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musiqzuki

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
63
2
I'm not sure what's wrong with my Macbook Pro 15" 2015.

I have it connected to a 4K U2718Q Display.

I only have Chrome Canary Opened. You can see my CPU Usage below via Activity Monitor and my Fan information from Macs Fan Control.

I've done some research and it seems the dGPU AMD Radeon R9 M370X is a big culprit.
Should I take it to Apple to clean the fans or something?
It seems ridiculous the Macbook would have the fans working that hard with only Chrome open.

If I have VS Code or some other app open, I can cook an egg.

I have already tried resetting SMC. Doesn't help.



Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 8.51.37.png

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 8.52.48.png
 
Had the same issue. The M370X is simply too hot to run at all times and you will have fan noise whenever you are connected to an external display. I could get it to run without fans at very light Safari browsing, but any Photoshop, Youtube video and desktop effects will activate the fans. I returned mine.
 
Is it an M370X issue are a dGPU issue? Because it seems like people with the newer MacBooks still have this problem. May I ask what model are you using to alleviate this issue?
 
"Because it seems like people with the newer MacBooks still have this problem. May I ask what model are you using to alleviate this issue?"

Probably the best way to "alleviate" it is with a 5k iMac (sigh).

It seems to be a common complaint that the MacBook Pro gets hotter and that the fans often "ramp up" when an external display is connected...
 
Even my 2012 MacBook Pro gets hot when I'm using the NVIDIA GPU and the fan will eventually ramp up. For me, just opening Photos will kick in the nVidia GPU, but just using safari doesn't. As long as I am only using the main Intel HD graphics, the laptop stays cool.
 
Is it an M370X issue are a dGPU issue? Because it seems like people with the newer MacBooks still have this problem. May I ask what model are you using to alleviate this issue?

Not at all. The MBP 15" with radeon pro and touch bar from 2016 is very silent when connected to a external display. Actually the first quad core computer that doesn't ramp up and throttle when processing for a long time. Again, I returned my 2015 with M370X due to noise.

But the 2016 and 2017 have other issues like keyboard, blown speakers and sleep wake issue when connected to an external monitor. No Apple computer with a dGPU switch to iGPU when it is connected to a display.

dGPUs generate more heat, so more fan noise, but there has been a lot of issues with M370X and it is well documented on this forum.
 
I actually had fan and overheating issues with my 2017ntb pro which doesn't have a DGPU ... connected to a 4K NEC display that Apple say they support

my conclusion after over a year of discussion and suffering is that the 2016/7 models are badly designed in terms of thermals - whats the point of packing a powerful CPU if you can't drive it without throttling it or suffering heat damage? my keyboard went bonkers and the glue from the display failed in clamshell mode (also supported by apple)

I've gone back to a 2016 MacBook Pro which isn't as fast but at least the physical design better supports the components
 
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I actually had fan and overheating issues with my 2017ntb pro which doesn't have a DGPU ... connected to a 4K NEC display that Apple say they support

Yes, it lacks an extra fan to cool down the system. Not an issue with the TB model with two fans. Would buy if it wasn't for this issue...
 
Yes, it lacks an extra fan to cool down the system. Not an issue with the TB model with two fans. Would buy if it wasn't for this issue...

and this is why people are upset at Apple .. how many would take a laptop advertised as being able to drive 3 (yes 3) 4K displays .. and then ask "does it have sufficient cooling' before buying? that is perverse and that is why I dislike Apple for their recent laptops
 
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