(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(

[Kung gu]

I'm officialy giving up and won't buy MBP 16.

My currently mpb 13" 2018 have again an issue with keyboard (double character with one press) so I will probably just
get a new MBP 13" 2020 with new keyboard OR get a mac mini with eGPU to connect 2x 4k 27" (as mbp 13" can't handle it to be honest).

Sad, soo sad that the mbp 16" is so broken

The only thing broken about the 16" MBP it is the external monitor issue. Other than that I 100% love this laptop. Best laptop I had by far, nothing in the market comes close to this laptop in terms of display, battery(I get 8-9 hours on battery doing office, programming, running servers, Zoom, Discord, Spotify, Safari), speakers, build quality, trackpad and sync between other apple devices. It's silent when not using the external monitor.

IMO, if external monitor is not at all needed go for the 16".
The 13" 2020 is due to get Apple Sillicon, wait for that if you plan to get the MBP 13".

Anyway, I now now use Synergy and use my desktop as an external monitor(27"). I can use my MBP keyboard and trackpad with my Windows PC. For now that's the best solution for me, I get my laptop screen to be open with the dGPU off but the get the real estate of the 27".

 

[elezium]

Hello folks,

Been following this thread for the past months in the hope of a solution... Seems it won't happen.

Soo.. I was wondering if anyone try to hook an AppleTV 4K to their monitor and use Airplay to extend their desktop?

If so, how's the performance for basic office work? Is there a lot of lag / latency?

Thanks.

(Another "slightly" disappointed MBP 16 owner)

 

[bill-p]

For Airplay, you need a very good WIFI router with spot-on latency for it to be "reasonable", but basically, you'll get something like a 1920 x 1080 @ 30Hz external display.

But both Airplay and Sidecar work well this way. The internal display stays with the integrated graphics.

Or alternatively, get one single ultra wide monitor that supports Thunderbolt 3 or has USB-C input. Keep the 16" in clamshell, and proceed to ignore this thread entirely.

Or... another alternative for those who absolute must have the lid open along with 5 other external monitors: get an eGPU, or buy the 5600M. I think the solutions have been provided multiple times now but too many people would rather complain about the issue.

 

[Corncab44]

I'd never had a Mac prior to trying the 16 and returning due to the external monitor issue. One data point I haven't seen is what the power draw was on recent MBP 15s in the kind of external monitor/laptop open setups we are discussing here. Is this that much different than years past? Surely someone with a 15 and an external could pull up iStat and share. If it's not as bad, I feel more confident in waiting for the next 16 refresh.

 

[Corncab44]

Hi, I came to this forum because like many here, I have a problem with the fan noise in the MacBook Pro 16".
I have been in contact with an Apple engineer who deals with my case. We tested a couple of different scenarios.

In my case, Radeon High Side is about 18-20W when I'm in clamshell mode with one or two external displays. There is no big difference between open lid and close.

The interesting thing is that in the safe mode (holding shift when MBP starts) Radeon takes only about 9W with 27" 2560x1440 display, and 7W with 22: 1680x1050. Unfortunately, there is no option to connect both in Safe mode.

As soon as I go back to normal mode, Radeon takes 18-20W.

For the comparison, I tested the same scenarios with 15,4" MBP 2019 (i7 2.6, 16GB, Radeon Pro 555X). Here's results:

	15,4" MBP 2019 (i7 2.6, 16GB, Radeon Pro 555X)	16" MBP 2019 (i9 2.3, 16GB, Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB)
No ext. display Clamshell:	1,9W	2,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Clamshell	2,6W	17,1W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Clamshell	3,3W	18W
with both Clamshell	8,6W	18,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Open	9,3W	17,6W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Open	9,2W	18,7W
with both Open	10,1W	19W

Oh wow holy crap. I'm glad I returned my 16. Thanks for doing this comparison, I'd missed you posted it. Maybe they'll fix it in the refresh. Anyone have this comparison with a 4k monitor and lid open?

 

[elezium]

For Airplay, you need a very good WIFI router with spot-on latency for it to be "reasonable", but basically, you'll get something like a 1920 x 1080 @ 30Hz external display.



But both Airplay and Sidecar work well this way. The internal display stays with the integrated graphics.

Or alternatively, get one single ultra wide monitor that supports Thunderbolt 3 or has USB-C input. Keep the 16" in clamshell, and proceed to ignore this thread entirely.

