MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

Post by spiralganglion » Fri, Feb 07, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #276

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…

I’m curious if this is affected by the resolution on the laptop display. I believe the 16” and more recent 15” all default to a slightly scaled resolution, versus the pre-Touch Bar 15” which defaults to the panel’s native 2x resolution.

Post by filleduchaos » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 12:31 AM UTC

correct_horse wrote: post #259

mns wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are underestimating the cost of your setup. There is no way in my opinion that you can build a decent PC with 1/4 price of a MacBook Pro. European prices might be higher, 2699 official price for base 16" (you can actually get it for 2399 from official resellers). But still 675 Eu for a proper setup is impossible. Just the CPU and RAM will cost you a bit over 300. I know you are just making a point, but it…

Are you aware that the most expensive macbook pro costs $5900? A reasonable high-spec config costs $3800.

Post by wyclif » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 1:48 AM UTC

joakleaf wrote: post #18

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…

I moved from 2014 15" (i7) to 16" (i9). It is an upgrade, but not by much... The touch bar gets in the way, but I use external keyboardS 90% of the time, so it isn't that big of problem. I would have gladly payed extra for F-keys. The larger track-pad also gets in my way often. Fan noise is significant compared to the old model. USB-C-only is quite annoying. I never missed a port on the 15", whereas now ... well... I…

Post by throw_away » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:06 AM UTC

krooj wrote: post #256

zarmin wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bug on Macbooks in general, as I understand it. I have a 2019 MBP with a 4k monitor, and if I change the resolution to anything except the default, there is massive system-wide lag. God forbid I use PyCharm on 4k scaled resolution – a full second between typing and seeing the text.

I think the lag is common to all JetBrains IDEs: IDEA, WS, PyCharm, etc. IIRC, it's the JVM not using any acceleration for rendering and there might be another bug whereby using the integrated display and an external 4k panel at the same time causes massive lag. Try closing the lid with your 4k monitor attached and see if things speed up. In any case, I feel you on the system-wide lag. I basically just avoid using Je…

Post by hrrsn » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 4:01 AM UTC

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…