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I have the 5300 and in clamshell works with one 1440P monitor through DP - USBC or USBC-USBC with 5w draw.
Tested on regular 27" and 34" ultrawide.
I have no extra settings / adjustments applied at this point.
About 41-44 Celsius idle.



I have the 5500 4gb and an i9 2.3. Hopefully, it won't be THAT much hotter.
 
I have the 5500 4gb and an i9 2.3. Hopefully, it won't be THAT much hotter.

Display port or USB-C cables and you will be fine in clamshell.
Thought say hello to ****** looking fonts. Apple never "fixed" how they display on resolutions lower than 4K.
 
Display port or USB-C cables and you will be fine in clamshell.
Thought say hello to ****** looking fonts. Apple never "fixed" how they display on resolutions lower than 4K.

Howdy Grohowiak,

Could you elaborate? Technically the internal display of the 16" MacBook Pro is lower than 4K, and the fonts look fine?

Thanks!

Rich S.
 
Howdy Grohowiak,

Could you elaborate? Technically the internal display of the 16" MacBook Pro is lower than 4K, and the fonts look fine?

Thanks!

Rich S.

I read somewhere that Apple works best with external monitors around 110 ppi and 220 ppi. I think it was here.

That's why I went with a monitor that has 110ppi.
 
That's why I'm asking any lawyers if there's something that would make a class action viable...

What I thought I was promised upon purchase is an item that doesn't shorten its own lifespan (from overheating) or handicap its own advertised capabilities from typical usage. I don't think that's too much to expect? I'm not sure why some people refer to fan and heat complaints of a 3k device like its an issue of entitlement... especially because I'm pretty sure Apple knows about the issue and is actively denying/ ignoring it. Considering their general level of attention to detail, nothing's stopping me from believing that they knew about the issue even before putting it on the market.

The change.org signatures actually ended up getting Apple to offer repair services for affected screens, when before they were charging $600 to repair screens that were degrading due to their own design flaw- which they also knew about it. Same case with the class action that was filed when Apple throttled older devices without making any mention of it under the guise of performance.

I agree that heat can shorten the lifespan of components. Having said that though, all components will fail eventually so unless Apple explicitly promised something and isn't delivering I'm still not sure what the basis for a lawsuit would be as far as the lifespan of the product. Same with throttling performance - what was promised and not delivered?

Again, not defending Apple and I understand (and agree with) your complaints - just don't see how a lawsuit is warranted or would succeed. Now ill will because of it and the loss of future sales is something that they should worry about.
 
I agree that heat can shorten the lifespan of components. Having said that though, all components will fail eventually so unless Apple explicitly promised something and isn't delivering I'm still not sure what the basis for a lawsuit would be as far as the lifespan of the product. Same with throttling performance - what was promised and not delivered?

Again, not defending Apple and I understand (and agree with) your complaints - just don't see how a lawsuit is warranted or would succeed. Now ill will because of it and the loss of future sales is something that they should worry about.

I hear you, but that rationale is probably why Apple hasn't done anything. I'm trying to see if there might be a case for it, just as there was a case made for the whole "batterygate" thing-- which ended up a relative success.

Loss of future sales would honestly be pretty nominal because a large majority of people are locked in to their ecosystem, either through their industry or are just generally more familiar/comfortable with it for whatever reason. The average person probably wouldn't make the jump to pc. Most likely what will continue to happen, if there's not push for anything, is that people will just hop on to the next device in hopes that problems are addressed, continuing the cycle.

And especially with Apple's transition to ARM, those with this year's model now have more incentive to make the switch more quickly. And older model users were probably already on their way to making that switch anyway. Everything just seems to be a little too conveniently in Apple's favor...
 
Just chiming in to say I disabled iStat menu on my i9 5500M, and have used it as normal (clamshell mode, 4k monitor via TS3+ dock) - and have been very happy with its performance, even when I added another 4K monitor to test. The fans don’t come on during normal use, and I had my first zoom call with it and am very happy with it (although I just used it as a laptop for that call, since I had to be in another room).
 
I hear you, but that rationale is probably why Apple hasn't done anything. I'm trying to see if there might be a case for it, just as there was a case made for the whole "batterygate" thing-- which ended up a relative success.

Loss of future sales would honestly be pretty nominal because a large majority of people are locked in to their ecosystem, either through their industry or are just generally more familiar/comfortable with it for whatever reason. The average person probably wouldn't make the jump to pc. Most likely what will continue to happen, if there's not push for anything, is that people will just hop on to the next device in hopes that problems are addressed, continuing the cycle.

And especially with Apple's transition to ARM, those with this year's model now have more incentive to make the switch more quickly. And older model users were probably already on their way to making that switch anyway. Everything just seems to be a little too conveniently in Apple's favor...

