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Loud fans on 16" macbook pro
- Thread starter Trixster
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Complaining about loud fans is silly considering these processors are hot enough to boil water.
If I connect external monitor, fans starts to spin harder even if CPU temps are around 60 C. It should be some other sensor (thunderbolt or platform controller) triggering the fans. When I disconnect the external monitor, fans go back to normal 1800rpm, even if CPU stays around 60 C.
You are making wrong assumptions. Please, look at the picture.
There's only one heat pipe. In the center of it, you can see side by side the CPU on left and GPU on right.
The 5500m GPU runs hot. Very hot. And the same fans controls CPU temperature that blows air through the same heat pipe that goes in GPU.
So, please, understand that GPU heat is causing this fans to spin. Not CPU load.
When hooking in an external display all the work load is related to GPU. So, it's clear that it will heat up, leaving the heat pipe hotter and kicking the fans, even if CPU load is low...
There's only one heat pipe. In the center of it, you can see side by side the CPU on left and GPU on right.
The 5500m GPU runs hot. Very hot. And the same fans controls CPU temperature that blows air through the same heat pipe that goes in GPU.
So, please, understand that GPU heat is causing this fans to spin. Not CPU load.
When hooking in an external display all the work load is related to GPU. So, it's clear that it will heat up, leaving the heat pipe hotter and kicking the fans, even if CPU load is low...
But still: if a fan is damaged, a bad bearing for example, it's louder than it should be. As I said earlier, I would strongly advice to compare it with other 16" models if possible. Because the decibles captured by the app are MUCH higher than that what I captured with my 15". Maybe someone else in here can do the same with a 16". Push the fans to 100% with an app like iStats and use decibelX to measure the noise.
Indeed, it's a new fan. My guess is that Apple has designed it to run faster with new bearings.
The 15" machines GPU are much cooler. Specially the 560x ones.
These 16" MBP are beasts!!!
In this image bellow you can see how Avell has designed his gamer laptop, with a mighty desktop class GTX1080.
There's two fans connected at each processor. Mind that this may cool down the GPU under load. But it will sound like hell anyway...
This don't blame Apple in his single heat pipe design. It's clever btw. It uses less power and while cooling GPU down, this design allows CPU to run freely with no throttle.
The 15" machines GPU are much cooler. Specially the 560x ones.
These 16" MBP are beasts!!!
In this image bellow you can see how Avell has designed his gamer laptop, with a mighty desktop class GTX1080.
There's two fans connected at each processor. Mind that this may cool down the GPU under load. But it will sound like hell anyway...
This don't blame Apple in his single heat pipe design. It's clever btw. It uses less power and while cooling GPU down, this design allows CPU to run freely with no throttle.
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I reckon it's not just the CPU or GPU that trigger faster fan speeds. When I watch a standart definition video on YouTube, GPU and CPU are steady around just around 60 C. Fans at minimum, 1800rpm. Then I see some other sensors are going higher slowly, once Platform Controller and ThunderBolt right sensors (where I connect my external monitor) reach 60 C, fans start spinning faster around 2600-3000 rpm. Then they don't slow down until those goes back to 55 C. It takes a long tie them to cool cause they are not directly cooled by the fans, only passive. And after 5 minutes of silence, they start again for half an hour or so.
From my 2017 MBP to the new 2019 16' MBP the Fans are OBVIOUSLY louder and come on much more on the 16" MBP.
Is it normal?? who knows but its danm annoying ! Here is a picture of my fan speed doing only safari and mail but yes connected to an external monitor.
Is it normal?? who knows but its danm annoying ! Here is a picture of my fan speed doing only safari and mail but yes connected to an external monitor.
What else is connected in the right ports?
An External Monitor even an 5k wasn't supposed to heat that much the Thunderbolt Controller...
nothing else is connected. charger at the left top port, monitor at the right top port.
I agree, it shouldn't , but it does. I don't even need to turn on the monitor, just plugging in is enough to make it hot. Tried different monitors and cables.
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same here, unfortunately it looks like this is normal when connected to external monitor.
It's good to hear this.
It's probably due a driver issue. In early 2018 Intel has struggled to develop good drivers for Windows platform, related to over heat in the TB controller. Maybe Apple has done something wrong with the drivers for the 16MBP.
I think it could be fixed by an update.
You are correct that the external display activates the dGPU and for that reason alone the temperature will be higher. But at the same time, just being connected to an external monitor is not a GPU-heavy task and the GPU will be in a low-power mode. It should not cause excessive heat or loud fans. In fact, I never had a 15" (or a 16") run too hot with an external GPU. Around 55C-60C system temps is normal and the fans should still be whisper quiet.
Yes.
I think the issue is related with the TB controller. It could be warming-up unnecessarily, like Niho discovered. My bet is that a software fault. A driver issue.
I have installed the latest beta, nothing has changed. Even if it's a driver issue, I can assume that this will not be fixed in next 6 months, I guess I'll be returning my 16" Macbook.
I tried with Macbook 13" as well, it heats up the thunderbolt sensor when connected to monitor, but not as much as 16", and fans do not kick.
Before returning it, could please, try bootcamp?
As Bootcamp uses other drivers (maybe Intel ones) we could have different results.
Please, report what the TB controller temperatures.
Just tried it. Latest Windows 10 with latest Bootcamp drivers. Similar problem, fans kick in when connected to external monitor. I think it's even louder in Windows. I cannot show you the fan speeds reading cause I couldn't find a fan sensor reading app that works on Macs with T2 chips on Windows.
I have only two days to return it. If the problem is the thunderbolt controller, maybe it could be a design flaw? Better return it and wait for the next generation with 10nm CPU? If this could not be fixed, I can’t use it for my work.
I don't think this can be fixed. Temperatures of the thunderbolt port on my friend's 13" machine is also going up when connected to the external monitor. But since the overall temperature in the case is a bit cooler than my 16" , his fans still run at minimum without noise.
I guess Radeon GPU + Thunderbolt chip temperature increase is a bit too much for Macbook 16" internals so the fans needs to work harder.
frankly, if you have ANY uncertainty and it could be a failure of this unit vs. all units, return and re-order is best.
It could be a driver issue. TB controllers aren't know to be that hot.
This is from Intel Product Datasheet.
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I'm close to ordering a MBP 16 and am concerned about comments about heat and noise.
Is the base 5300M likely to run a lot cooler?
What about the i7 chip vs one of the i9 chips?
FWIW, I plan to upgrade the RAM to 32GB and can live with 512GB (contemplating 1TB), but I suspect that neither of those are heat issues.
Is the base 5300M likely to run a lot cooler?
What about the i7 chip vs one of the i9 chips?
FWIW, I plan to upgrade the RAM to 32GB and can live with 512GB (contemplating 1TB), but I suspect that neither of those are heat issues.