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

jimhoyle said:
Could you tell me which eGPU you chose and why?

It might be on top of other complexities my unit is broken. It is also difficult to measure, because it doesn't behave the same way every time. There is clearly a random factor present. For example I might not always get fan noise if I do a test once for only 2 minutes. But if I do the exact same test 5 times (reboots or e.g. toggling ThrottleStop settings back and forth in between), I might get "bad" result 4 times and "good" result once.
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I've got a Razer Core X Chroma coming in the mail, with a 580. It's about 50% the speed of a 5700XT, but should be plenty for my needs. About as fast as the internal 5500M, which is fast. I took the Chroma model, because it has an Ethernet port (new drivers from this Summer allegedly work) and USB ports + 100W charging, so it doubles as a dock. The fan and PSU are relatively easy to upgrade later, if I want to convert it to a silent unit, and I can later upgrade the GPU to 5700XT or whatever runs fastest & coolest in a couple of years. Apple approves this combo, according to the eGPU support page, and it's been common among Mac users.

As for a possibly faulty Mac, you could reboot while pressing "d" after the chime. It will run a hardware test. I doubt it reveals anything, but if it does, then you know for sure it's faulty and you'll have no trouble with the RMA claim. That's the same test that Apple Support would do. It's not an exhaustive test, but pretty comprehensive.
 
Hi, can anyone please confirm that while rendering / exporting a video in premiere pro the Radeon high side reaches upto 55 watts?
 
Wow this is a very long thread, can someone summarize exactly what the current findings are regarding the 16". I'm hoping they will release an updated version this year. But so many issues have made me take a step back.
 
onerovico said:
That WavLink uses the DisplayLink technology 😉
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Yes but in description is written- Built-in USB3.0 GPU, plug and display certified by DisplayLink

From the website Dock

The WAVLINK Universal Docking Station uses a System on the Chip (SOC) processing system. This is superior to many other docking stations, which rely on your machine’s GPU for processing. In other words, your computer doesn’t have to deal with the entire monitor interface. It simply sends the data directly to the WAVLINK unit. Inside, a secondary GPU will interface with the monitors. This takes a significant load off of your computer, so you can get the best possible performance.
 
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m7ammed said:
Wow this is a very long thread, can someone summarize exactly what the current findings are regarding the 16". I'm hoping they will release an updated version this year. But so many issues have made me take a step back.
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In a nutshell, MBP 16" with 5300M & 5500M dGPU will consume 18-20 Watts of power when connected to external display while the lid is open. The issue does not affect DisplayLink or SideCar.

MBP 16" with 5600M is the perfect machine at cost.
 
ultrakyo said:
In a nutshell, MBP 16" with 5300M & 5500M dGPU will consume 18-20 Watts of power when connected to external display while the lid is open. The issue does not affect DisplayLink or SideCar.

MBP 16" with 5600M is the perfect machine at cost.
Click to expand...

so no issues if the lid is closed?
 
ultrakyo said:
Yes, no issue with power draw with clamshell mode.
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There is still an issue with the lid closed, but power draw isn't so high like with open. But it's still there.

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:1,9W2,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Clamshell2,6W17,1W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Clamshell3,3W18W
with both Clamshell8,6W18,5W
with one 27" 2560x1440 display Open9,3W17,6W
with one 22:: 1680x1050 display Open9,2W18,7W
with both Open10,1W19W
 
Appledoesnotlisten said:
I gave up and ordered a kick-ass eGPU. Will connect 3 external monitors and call it a day. A silent day :)))
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I laughed at this because I'm one of those people that from the start was very negative towards adding more money just to keep it cool and in the end did same thing.
TO be fair here the 16" on its own is a absolute joy to use and there's nothing really to complain about. Period.

Then I got a great deal on a used Core X and then was offered a 580 for dirt cheap which made up my mind... All good but made a mistake at this point cause I went to newegg to check for prices and ended up buying a new vega 56 for $250 delivered. Couldn't resist it lol.

Anyway. I will report back in few days how it's performing in those conditions even though I am pretty sure it will be just fine.
 
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dooyou said:
@lookash With my 27“ 4k ext. Monitor (60 Hz) I have ~ 6 W in Clamshell, Radeon 5500m. So i don‘t know why you have about 17 W.
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I've read about cases like yours and also like mine. I think it probably depends on resolution, refresh rate etc. because when you set the resolution to FullHD (2560x1440 native), the consumption drops to about 7W.
 
