hiDPI Native here for all cases including the imnternal screen. And yes it's better performance.
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(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(
- Thread starter Appledoesnotlisten
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2 x 1440p@60hz + 1 x 1080p@60hz in my case. Still can hear the fan when playing a 1080p video at 60fps on Youtube but much lower than using direct connections. Always under than 3000RPM on the right side now.
This is after 10min of playing a video when it stabilised (turbo boost disabled):
This is after 10min of playing a video when it stabilised (turbo boost disabled):
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My i7 5600M internal screen plus LG5k has similar fan speed (<3k rpm) when play Youtube video at 1080p 60fps with Chrome. CPU load is about 30% for Chrome. GPU power jumped from 7.5W at idle to about 14W.
Yes, I'm using the Universal Dell D6000 dock with DisplayLink drivers with native resolutions. For the 2 DP ports, response time is one frame late and the mouse is lagging on the screen playing a fullscreen video. HDMI port is fine since it doesn't use DisplayLink at all.
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Hi long time reader, first time poster.. 
I wanted to share two fixes / fudges for part of this problem, which might help some people. YMMV.
my machine: MBP16 i9 2.4, Radeon 5500M 8Gb, 32Gb Ram 1TB SSD.
I have the now commonly reported overheating problem in MacOS when connecting external display via DP or HDMI or DVI including to 2008 ACD, 2011 Dell Studio and 2017 Samsung. Usual Apple denials; Actually from the actual Apple Engineering Team(s), not just customer support...
When connected to an external display in either open OR clamshell mode, Radeon Highside wattage draw immediately jumps up to about 18W at idle, generating heat, and with moderate CPU work (especially video conferencing) a nasty overheating cascade starts and fans can reach >4k, so others on the vid call can hear my very expensive toaster oven taking off
Summary:
No External Display = iGPU and CPU's about 41 deg C
External Display = dGPU and CPU's about 61 deg C
Fix 1 - The dGPU kicks in when physically connecting an external display, so instead AirPlay Stream to the external display. I have tried this using Apple TV 3rd Gen (limited to 1080p so 1920 x 1080) on HDMI to Dell Studio. CPU's remain about 43deg. C
Pros's: Its a cheap, elegant, 'Fully Apple' and wire free solution. The MBP will stay on iGPU hence cool. dGPU only kicks in when a program demands it. not limited to 'mirror' displays, so can laptop can be open and displays extended.
Con's: The resolution may not suit your particular needs. You lose ability to stream sound to other remote speakers (but AirPods continue to work it seemed). You are limited to one external monitor so flight Simers and stock traders look elsewhere!. Maybe some lag (though I didn't really notice it)
To Try: Apple 4k TV has more resolutions options I think, so may offer better outcomes. Easy to test if you've already got one (I haven't) and your monitor is HDMI. I didn't try gaming, only desktop apps and YouTube etc.
Fix 2 - Limit the 18W draw by tweaking the monitor Hz timing. I used SwitchResX, others may be available. I was skeptical of this but it worked for me. Dell Studio monitor at Mac default 1920 x 1200 Mac outputs at a weird 59.88 Hertz, and Radeon draws 18W at idle. Switched resolution to 1920 x 1200 at 60Hz and radeon immediately drops to 4 Watts. CPU's soon stabilise about 51deg C ? In fact I found that all of the NTSC resolutions produced low wattage draw. BUT this only worked in Clamshell mode.
Pros: very cheap and easy, in fact Free to try for 10 days. SwitchResX on screen controls should allow me to quickly replicate / fix when I travel and use clients monitors / projectors.
Cons: Only works in clamshell mode, not what I wanted in my particular use case. However I can pop the lid open when I need to vid call or desperately need the second screen, then close it down again ?
For info, I also tried the same setup in Windows10 via Bootcamp. The Radeon draw was 4W with NO external display (so not using iGPU?) and 10W using both the MBP and External screen (laptop open with external display connected). So immediately an improvement on the default MacOS setup suggesting, to me at least, that this issue is not exclusively hardware related (though it may be a factor) but is heavily influenced by software / drivers, so perhaps there is hope of an official apple fix.
My guess is that potentially your region will have influenced the settings / configuration of both the display(s) you own or use and also the default Mac Hz output setting for your region. This might be why some forum posters have not had the problem and are perplexed why others have it?... If their use case is normally clamshell, and their 'native' Hertz suits the Radeon/Driver setup then they'd have never encountered the issue it. I'm not in the USA and the MBP seems to default to this 59.88Hz on all of the monitors I have tried.
What is next to try:
1) Multi monitor using SwitchResX to see if it works
2) In store an LG ultrafine with the camera built in so I can run MBP in Clamshell at my desk and open when travelling
3) Apple TV 4k
or 4) call to Trading Standards and try to force Apple to take it back and refund me... so sad ?
And before I get flamed for calling these suggestions 'fixes', I fully believe that Apple should actually fix this problem properly; these are just work arounds to a problem that should NEVER have been there in the first place on such a premium machine.