Or... another alternative for those who absolute must have the lid open along with 5 other external monitors: get an eGPU, or buy the 5600M. I think the solutions have been provided multiple times now but too many people would rather complain about the issue.

1080p / 30Hz won't do it, sadly. My monitor is 4K. :/

I was actually using a 1440p (ultra wide) monitor before buying the 4k. The reason was that I found the fonts to be ugly in 1440p and I also couldn't scale the display, only change the native resolution.

So I'm left with the eGPU solution which in itself costs more than I'm willing to pay to get around that issue. Getting the MBP with the 5600 would also be costly.

So I guess I'll endure the heat. Fan noise is less an issue since I almost always listen to music or have headphones on.

Thanks for taking the time to reply back. Appreciate.

 

[Kung gu]

Can anyone try connecting with a VGA cable?

MBP16"-->USB-C--VGA-->Monitor with VGA input

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

eGPU guys, a quick question!

I have a MBP with 3 external monitors (via a CalDigit dock) and love the setup, but the MBP gets hot. I want to buy and eGPU and position it far from the computer. What eGPU would you suggest if I want it to:
1) power 3 external monitors
2) have a longer cord
3) almost silent
4) moderately priced?

 

[petterihiisila]

eGPU guys, a quick question!

I have a MBP with 3 external monitors (via a CalDigit dock) and love the setup, but the MBP gets hot. I want to buy and eGPU and position it far from the computer. What eGPU would you suggest if I want it to:
1) power 3 external monitors
2) have a longer cord
3) almost silent
4) moderately priced?

A little besides the point, but what’s your goal with the eGPU? 5500M is plenty fast on its own. Unless you plan to attach all 3 into that eGPU, it’s likely that the wattage is still around 20 W, and/or that the noise profile isn’t any more pleasant. That’s why I didn’t take that route. There’s a good chance that it’s not an overall improvement.

Try Turbo Boost Switcher first? I’ve got 3 monitors and fans run at 2500-3500 RPM most of the time, no excess heat. Not full performance either, but plenty fast with many cores, and TB is easy to enable temporarily, when full boost is necessary.

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

A little besides the point, but what’s your goal with the eGPU? 5500M is plenty fast on its own.

Not 5500M, I am using a 15" 2017 560X and will still to it until the 16" refresh is out - I like the the butterfly kb.

Unless you plan to attach all 3 into that eGPU, it’s likely that the wattage is still around 20 W, and/or that the noise profile isn’t any more pleasant.

Yes, I want to plug all 3 into that eGPU. I love this setup with 4 screens, it get's hotted noisy but manageable with not very heavy tasks. Running VMs will probably be too much (it;'s already too much, but manageable if I we ar noise cancelling headphones).

 

[yukari]

Hi, I came to this forum because like many here, I have a problem with the fan noise in the MacBook Pro 16".
I have been in contact with an Apple engineer who deals with my case. We tested a couple of different scenarios.

In my case, Radeon High Side is about 18-20W when I'm in clamshell mode with one or two external displays. There is no big difference between open lid and close.

The interesting thing is that in the safe mode (holding shift when MBP starts) Radeon takes only about 9W with 27" 2560x1440 display, and 7W with 22: 1680x1050. Unfortunately, there is no option to connect both in Safe mode.

As soon as I go back to normal mode, Radeon takes 18-20W.

For the comparison, I tested the same scenarios with 15,4" MBP 2019 (i7 2.6, 16GB, Radeon Pro 555X). Here's results:

	15,4" MBP 2019 (i7 2.6, 16GB, Radeon Pro 555X)	16" MBP 2019 (i9 2.3, 16GB, Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB)
No ext. display Clamshell:	1,9W	2,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Clamshell	2,6W	17,1W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Clamshell	3,3W	18W
with both Clamshell	8,6W	18,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Open	9,3W	17,6W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Open	9,2W	18,7W
with both Open	10,1W	19W

Holy crap! That's a huge difference. I was thinking of upgrading to 16" MBP, but not after seeing this...unless they have it fixed.

 

[applesed]

Two things, those clamshells items for the 16 were reported by others to be identical and apparently all rows identical when it’s the 5600.

 

[lookash]

Ok, so I received an official reply from Apple. The computer is working properly, according to their standards. Unfortunately, the engineer was unable to get information about what these standards look like.

In short, Apple sells malfunctioning computers and say "f*ck off" to those who want to do something about it.

 

[Kogut]

Guys do you recommend any HDMI - USB C or VGA - USB C magic cables which can reduces this problem?

