2017 MBP: Fan starts running when I play a YouTube video

[Ries]

That does seem a little odd. I can play 1440p YouTube videos on my 2016 without the fan coming on. Since owning the machine, I think I've heard the fan once.

If you use safari, google streams you h264 which is hardware accelerated. But viewing new 4K videos requires VP9 on youtube. VP9 is the "free" version about equal to h265 (you get either better image quality at same bitrate or half the bandwith required at same image quality of h264).

 

[Matt Leaf]

I have the new base-level 2017 MacBook Pro 13" (non-****bar). Very often, the fan starts running jstu because I'm playing a simple 720p YouTube video. Even more so when I play it at 1080p so I stopped doing that. The MacBook itself does not get hot, and Activity Monitor does not show any high CPU peaks (CPU stays under ~20% when the is running).

What is going on? And what can we do about it? Any help into the right direction is welcome.
Edit: Oh and I'm using Google Chrome of course.

i7 or i5?

 

[andromedaan]

i7 or i5?

I have the absolute entry level, so 2,3 GHz Intel Core i5

 

[maerz001]

Disclaimer, I do have a 1080p external display connected to my MBP at all times. And yesterday I added a second 1080p display. Maybe the external displays also further affect the performance negatively?

I should have mentioned this earlier.

Do he fans stop while watching when u unplug the external displays?

 

[andromedaan]

Guys, I became curious about Safari due to this problem. And I must say, I was flabbergasted by the performance gains, generally across all websites (not just in YouTube). I have fully switched, after almost 10 years of Chrome (I was an early adopter). Safari is so much faster, it uses fewer resources and pages load much faster. And yeah, it can handle YouTube at 1080p without a sweat!

Never thought I'd become a Safari person!! Only thing I hated was that Safari tabs do not show favicons, which I've found a little hack for. See my tutorial if you are curious.

Do he fans stop while watching when u unplug the external displays?

I haven't tested that yet, as I've almost always had at least 1 external display connected to it. I suppose Chrome would have more resourced available if I disconnected one or both external displays.

 

[maerz001]

To sum it up:

2017 fan only starts running very lightly while using chrome and external displays.

Big news

 

[Benito]

I much prefer Safari to other browsers on a Mac.

 

[Jodiuh]

I much prefer Safari to other browsers on a Mac.

Yup, on iPhone too. Only reason I use Chrome on OS X would be when I need to cast a video.

While I don't hear the fan, the CPU's @ 50% from Chrome alone watching a 3500K stream and the keyboard's warm in the middle.

I don't have an Apple TV, but I'd not be surprised to find that using AirPlay mirroring would result in significantly less CPU usage.