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MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

discussions.apple.com

91–100 of 311 posts

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#91
post #85
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…

What you are saying is, that no matter how much one company keeps failing, they will never leave its ecosystem. What I am saying, is that it's never too late to begin considering it.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#92
post #91
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…

What you are saying is, that no matter how much one company keeps failing, they will never leave its ecosystem. What I am saying, is that it's never too late to begin considering it.

I literally said they can switch, but it is not easy and takes effort. You're assuming a lot by saying they haven't even considered it.

And more relevant to this post, Apple still sold people a multi-thousand dollar device, and those people are entitled to question why the device doesn't perform as expected.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#93
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 smart! I'm going to try the trick next time~

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#94
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

but then you end up with a monster of a machine. Why can't laptop engineers just find a way to break physics, it's not that hard, Einstein did it... edit: /s

Maybe laptops are not supoosed for heavy lifting...

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#95
post #92
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are saying is, that no matter how much one company keeps failing, they will never leave its ecosystem. What I am saying, is that it's never too late to begin considering it.

I literally said they can switch, but it is not easy and takes effort. You're assuming a lot by saying they haven't even considered it. And more relevant to this post, Apple still sold people a multi-thousand dollar device, and those people are entitled to question why the device doesn't perform as expected.

My point was, that we now have a long enough history of Apple's hardware failures, delayed admissions, and constrained repairability.

Instead of pretending to be surprised by another of Apple's non-reactions, they should use this as an opportunity to reconsider the whole picture.

At least, if Dell starts sucking, they can switch to HP or Lenovo, and the other way around. If Apple stars sucking, they have no other option but to keep complaining online.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#96
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.

Tim Cook is (to an extent?) an engineer. He has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration.

... so he's an MBA

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked. Unless I'm missing something there is no simple volume control like on the physical keyboard? I already have the volume button on my touchbar home screen however tapping it opens a slider. I don't want or need a slider and have to do a tap and then slide to get the volume down whilst before it was one press of a button. This usually requires me to look away form what I'm doing. It's definitely a step…

You can tap-hold-slide to adjust across the whole range, rather than tapping then hunting for the slider. You can also set the touch bar to show an expanded control strip by default (which includes a volume up/volume down/mute triple) if you want.

The tap and hold works well. I guess I will settle on expanded view with fn key for app controls. Probably the best for my usecase.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#98
post #14

What can I say as a person somewhat close to electronics engineering: Look at that single skinny heat pipe, it will get saturated very fast. Second to that, look at those tiny radiators, they are clearly not capable to discharge the full heat flux. I simply don't see any signs of proper thermal engineering there. Apple says "we are listening now, and here is a new cooling design," then it comes out to be even less ad…

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…

> 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.

If that was the gamble, you'd assume that the laptops would thermal throttle way below the physical Tjunction limit. As a matter of fact, they're still allowing themselves to reach very high temperatures even in common usage, despite an undersized (hence, to some extent, less reliable) cooling solution. That's kinda hard to explain as a sensible choice.

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#99
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…

So I first thought that using gfxCardStatus to force the use of integrated graphics could help.

However:

> gfxCardStatus v2.3 and above actively prevents you from switching to Integrated Only mode when any apps are in the Dependencies list (or if you have an external display plugged in). This is because if you were to do this, your discrete GPU would actually stay powered on, even though you've switched to the integrated GPU.

https://gfx.io/switching.html#integrated-only-mode-limitatio...

Re: MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise (2019)

#100
I like to keep my macbook on an elevated stand when its connected to monitor/keyboard/mouse. Does anyone know of a passive cooling stand (no fans) that works with macbooks? Maybe just something with a giant finned heatsink that presses right up against the middle of the case or something?
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