 

[Corncab44]

No.

Guys do you recommend any HDMI - USB C or VGA - USB C magic cables which can reduces this problem?

 

[Naatrn]

Trying Turbo Boost Switcher and it does solve all overheat issues with my MBP i7 baseline.
I don't think that I'm losing that much performance for the tasks that I usually perform and the fans haven't gone over 3000 all day.

Does anyone know Apple's rationale behind not allowing users to switch off Turbo Boost from the system preferences?

 

[PhilippVH]

(Aside from the Radion 5x00 Pro power consumption; with the interesting comparison to the 5x0 from before…)

Just a thought on the general power consumption of the current (last-gen) Intel processors:
When I see my 8-core machine using about 40-45 Watts on a single thread (otherwise idle, at about 4 GHz, while it aims for 4.7 or so; that's nearly the TDP, for what this term is worth today; number from Intel Power Gadget) - then I understand, why some people put the Turbo Boost Switcher in front of this power consumption. Heck, that's 1.5 times what the 4-TB-port 13" 4-core CPU is allowed to use, irrespective how much load you through at it. And it's supposed to achieve 4 GHz on a single thread as well. What does this processor do? Run extra-charged 4 GHz?
When I then see some apps, forcing this speed request to the OS, without really seeming to use it…

 

[PhilippVH]

Does anyone know Apple's rationale behind not allowing users to switch off Turbo Boost from the system preferences?

Intel has worked very long and hard to make their CPUs capable of using all the power they are capable of absorbing.
And I'm sure, this would "confuse" people. And then they claim, they don't get the performance other get in benchmarks…

 

[Corncab44]

(Aside from the Radion 5x00 Pro power consumption; with the interesting comparison to the 5x0 from before…)

Just a thought on the general power consumption of the current (last-gen) Intel processors:
When I see my 8-core machine using about 40-45 Watts on a single thread (otherwise idle, at about 4 GHz, while it aims for 4.7 or so; that's nearly the TDP, for what this term is worth today; number from Intel Power Gadget) - then I understand, why some people put the Turbo Boost Switcher in front of this power consumption. Heck, that's 1.5 times what the 4-TB-port 13" 4-core CPU is allowed to use, irrespective how much load you through at it. And it's supposed to achieve 4 GHz on a single thread as well. What does this processor do? Run extra-charged 4 GHz?
When I then see some apps, forcing this speed request to the OS, without really seeming to use it…

That's why it's smarter to limit the voltage vs turning off turbo boost. I returned my 16 because of the dGPU issue but did find success with Volta. I noticed lag when turning off TB, but had very nice clock speeds even while limiting wattage to 25 or 30.

 

[brodocon]

I can confirm that build 1135 of istat worked on my 5600M unit. The previous build, which is the one you download from his website, did not work.

alright, ran the new program, and sure enough, Radeon high side is completely normal. On my set up I am normally only running in clamshell - which with my 2 Benq 2k Monitors if I ran them at native resolution, while in clamshell, I was over 20 watts. my only work around was to rescale the monitors to be 1080p. not ideal, but it kept the radeon high side around 5 watts.

Just checked now, in clamshell and both monitors running at native resolution my Radeon High Side is ~4 watts - and again, it has been running cool, so I assume this to be the case. When I open up the monitor - and have both externals running at their native 2k, and then the MacBook Pro screen on, it was around 7-8 watts max.

 

[lǝʍɐd]

Hello, I gave up, bought eGPU and waiting to be delivered tommorow. Anybody using eGPU could recommend me a cheap and quiet GPU for that use? I totally don't care about performance, only reason I spend $200 on eGPU is the issue.

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

eGPU all the way, I'm working on it for two weeks in After Effects. Computer is silent and much faster with the eGPU even while working, the cpu can take much more work than before with dGPU! Highly recommended even for 5600 pro users! Night and day difference in cpu performance and heat!

 

[lǝʍɐd]

@Norbert Mikołajczyk what GPU do u use?

 

[donperi]

What is the state of eGPU on Windows?

 

[LoneStarX]

Might be an AMD driver and/or Metal issue. I have the same issues with multiple monitors on my MBP 16 2.3G i9 32G 5500M 4GB. But also have crashes with screen tearing when playing Civ VI. I have stress tested it with Heaven and works fine but this uses OpenGL. I have heard that Metal is the issue and Civ VI uses Metal. Contacted Aspyr to figure out how to put into Open GL mode to see if I have the same issues.