16-inch MacBook Pro issues with external displays - do you have them in Windows 10 too?

[Yebubbleman]

I've read about all of the issues plaguing 16-inch MacBook Pro AMD GPUs and, it seems as though most of them pertain to using one or more external displays. I know that the 5600 with HMB2 RAM doesn't have this issue (at least not as much), and it sounds like anyone using a 16-inch MacBook Pro without an external display attached will never have issues.

So, given all of this, I have one question: Do those of you with these issues experience them while natively booted (via Boot Camp) into Windows 10? Or are they exclusive to macOS? If the latter, I'm thinking that this may be a driver issue and not an inherent hardware issue (in which case, Apple and/or AMD should step up and fix it).

 

[matram]

My impression from the AMD forum is that the problem relates to video timing requirements and that certain combinations of monitor refresh rates and resolutions forces the video memory clock to the highest possible causing the 18W. So basically both AMD and Apple says it is working as designed.

A second point is that when the fans go full blast, the 16" is consuming 80 - 100W of power. The 18 W for the GPU is of course not good but, it is also a question of what your CPU load is.

 

[Yebubbleman]

My impression from the AMD forum is that the problem relates to video timing requirements and that certain combinations of monitor refresh rates and resolutions forces the video memory clock to the highest possible causing the 18W. So basically both AMD and Apple says it is working as designed.

A second point is that when the fans go full blast, the 16" is consuming 80 - 100W of power. The 18 W for the GPU is of course not good but, it is also a question of what your CPU load is.

So we're thinking that this problem persists in Windows then?

 

[Yebubbleman]

So we're thinking that this problem persists in Windows then?

Really, I'm trying to ascertain whether these problems are specific to macOS or if they also occur in Boot Camp under Windows 10.

If it's the former, then these issues are software. If its the latter, then it's a hardware issue.

 

[Kung gu]

I get 3 watts in windows on MBP 16” with external monitor
I used third party AMD drivers

 

[richinaus]

best thing I did with bootcamp was connect a Nvidia GPU and Razor Core egpu. It ran really well.

 

[bill-p]

You can install hacked Bootcamp drivers and they are far more efficient than the stock Apple-provided one. Once you install those, Bootcamp is actually much more efficient than Mac OS when multiple monitors are connected.

So that may/may not indicate that there is a driver issue under Mac OS. Apple (or maybe it's AMD?) has a habit of completely abandoning old GPU drivers. This was not a big problem with nVidia GPUs because nVidia typically has very stable drivers, but AMD? Not so much.

Also, Catalina has a billion underlying issues with CPU usage. Chief of which is the super trigger-happy Spotlight indexing. I have to specifically mark my app dev folders as not needing indexing, otherwise Spotlight goes crazy whenever I compile my app. And this indexing usually shoots CPU usage up to 400 - 600% (meaning it's using 4 or 6 cores at max speed to index!), that's excessive.

I've since installed Big Sur and it seems to be a bit less... trigger-happy when it comes to Spotlight indexing. Time will tell if this is a trend or an outlier.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I get 3 watts in windows on MBP 16” with external monitor
I used third party AMD drivers

What do you get in macOS? Why third party drivers? And which?

 

[Kung gu]

What do you get in macOS? Why third party drivers? And which?

I get 18-20 watts in macOS.
I use third-party drivers cause they seem to be the best lol.

 

[ght56]

I get 18-20 watts in macOS.
I use third-party drivers cause they seem to be the best lol.
View attachment 965646

It is kind of wild how AMD drivers/kexts have so many issues that we are relying on drivers probably written by some dude chilling in his living room on a Sunday afternoon drinking a beer (not that there is anything wrong with that). All of my Nvidia Macs have kexts/drivers that are rock solid in their stability and dont exhibit crazy behavior. I don't understand why this is such a big issue for a company the size of AMD. Their contracts with Apple are probably massive. Why can't Apple and AMD get this right? This isn't a new issue either.

 

[Yebubbleman]

It is kind of wild how AMD drivers/kexts have so many issues that we are relying on drivers probably written by some dude chilling in his living room on a Sunday afternoon drinking a beer (not that there is anything wrong with that). All of my Nvidia Macs have kexts/drivers that are rock solid in their stability and dont exhibit crazy behavior. I don't understand why this is such a big issue for a company the size of AMD. Their contracts with Apple are probably massive. Why can't Apple and AMD get this right? This isn't a new issue either.

There's only one NVIDIA Mac that is supported for Big Sur and onwards (the higher-end Late 2013 and Mid 2014 15" MacBook Pros). I can't imagine this requires NVIDIA to release new drivers for the Mac, especially if the current drivers for that GPU (namely the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M) suffice currently.

It seems as though Apple is biding their time until the only GPUs they need to bake drivers for into (Apple Silicon) macOS releases are their own. I don't expect they'll do dGPUs on Apple Silicon Macs. If they do, and if it's more use of AMD as the provider, I hope that they remedy these issues. But I have a feeling that won't be applicable on the other side of this transition.