2019 16" i9 MBP ( too hot? ) vs 2017 13" Base

[danny_f]

Let me first say that I am pedantic when it comes to ANY noise coming from my apple laptops. So I am looking for any slight sounds that may be annoying to me. Here are my experiences with the 16" i9 2019.

Seems that the 2019 runs hotter.

Simple video viewing on youtube I notice my 2019 16" fan comes on more frequently than my 2017 MBP. By that I mean its noticable to my sensitivities .... its low, but audible. I would say overall 5-15% more frequent than my 2017 MBP Base ( which the fans didn't come on at all during YouTube ).

Is this normal / acceptable behaviour for a 2019 16" i9?

It is doing a lot more.... 16" screen + Touch Bar + i9 etc.... so it may all be down just to that.



I would have expected a newer model to be superior in all ways....... perhaps this is a failure of expectation?

I do not have much experience with the i9 laptops.

My 2017 was super quiet most of the time.... the fans only came on ( big time ) when I was doing music production ( streaming in 10+ audio channels ).

 

[casperes1996]

I do not really know about purely watching YouTube and nothing else; At least unless it's 4K in Chrome, but at nearly any point, the 16" will produce more sound than the 13". Their great power does come with a greater requirement for cooling, especially the i9 models, and while there is also a larger surface to spread the heat, a part of the greater cooling comes from larger fans as well and that aspect needs them spinning up a little to bring in cool air over the components

When you're not doing work that needs the power you could try and disable turbo boost if turboboost switcher is compatible with your CPU and you'd likely have reduced heat and noise (and power usage), at a slightly reduced speed, but at least personally I find the speed difference nearly unnoticeable for simple tasks like web and mail, and just turn it on again when I do more. - Though in theory it is small burst work loads turbo should benefit the most

 

[danny_f]

... a bunch of words

Thanks for that.

How would I disable turbo boost?

Is this what you are referring to?

How to Enable or Disable Turbo Boost on MacBook Pro? | OS X Tips

In this article we will see, how manually turned off the Turbo Boost for a while and check whether this will improve the situation, and at the same time extend the battery life by 25%.

osxtips.net

 

[LinkRS]

Howdy Danny_f,

The 2019 MacBook Pro has a more powerful CPU and GPU in it than your 2017 model, and Apple has put in a new cooling system. The fans will kick off when needed to cool the system, and spin down when not needed. The only way it would run cooler would be to limit the performance, which is what casperes1996 is suggesting. The MacBook Pro is designed to keep itself cool, and if it fails to do that, Apple will fix/replace under warranty. I came from a 2015 MacBook Pro with a dGPU, and my 2019 16" model does not make any more noise than it did, in fact overall it kicks the fans off less often. When they are going full blast, it is around the same volume (to my ears) as the 2015. As I type this, the fans on my 16" are barely audible, and are easily drowned out by background noise (AC, people talking, TVs in the background, etc...) and is sitting at a "comfortable" 40C.

If you really want/need a silent or near-silent laptop, you will need to go down to a MacBook Air. Those systems only have a single fan (unlike the 2 in your 2019), and are overall much quieter (but have much less performance). If you really want a silent machine, you might want to look into an iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard. There are no fans in an iPad, so it runs silently.

Incidentally, does your old 2017 have the AMD GPU, or just the Intel GPU? If it doesn't have the AMD GPU, you will probably get closer behavior to your old one, with a 13" MacBook Pro. None of those have a discrete GPU, and will run the fans less often than the bigger 16" which does have one.

Good luck!

Rich S.

 

[danny_f]

Words ...

Thanks Rich. Most of the time its just as quiet as my 2017 13" i5 ...... only in some circumstances ( YouTube ) do I even notice the fans.

For normal use, no noise at all. A bit warmer. But that is to be expected I think.

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks for that.

How would I disable turbo boost?

Is this what you are referring to?

How to Enable or Disable Turbo Boost on MacBook Pro? | OS X Tips

In this article we will see, how manually turned off the Turbo Boost for a while and check whether this will improve the situation, and at the same time extend the battery life by 25%.

osxtips.net

That seems like it, yes
This is their official website

Turbo Boost Switcher for OSX / macOS

Turbo Boost Switcher for macOS. Save battery of your Mac, cool your CPU and reduce fans noise

www.rugarciap.com

But I just install it with
brew cask install turbo-boost-switcher

 

[danny_f]

installed it in both laptops.

2019 16" i9 went from 48/49 to 36-39 Happy about that!

2017 went from nearly the same ( a bit lower ) to 33.

Wow. Thanks guys!

 

[casperes1996]

installed it in both laptops.

2019 16" i9 went from 48/49 to 36-39 Happy about that!

2017 went from nearly the same ( a bit lower ) to 33.

Wow. Thanks guys!

Cheers; But when you need the performance don't feel like you need to keep it on. Temperatures are fine to let the power rip as much as it can when you need the performance - Until then, enjoy the lesser heat and fan spin

 

[danny_f]

Oh definitely. TBH unless I'm doing music ( 10+ incoming audio streams ), I don't need the i9.

 

[jaduffy007]

Howdy Danny_f,

The 2019 MacBook Pro has a more powerful CPU and GPU in it than your 2017 model, and Apple has put in a new cooling system. The fans will kick off when needed to cool the system, and spin down when not needed. The only way it would run cooler would be to limit the performance, which is what casperes1996 is suggesting. The MacBook Pro is designed to keep itself cool, and if it fails to do that, Apple will fix/replace under warranty. I came from a 2015 MacBook Pro with a dGPU, and my 2019 16" model does not make any more noise than it did, in fact overall it kicks the fans off less often. When they are going full blast, it is around the same volume (to my ears) as the 2015. As I type this, the fans on my 16" are barely audible, and are easily drowned out by background noise (AC, people talking, TVs in the background, etc...) and is sitting at a "comfortable" 40C.

If you really want/need a silent or near-silent laptop, you will need to go down to a MacBook Air. Those systems only have a single fan (unlike the 2 in your 2019), and are overall much quieter (but have much less performance). If you really want a silent machine, you might want to look into an iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard. There are no fans in an iPad, so it runs silently.

Incidentally, does your old 2017 have the AMD GPU, or just the Intel GPU? If it doesn't have the AMD GPU, you will probably get closer behavior to your old one, with a 13" MacBook Pro. None of those have a discrete GPU, and will run the fans less often than the bigger 16" which does have one.

Good luck!

Rich S.

Hmm. My 16"..when on, lol ... has NEVER run below 50C. Connect an external monitor...make that 60C. I'm talking at IDLE.