post by kevingadd »

treyfitty wrote: post #108

To be fair, I run 2 4K monitors at 60hz and I don’t hear my fans doing normal work (Excel, Firefox, PyCharm, Jupiter Labs). I use a DisplayLink hub (idk if that matters, but I’ve heard DisplayLink is driven by CPU) However, when I watch a 1080p movie, no matter what player, on just the laptop display, the mouse cursor feels sluggish and my fans are on 50-75% at all times.

DisplayLink for 4k60 involves compression, yes. So it's probably driving the monitor through a different flow and relying more on the CPU instead of relying on the GPU (the latter will naturally increase GPU heat dissipation)

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#117

Post by frogpelt »

amrrs wrote: post #37
lqs469 wrote: post #21

Cook 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.

The argument as stated was that Tim Cook is more focused on sales than engineering. You counter argue that they have sold a lot of Apple watches.

That does not compute.

The guy at the top will always get more than his share of blame and more than his share of credit.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#118

Post by psychometry »

marriedWpt wrote: post #103
zymhan wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come now, you surely understand that you cannot just drop in a Windows or Linux PC as a replacement for a Mac, just like you couldn't do the opposite. Organizations have management tools, single sign on, and software that may only run on one OS. Suggesting a ThinkPad or Dell as a replacement is naive. If an organization wants to change the computers it gives it's employees so dramatically, it will take some transi…

Why can't you? Compiling iOS apps? Otherwise anything an Apple product can do, a competitor does cheaper and better.

Cheaper? Yes. Better? Not generally.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#119

Post by cdmckay »

marriedWpt wrote: post #102
jmull wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the existence of the long support thread, Apple doesn't seem to be trying to suppress this issue. And that poster has many posts, so isn't being targeted either. Could it be the posts were deleted legitimately? Some people in that thread are pretty angry and may have let it get the better of them.

Given Apple's less than ethical history, I'm not sure it's reasonable to give them benefit of doubt. They might have an excuse that fans can believe, but the real reason is to suppress bad press.

What less than ethical history are you referring to? Have they deleted posts before?

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#120

Post by dijit »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #53
desdiv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a similar trick: I try to find a laptop that comes in both discrete-GPU and integrated-GPU configurations, and both version must share the identical chassis. This way, when I buy the integrated version, I know the chassis has been designed with the heavier airflow of the discrete-GPU version in mind. If I'm lucky, my integrated-GPU config might even use the identical size heat-sinks as the discrete-GPU version.

That's interesting. Any model you can recommend?

Dell XPS 15's and Precisions 55xx's allow this trick.

You can buy them from the manufacturer with no discrete graphics cards.

I have one with a card which is physically turned off for the same trick.

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