I am their “best” type of customer - I was fully aware of the problem having read every post in this thread and still picked one up about a week ago! I need the power of the i9 for work and need to occasionally be mobile so a desktop wasn’t an option. I got the 5500/8 model as I didn’t want to spend the extra on the 5600 and at the time I ordered I had not yet gotten to the reports that it was running cooler.

I worked on it all day today, connected to an external 4K monitor not in clamshell mode and the only time I noticed the fan was when opening a Windows 10 VM - it was pretty loud for the first 5 or so minutes I was in the VM. Other than that, the temperature was hovering in the low 60s according to the stats. If I had not read this thread, I literally would not have noticed anything “wrong” as I didn’t notice any throttling or other anomalies.
 
Hey guys

I'm about to update the studio computer, replacing a desktop Mac and a MacBook Pro combo that I have now, with a single computer for studio and location. Given that the desktop being replaced is a healthily-specced Mac mini, I'm looking for a well-specced laptop.

I'm going with the 16" MacBook Pro, and will opt for 64GB of RAM. That's the easy part!

I am trying to work out what the best spec combination is to minimise the excessive heat and fan noise issues that are clearly plaguing the 16” MacBooks, when connected to an external screen. In my case, I’ll be connecting to an older Apple Thunderbolt Display, so it’s not 4k or 5k. I’m not sure whether that means I’ll be less at risk of the heat and noise problems.

It appears that i9 units are most severely effected (although some feel the i7s are problematic, too), and depending on who you ask, it seems that the problems aren't combined to a specific DAW. It's clear that Logic is affected by these problems, though.

There's also a general anecdotal consensus that these MacBooks usually only produce excessive fan noise and heat when they're used with an external display. Of course, like many of these things, there haven't been any solid analytical tests done - but it does appear that lots of people have suffered these issues with their new MacBook Pro 16".

So. I'm looking for some guidance with my purchase - to try to minimise fan noise and heat to the extent that's possible, by choosing the right specs.

As context: my setup revolves around Logic Pro X primarily, and I use fairly sample-heavy / processor heavy plug-ins like Omnisphere, Superior Drummer, and a number of large orchestral sample libraries from Spitfire. I'm aware that the choice of 64GB of RAM will significantly help with performance from these large libraries.

Anyway - here are my questions.

First: Does the internal GPU make a difference to the way an external screen functions, and the demands placed on the laptop? If I'm choosing between the Radeon 5300M or 5500M (the 5600M is out of my price range), will one of these do a better job of comfortably operating my external display, and minimising fan noise and excessive heat?

It seems pretty simple to choose either, and the pricing isn't wildly different, so I'm keen to understand whether the more powerful GPU (5500M) is more capable at keeping noise and heat at bay. (I'm not overly technical when it comes to graphics, as I don't do video work or gaming.)

Second: How about the processor? The choices I have are the 2.6GHz 6-core i7, the 2.3GHz 8 core i9, or the slight bump to a 2.4GHz 8 core i9. I'm fairly confident that all of these would run the projects I intend to run... so my question relates specifically to fan noise and heat. Does the 2.6GHz 6-core i7 unit run cooler and quieter by nature? Or do the 8-core i9 processors have the edge here? Or are these processors (all from the same 9th generation family) all similar in the circumstances in which they produce heat and noise?
If anyone has experienced both the 6 and 8 core processors personally, and compared them, I'd love to hear your thoughts? (I recall that early in the piece, a few people on here posted about returning 8-core MBP16s and replacing them with 6-core units, to try to deal with excessive fan noise they were experiencing).

If anyone's able to help - either with a better understanding of these spec choices (especially the GPUs - in a music context), or your own first-hand experience with these processors and how hot and noisy they've been when under heavy and light loads, I'd really value your thoughts!

Thanks again guys!
Mike

I also use mine for audio recording (Cubase/Logic), and use primarily orchestral libraries as well (although my stuff tends to be smaller orchestral, not large epic stuff).

I have the i9, 16GB version, 5500M, in clamshell mode connected to a 4k display. I love it and it performs well, but remember it’s a laptop. If you really need silence, go with a desktop. I‘m always using headphones when doing music, so I don’t even notice the fans, but they are on. They were on for my 2015 15” too. The main concern for me would be severe throttling, but I haven’t noticed any. It’s really been a great laptop, and even coming from a 2015 15”, the speed upgrade is noticeable.

Regarding the CPU, I would go with the i9 for the extra cores. A slight GHz bump isn’t going to matter, so I would skip that upgrade. When you’re doing music, the fans are going to be on regardless if you have the i7 or the i9 - and having the extra cores are going to help - so get that upgrade.

