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MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

discussions.apple.com

251–260 of 311 posts

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you just going to pretend the AirPods and Apple Watch don’t exist? By themselves they’d be a Fortune 500 company. “Minor updates”. You have to be joking.

Are you going to pretend either AirPods or Apple Watch are meaningfully competitive against other offerings on the market? There are headphones with better spec than airpods at half the price available right now. They're not locked to any ecosystem. Apple has no idea how to continue competing in the envelope of modern hardware because competitors either beat them or match them on every move but without the premium. S…

> Are you going to pretend either AirPods or Apple Watch are meaningfully competitive against other offerings on the market?

The definition of meaningfully competitive is growth, revenue, and market share. You're implying they're not competitive, which implies you think they're not making money. By what metric are they not competitive?

> There are headphones with better spec than airpods at half the price available right now. They're not locked to any ecosystem. Apple has no idea how to continue competing in the envelope of modern hardware because competitors either beat them or match them on every move but without the premium.

This claim has always been made, for 35 years, and has always been true of all Apple hardware. Yet they compete and make a lot of money. What you're demonstrating is you don't understand what Apple is making or why people buy their products. What you're demonstrating is that better spec cheaper hardware isn't enough to beat the competition.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#252
post #205

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 had a 2014 15" (maxed out spec). I wanted a replacement so bought and returned the 2017 MBP because it was just not very good at all ( https://blog.willj.net/2017/08/14/why-i-returned-my-macbook-... ). I have recently bought the 16" (max GPU, max CPU, 32GB, 2TB disk). It's way better. There's still stuff wrong with it for sure. Some takeaways: - The keybord is better than recent models, but still not as good as the…

We have the same model. It's a much better machine than my old one. I agree with you on all points except the USB-C hate. I don't use it often enough to have to worry about what cable does what. I usually route everything through the TS3 Caldigit, and only ever hook up the TB3 cables to the laptop.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if anybody wants to dish out something on an order of $1.5m to do a contract manufacturing run for a properly designed full sized laptop, give me a note. Something tells me that Apple spent more than $1.5M designing the recent MacBook Pro. It is a bit presumptuous to say "well i could do it better" when referencing an entire team of qualified electrical engineers at one of the largest corporations in the world that…

I worked in OEM electronics since 2007, and spent almost entire career in roles around manufacturing. And yes, when cookie cutter OEM laptops were making money, I did them too. > It is a bit presumptuous to say "well i could do it better" when referencing an entire team of qualified electrical engineers at one of the largest corporations in the world that has near limitless resources. Well, they still clearly screwed…

So you are the missing link in their hardware team? If you have the answers, go work for them. You probably wouldn’t even have to interview, just tell them in your cover letter than you are better than 1000 of their hardware and materials science guys. While you’re at it, you might as well offer to rewrite the operating system as well, because why not?

As far as “clearly screwed up,” I’m not sure how clear that is. A few people on a forum complaining about something out of hundreds of thousands of those computers sold. In all of the rigorous professional reviews, this “screw up” hasn’t been mentioned. Not sure exactly what the screw up was, that fans turn on? On a huge, high end, powerful laptop?

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they acknowledged their keyboard issues?

Yeah, which is why this MacBook Pro line has a non-butterfly keyboard and why they went through three iteration of the butterfly keyboard before giving up on it.

https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-n...

They ignored the problem for 4 years.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#255
post #243
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15% load can mean a single i9 core boosting to 4.8-5ghz. The OP is correct. When I use a single threaded program that is keeping a core pinned at 100% why would it be unreasonable for the fan to be on?

I dont care if the fan is on. I care that the fan is egregiously on. It is probably 95-100db on. That means that the macbook is fundamentally unable to manage the heat load it generates. It would be one thing if I were in the middle of the desert outside at 100degreeF conditions. But I was indoors and the ambient temperature was probably 68F. Again, I dont care if the fan runs, I just dont want to hear it, and I dont…

Turn off spotlight, it’s broken.

Other than that, it shouldn’t do that unless you’re doing something that obviously requires a lot of CPU/GPU.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#256
post #155
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…

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 JetBrains products at this point.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cook has overseen just shy of 1 trillion dollars worth of growth for Apple. They routinely have quarters larger than Apple’s entire year back in 2011.

Cook is riding on the upward trajectory that was set before he took his role. Brand image carries a lot of inertia, and as a manager rather than a visionary, cook focused on getting the most use out of that pre-set trajectory while it lasted. It has run out of energy. If AR doesn't pay off, it's all downhill for Apple from Q4 this year onwards.

An upward trajectory set in motion over 8 years ago?

You have no idea what you are talking about. Watch and AirPods were entirely Tim Cook and that’s one of their biggest successes in the history of the company. You don’t think Jobs had significant misfires? The hockey puck mouse, the Cube, the iPhone antenna issue, etc.? People are mad because the thermal properties of their computer are perceived to be less than perfect and somehow Cook is a failure? That’s ridiculous.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#258

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 recently switched from a 2014 edition MBP to a 2017, and the experience has been terrible. I had to make the switch b/c the battery on the 2014 machine was starting to die and my work had an extra 2017 model.

- popping sounds coming from the chassis that drive me crazy

- bunched up arrow keys that are occasionally unresponsive at least in X11 emacs

- it seems like the touchbar has potential but is difficult to customize

- I find it lame you need an adapter for USB or HDMI.

I agree, go back to the 2014 style.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#259
post #129

Been using Mac primarily since 2011 and sad to see everything keep declining with Apple's software and hardware quality. When programming an app and its backend with react native/clojure my 2015 Mac Pro gets way too hot and slow. Just built a Ryzen 3600 desktop with 32 gigs of RAM for about 1/4th the price as the cheapest 16 inch Macbook. Windows with WSL2 has been extremely good and I'm satisfied with my development…

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.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#260
I've got the 16" MBP and definitely echo many of the same frustrations that others have noted here.

Owning Apple products nowadays is a bit of a masochistic endeavor in many ways - a year ago my local Linux group had me write a funny book on "Escaping the Cult of Mac" that talked about this (https://github.com/jasoneckert/CultOfMac).

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