IIRC if you use scaled sizes the GPU has to work harder. A 4k display at exactly half the native resolution (1920x1080) would need less resources than one set at 2560x1440 because it has to work from 5120x2880 then scale it down with antialiasing, or something like that. So it would logically need more power.
I wouldn't be surprised if a 5k at 2560x1440 would use less power than a 4k at the same resolution.
 
elv said:
IIRC if you use scaled sizes the GPU has to work harder. A 4k display at exactly half the native resolution (1920x1080) would need less resources than one set at 2560x1440 because it has to work from 5120x2880 then scale it down with antialiasing, or something like that. So it would logically need more power.
I wouldn't be surprised if a 5k at 2560x1440 would use less power than a 4k at the same resolution.
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That's true only when we use scaled mode (Retina @2). In my case changing resolution to lower (normal 1:1 mode) doesn't affects power consumption. Only some resolutions (e.g. fullhd) caused lower energy consumption for some unknown reason.
 
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How's the performance in comparison to the 5500m?

petterihiisila said:
I've got a Razer Core X Chroma coming in the mail, with a 580. It's about 50% the speed of a 5700XT, but should be plenty for my needs. About as fast as the internal 5500M, which is fast. I took the Chroma model, because it has an Ethernet port (new drivers from this Summer allegedly work) and USB ports + 100W charging, so it doubles as a dock. The fan and PSU are relatively easy to upgrade later, if I want to convert it to a silent unit, and I can later upgrade the GPU to 5700XT or whatever runs fastest & coolest in a couple of years. Apple approves this combo, according to the eGPU support page, and it's been common among Mac users.

As for a possibly faulty Mac, you could reboot while pressing "d" after the chime. It will run a hardware test. I doubt it reveals anything, but if it does, then you know for sure it's faulty and you'll have no trouble with the RMA claim. That's the same test that Apple Support would do. It's not an exhaustive test, but pretty comprehensive.
Click to expand...
 
petterihiisila said:
I've got a Razer Core X Chroma coming in the mail, with a 580. It's about 50% the speed of a 5700XT, but should be plenty for my needs. About as fast as the internal 5500M, which is fast. I took the Chroma model, because it has an Ethernet port (new drivers from this Summer allegedly work) and USB ports + 100W charging, so it doubles as a dock. The fan and PSU are relatively easy to upgrade later, if I want to convert it to a silent unit, and I can later upgrade the GPU to 5700XT or whatever runs fastest & coolest in a couple of years. Apple approves this combo, according to the eGPU support page, and it's been common among Mac users.

As for a possibly faulty Mac, you could reboot while pressing "d" after the chime. It will run a hardware test. I doubt it reveals anything, but if it does, then you know for sure it's faulty and you'll have no trouble with the RMA claim. That's the same test that Apple Support would do. It's not an exhaustive test, but pretty comprehensive.
Click to expand...

FYI 5700 family is approved unless I am missing something

Use an external graphics processor with your Mac - Apple Support

Learn how to access additional graphics performance by connecting to an external graphics processor.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
jimhoyle said:
Thank you for confirming, interesting! I am absolutely sure I have no software using my resources. "System Idle Process" is basically 99 (or 98). According to your comment, I am more encouraged to RMA for replacement. (I do have also other strange problems like randomly WiFi not recovering after resume from sleep.)
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Have you enabled "Automatic Graphics Switching" in Settings -> Energy Saver? The dGPU should not be showing up in "About this mac" and should only consumes ~2.3W while playing videos in Chrome.

I just realized the 4K I played was actually at 1440p, I just tried a real 4K (2160p) video for 10mins and the fans stabilized at 2300-2600RPM, definitely noticeable on low volume, sorry for the misinformation.
 
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jc_9 said:
Have you enabled "Automatic Graphics Switching" in Settings -> Energy Saver? The dGPU should not be showing up in "About this mac" and should only consumes ~2.3W while playing videos in Chrome.

I just realized the 4K I played was actually at 1440p, I just tried a real 4K (2160p) video for 10mins and the fans stabilized at 2300-2600RPM, definitely noticeable on low volume, sorry for the misinformation.
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An open application that uses dGPU (i.e. Photos app) would also prevent the MacOS to switch back to iGPU. Need to ensure that those apps are closed using Command+Q option.
 
My new work 16” gets very hot and noisy in clamshell connected to a 30” Cinema Display.

What’s worse is it kernel panics 1-2 times per day if used in clamshell.

Opening the screen has improved both problems. Annoy. Still hot and loud at times, but doesn’t randomly restart.

Definitely going with a sans-GPU model for my next personal purchase.
 
I liked the 15" without a dGPU, as I only need CPU performance and a large screen. Unfortunately Intel stopped making high performance iGPU.

I look forward to Apple Silicon when we are probably back to an iGPU running cooler!
 
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