Regarding the dGPU - even if the 5300M does pull less power when connected to an external display (as I believe people claim) - when you’re working with lots of samples in Logic, it’s not going to matter - the fans will be on regardless. For the ‘normal’ stuff (watching a video, browsing the web, email, etc), mine is silent when connected to an external display. So I’m not having the “jet engine on a desk when connected to an external monitor” I expected due to threads like this.
 
Anyone else have the 5600M and an XDR display? I’m curious to see if you’re experiencing any issues. To me I don’t really see much if any improvement over my previous 5500M which is really disappointing. I get 100% fan speed just by watching a full screen Youtube video in clamshell mode. Makes no sense.
 
Anyone else have the 5600M and an XDR display? I’m curious to see if you’re experiencing any issues. To me I don’t really see much if any improvement over my previous 5500M which is really disappointing. I get 100% fan speed just by watching a full screen Youtube video in clamshell mode. Makes no sense.

I don't have an XDR but can try on a 5K LG - which browser and which Youtube video?
 
I am their “best” type of customer - I was fully aware of the problem having read every post in this thread and still picked one up about a week ago! I need the power of the i9 for work and need to occasionally be mobile so a desktop wasn’t an option. I got the 5500/8 model as I didn’t want to spend the extra on the 5600 and at the time I ordered I had not yet gotten to the reports that it was running cooler.

I worked on it all day today, connected to an external 4K monitor not in clamshell mode and the only time I noticed the fan was when opening a Windows 10 VM - it was pretty loud for the first 5 or so minutes I was in the VM. Other than that, the temperature was hovering in the low 60s according to the stats. If I had not read this thread, I literally would not have noticed anything “wrong” as I didn’t notice any throttling or other anomalies.

Yea. Seeing how this thread is 125 pages and counting, your experience isn't consistent with a lot of people. Have you checked your gpu high side wattage? Unless your gpu doesn't make that needless jump from 6w to 20w, it's pretty much impossible for the comp to stay in the low 60s with any type of moderately intensive work, without fans ramping up pretty loud. My fans turn up to 3500-4500+ just stay in mid 60s with one youtube vid playin gon my 4k monitor. In previous posts you said you're not a fan of the heat and fan noise either, but it doesn't seem like you're really experiencing it cause that fan noise and heat definitely shouldn't be there just for youtube.

Glad you're personally having a good experience with it, but for the rest us, like the many people who traded in their laptops multiple times even to double digits with no change, its a pretty big disappointment. Those double digit trades also lead me to think this a majority problem, not a minority. Those not bringing the issue up, probably just don't use an external + open shell as part of their workflow, but doesn't mean the issue doesn't exist on their device.
 
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Howdy Grohowiak,

Could you elaborate? Technically the internal display of the 16" MacBook Pro is lower than 4K, and the fonts look fine?

Thanks!

Rich S.

I attached a screenshot.
This is not a low Rez image.
Screenshot captured at 1440P.
Unchecking font smoothing helps a tiny bit and there's few other hacks that people use (not much difference if you ask me) but this is what a 1440p greets people with.
 

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Yea. Seeing how this thread is 125 pages and counting, your experience isn't consistent with a lot of people. Have you checked your gpu high side wattage? Unless your gpu doesn't make that needless jump from 6w to 20w, it's pretty much impossible for the comp to stay in the low 60s with any type of moderately intensive work, without fans ramping up pretty loud. My fans turn up to 3500-4500+ just stay in mid 60s with one youtube vid playin gon my 4k monitor. In previous posts you said you're not a fan of the heat and fan noise either, but it doesn't seem like you're really experiencing it cause that fan noise and heat definitely shouldn't be there just for youtube.

Glad you're personally having a good experience with it, but for the rest us, like the many people who traded in their laptops multiple times even to double digits with no change, its a pretty big disappointment. Those double digit trades also lead me to think this a majority problem, not a minority. Those not bringing the issue up, probably just don't use an external + open shell as part of their workflow, but doesn't mean the issue doesn't exist on their device.

I have iStat running and my high side w does sit around 20 and the fans were running were varying from 2000-2500 most of the time. I was using Outlook, Word, Excel, Edge, a VPN client, iTunes, Teams and occasionally a VM (which as I mentioned previously was the only time I noticed the fan). None of those (aside from Teams) are particularly taxing apps, but perhaps I just got a good copy. I did put my MB Pro on an mStand360 - not sure if that helps any with the heat or not.
 
I find this hard to believe as zoom alone makes my i9 bug out enough with no external to kick the fans higher with no gpu. Any video conferencing does this. I have a 5500m 8gb.
 
I find this hard to believe as zoom alone makes my i9 bug out enough with no external to kick the fans higher with no gpu. Any video conferencing does this. I have a 5500m 8gb.

I just did over an hour long WebEx call on my i9 (5500M, 4GB) without the fans coming on. I just used it as a laptop, but it was completely silent during the whole call, and on battery.