For my 5cents, I think:
A) an Apple software fix will sort the 18W draw at idle with external display, thus mitigating the overheating in 'normal desktop / office' workloads and conditions, but;
B) only a hardware fix will sort the extended problem of when the radeon is drawing Big Watts under load and the heat generated overwhelms the cooling capability of the MBP16 and it throttles the CPU. Like I say, just my 5 cents worth.
Anyway, hope that helps some readers, or gives them ideas on things to try.
I wanted to share two fixes / fudges for part of this problem, which might help some people. YMMV.
my machine: MBP16 i9 2.4, Radeon 5500M 8Gb, 32Gb Ram 1TB SSD.
I have the now commonly reported overheating problem in MacOS when connecting external display via DP or HDMI or DVI including to 2008 ACD, 2011 Dell Studio and 2017 Samsung. Usual Apple denials; Actually from the actual Apple Engineering Team(s), not just customer support...
When connected to an external display in either open OR clamshell mode, Radeon Highside wattage draw immediately jumps up to about 18W at idle, generating heat, and with moderate CPU work (especially video conferencing) a nasty overheating cascade starts and fans can reach >4k, so others on the vid call can hear my very expensive toaster oven taking off
Summary:
No External Display = iGPU and CPU's about 41 deg C
External Display = dGPU and CPU's about 61 deg C
Fix 1 - The dGPU kicks in when physically connecting an external display, so instead AirPlay Stream to the external display. I have tried this using Apple TV 3rd Gen (limited to 1080p so 1920 x 1080) on HDMI to Dell Studio. CPU's remain about 43deg. C
Pros's: Its a cheap, elegant, 'Fully Apple' and wire free solution. The MBP will stay on iGPU hence cool. dGPU only kicks in when a program demands it. not limited to 'mirror' displays, so can laptop can be open and displays extended.
Con's: The resolution may not suit your particular needs. You lose ability to stream sound to other remote speakers (but AirPods continue to work it seemed). You are limited to one external monitor so flight Simers and stock traders look elsewhere!. Maybe some lag (though I didn't really notice it)
To Try: Apple 4k TV has more resolutions options I think, so may offer better outcomes. Easy to test if you've already got one (I haven't) and your monitor is HDMI. I didn't try gaming, only desktop apps and YouTube etc.
Fix 2 - Limit the 18W draw by tweaking the monitor Hz timing. I used SwitchResX, others may be available. I was skeptical of this but it worked for me. Dell Studio monitor at Mac default 1920 x 1200 Mac outputs at a weird 59.88 Hertz, and Radeon draws 18W at idle. Switched resolution to 1920 x 1200 at 60Hz and radeon immediately drops to 4 Watts. CPU's soon stabilise about 51deg C ? In fact I found that all of the NTSC resolutions produced low wattage draw. BUT this only worked in Clamshell mode.
Pros: very cheap and easy, in fact Free to try for 10 days. SwitchResX on screen controls should allow me to quickly replicate / fix when I travel and use clients monitors / projectors.
Cons: Only works in clamshell mode, not what I wanted in my particular use case. However I can pop the lid open when I need to vid call or desperately need the second screen, then close it down again ?
For info, I also tried the same setup in Windows10 via Bootcamp. The Radeon draw was 4W with NO external display (so not using iGPU?) and 10W using both the MBP and External screen (laptop open with external display connected). So immediately an improvement on the default MacOS setup suggesting, to me at least, that this issue is not exclusively hardware related (though it may be a factor) but is heavily influenced by software / drivers, so perhaps there is hope of an official apple fix.
My guess is that potentially your region will have influenced the settings / configuration of both the display(s) you own or use and also the default Mac Hz output setting for your region. This might be why some forum posters have not had the problem and are perplexed why others have it?... If their use case is normally clamshell, and their 'native' Hertz suits the Radeon/Driver setup then they'd have never encountered the issue it. I'm not in the USA and the MBP seems to default to this 59.88Hz on all of the monitors I have tried.
What is next to try:
1) Multi monitor using SwitchResX to see if it works
2) In store an LG ultrafine with the camera built in so I can run MBP in Clamshell at my desk and open when travelling
3) Apple TV 4k
or 4) call to Trading Standards and try to force Apple to take it back and refund me... so sad ?
And before I get flamed for calling these suggestions 'fixes', I fully believe that Apple should actually fix this problem properly; these are just work arounds to a problem that should NEVER have been there in the first place on such a premium machine.
For my 5cents, I think:
A) an Apple software fix will sort the 18W draw at idle with external display, thus mitigating the overheating in 'normal desktop / office' workloads and conditions, but;
B) only a hardware fix will sort the extended problem of when the radeon is drawing Big Watts under load and the heat generated overwhelms the cooling capability of the MBP16 and it throttles the CPU. Like I say, just my 5 cents worth.
Anyway, hope that helps some readers, or gives them ideas on things to try.
