I just wanted to say, as far as benchmarks go.. the 15" I just returned with 2.3ghz 8 core, 32Gb ram and Vega 20, got a higher Geekbench score than the one being talked about in the opening post, that was the supposed new great score of the 16". I thrashed it with a November 2019 15 inch.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/602941
I decided to test out Catalina before sending the machine back, just out of curiosity, and it was a similar score.
Cinebench R20 was between 3000 and 3170 on multiple runs.. Intel power gadget shows between 58 and 59 watts when under max cpu load, and the cpu clock was around 3 to 3.1ghz, occasionally dropping to 2.9 for a second or so. This is the exact behaviour I saw in the 8 core tested so far of the 16"..
The cinebench score is every so slightly better on the new ones, which means that under 100% cpu load on every core, the thermals are a TAD bit better.. no where near the 12 watts of extra heat dissipation that Apple claim.
I regret returning the machine. The biggest draw was the bigger screen and a decent gaming video card finally, but honestly I am calling BS on the so called improved thermals. There's only so much that can be done with a single shared heatpipe configuration.
Anyway, compared to the 15 I had, the new one is performing, on an all core CPU max load, about 1.5 percent better than the one I returned.
An actual improvement would have been the cpu's being able to sustain 3.5ghz across all cores when under duress.. still well shy of the 4.1 and 4.2ghz all core turbo speeds of the two 8 core chips, but at least it would have been a marked improvement.
I have seen 9750H windows laptops tested lately that get a 3000 and over in CB R20. In the base 6 core 9th gen cpu no less! This goes to show how far behind even the MBP 16" is in thermal performance, and I am a bit sick and tired of all the youtube reviewers so far praising how much better thermals and performance are, then actually citing results similar to what I just said.. LOL.
I'll still get one, to have a better keyboard, the nice slim bezels and 16" screen, and to be able to game at 1900x1200 at high settings in bootcamp. But I would have given that all up to keep Mojave had I known. Sadly I was under time pressure, and the real testing of the 16" did not come out before my return date was up.. I had to send it back or keep it and decided to send it back. Honestly feel like re buying it as a refurb LOL, although this time it will come with Catalina and I've seen many issues downgrading to Mojave from Catalina even on macs that support it.. So.. I dunno.
In any case, if that was all TLDR, I am not happy with the thermal and performance improvements in the 16" macbook pro.