I'll have a much longer one later this week. I'll have it plugged in, I guess I'll see if the fans come on then.
 
I just did over an hour long WebEx call on my i9 (5500M, 4GB) without the fans coming on. I just used it as a laptop, but it was completely silent during the whole call, and on battery.

I'll have a much longer one later this week. I'll have it plugged in, I guess I'll see if the fans come on then.

Do you know what the fans were at?

Do you have an 2.3 or 2.4?

Wonder which video software is most taxing...

I can't keep the fans under 3k in clamshell if play any kind of video. With Volta on I can maybe do it if its literally just that video, limiting to 30 watts so it still functions.
 
I have iStat running and my high side w does sit around 20 and the fans were running were varying from 2000-2500 most of the time. I was using Outlook, Word, Excel, Edge, a VPN client, iTunes, Teams and occasionally a VM (which as I mentioned previously was the only time I noticed the fan). None of those (aside from Teams) are particularly taxing apps, but perhaps I just got a good copy. I did put my MB Pro on an mStand360 - not sure if that helps any with the heat or not.

I use a stand too. 2000-2500 at mid 60 is no where close to an issue, dude. lol. You might be the only person I've come across not dealing with any fan or heat issues, even among people in IRL i've asked with this model. Very jealous if that's what you've been running at. What kind of monitor are you using?

No offense, but for someone claiming not to defend Apple, you do a lot of defending Apple. lol. Either that or you didn't spend you own money on your Macbook. In a previous post of your's (below), you said that you're getting the same measurements as the rest of us and were telling people the annoyance must be subjective, but 2000-2500 at mid 60s is definitely not the same measurements? I definitely wouldn't be on this thread if I were getting those stats.

That is very subjective. I have the i9 2.3/5500 8gb/32 gig ram using it open on a stand with an external 4K monitor. I get the same basic measurements that everyone is reporting not using clamshell, but overall I don't find it particularly noisy.
 
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I just did over an hour long WebEx call on my i9 (5500M, 4GB) without the fans coming on. I just used it as a laptop, but it was completely silent during the whole call, and on battery.

I'll have a much longer one later this week. I'll have it plugged in, I guess I'll see if the fans come on then.

I can typically do video calls without an external monitor without much problem too. With an external though, pretty much impossible without it going wild.
 
I use a stand too. 2000-2500 at mid 60 is no where close to an issue, dude. lol. You might be the only person I've come across not dealing with any fan or heat issues, even among people in IRL i've asked with this model. Very jealous if that's what you've been running at. What kind of monitor are you using?

No offense, but for someone claiming not to defend Apple, you do a lot of defending Apple. lol. Either that or you didn't spend you own money on your Macbook. In a previous post of your's (below), you said that you're getting the same measurements as the rest of us and were telling people the annoyance must be subjective, but 2000-2500 at mid 60s is definitely not the same measurements? I definitely wouldn't be on this thread if I were getting those stats.

My"defense" of Apple has nothing to do with Apple, but rather that everyone throws class action lawsuit around so often. My measurements as far as power usage are like everyone else seems to be but my fans do not ramp up that often, except when I fire up a Windows VM - and yes, if they ran that loud all the time I'd be annoyed. I am running a ViewSonic XG2700.
 
My"defense" of Apple has nothing to do with Apple, but rather that everyone throws class action lawsuit around so often. My measurements as far as power usage are like everyone else seems to be but my fans do not ramp up that often, except when I fire up a Windows VM - and yes, if they ran that loud all the time I'd be annoyed. I am running a ViewSonic XG2700.

I don’t know the technicalities of a class action, so I’m asking. But I’d think if it’s affecting such a large number of people like it clearly has been in this forum and others, then there might be something there. It certainly was relevant with the other examples I mentioned previously of Apple just overall being shady until someone prods at them.

And sorry, it’s really hard to believe that your fans are consistently only at 2000-2500 at mid 60s, with all those programs, when 20w power draw is such an automatic jump in heat. That’s barely above fanspeed of 6w power draw and basically what I get in clamshell mode when working. I can see that happening for like 3 minutes lol, but just physics wise, it doesn’t make any sense.. Feels more like you’re undercutting a bit to prove a point tbh, but no need to go down that exchange.. And again, kudos to you if true. Appreciate the input though man, but people here, including me, who work best with an external and open shell workflow are rightfully frustrated and disappointed. For such a standard laptop function, its really not that much of an ask for Apple to at least address it, instead of playing ignorant and keeping people guessing.

I should probably bring the class action topic to its own thread.
 
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I do not understand what you want to achieve. Both Apple and AMD say it ”works as designed”.

Apple has made no claim about noise levels or GPU heat dissipation.

Feedback is of course always meaningful, but the next generation is likely to be Apple Silicon instead of power hungry Intel and AMD chips.
 
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