Catalina 10.15.7
Single 4K monitor (Samsung 32") 60 Hz -- connected with USB-C --> Display Port cable
Clamshell mode
Power cable connected on the right side
Surprise, surprise, stable 1800-2000 rpm, silent.
Before: 3500-5000 rpms when idle.
Is it possible Apple fixed at least some of this problem in .7 update?
Single 4K monitor (Samsung 32") 60 Hz -- connected with USB-C --> Display Port cable
Clamshell mode
Power cable connected on the right side
Surprise, surprise, stable 1800-2000 rpm, silent.
Before: 3500-5000 rpms when idle.
Is it possible Apple fixed at least some of this problem in .7 update?
Well,
I finally decided to give up with the wavlink dock and DisplayLink that made my mouse lagging and invest instead in a new ultrawide monitor (IIYAMA XUB3493). I replace my Dell U2415 coupled with the internal monitor with a single large screen and my MBP in clamshell mode.
So :
Radeon at 5W
Fans at 1800rpm
USB-C to HDMI
No need to SwitchResX, maybe it's due to the new Catalina 10.15.7. I don't know. The frequency is automatically detected at 75Hz, the native freq.
I feel so glad to have a setup that works at last (I hope it continues). It's a shame that it required so much extra expenses, but I was so desperate to have a such expensive laptop and be so limited that I couldn't be satisfied.
I finally decided to give up with the wavlink dock and DisplayLink that made my mouse lagging and invest instead in a new ultrawide monitor (IIYAMA XUB3493). I replace my Dell U2415 coupled with the internal monitor with a single large screen and my MBP in clamshell mode.
So :
Radeon at 5W
Fans at 1800rpm
USB-C to HDMI
No need to SwitchResX, maybe it's due to the new Catalina 10.15.7. I don't know. The frequency is automatically detected at 75Hz, the native freq.
I feel so glad to have a setup that works at last (I hope it continues). It's a shame that it required so much extra expenses, but I was so desperate to have a such expensive laptop and be so limited that I couldn't be satisfied.
This is a great response, thank you.Hi long time reader, first time poster..
I wanted to share two fixes / fudges for part of this problem, which might help some people. YMMV.
my machine: MBP16 i9 2.4, Radeon 5500M 8Gb, 32Gb Ram 1TB SSD.
I have the now commonly reported overheating problem in MacOS when connecting external display via DP or HDMI or DVI including to 2008 ACD, 2011 Dell Studio and 2017 Samsung. Usual Apple denials; Actually from the actual Apple Engineering Team(s), not just customer support...
When connected to an external display in either open OR clamshell mode, Radeon Highside wattage draw immediately jumps up to about 18W at idle, generating heat, and with moderate CPU work (especially video conferencing) a nasty overheating cascade starts and fans can reach >4k, so others on the vid call can hear my very expensive toaster oven taking off
Summary:
No External Display = iGPU and CPU's about 41 deg C
External Display = dGPU and CPU's about 61 deg C
Fix 1 - The dGPU kicks in when physically connecting an external display, so instead AirPlay Stream to the external display. I have tried this using Apple TV 3rd Gen (limited to 1080p so 1920 x 1080) on HDMI to Dell Studio. CPU's remain about 43deg. C
Pros's: Its a cheap, elegant, 'Fully Apple' and wire free solution. The MBP will stay on iGPU hence cool. dGPU only kicks in when a program demands it. not limited to 'mirror' displays, so can laptop can be open and displays extended.
Con's: The resolution may not suit your particular needs. You lose ability to stream sound to other remote speakers (but AirPods continue to work it seemed). You are limited to one external monitor so flight Simers and stock traders look elsewhere!. Maybe some lag (though I didn't really notice it)
To Try: Apple 4k TV has more resolutions options I think, so may offer better outcomes. Easy to test if you've already got one (I haven't) and your monitor is HDMI. I didn't try gaming, only desktop apps and YouTube etc.
Fix 2 - Limit the 18W draw by tweaking the monitor Hz timing. I used SwitchResX, others may be available. I was skeptical of this but it worked for me. Dell Studio monitor at Mac default 1920 x 1200 Mac outputs at a weird 59.88 Hertz, and Radeon draws 18W at idle. Switched resolution to 1920 x 1200 at 60Hz and radeon immediately drops to 4 Watts. CPU's soon stabilise about 51deg C ? In fact I found that all of the NTSC resolutions produced low wattage draw. BUT this only worked in Clamshell mode.
Pros: very cheap and easy, in fact Free to try for 10 days. SwitchResX on screen controls should allow me to quickly replicate / fix when I travel and use clients monitors / projectors.
Cons: Only works in clamshell mode, not what I wanted in my particular use case. However I can pop the lid open when I need to vid call or desperately need the second screen, then close it down again ?
For info, I also tried the same setup in Windows10 via Bootcamp. The Radeon draw was 4W with NO external display (so not using iGPU?) and 10W using both the MBP and External screen (laptop open with external display connected). So immediately an improvement on the default MacOS setup suggesting, to me at least, that this issue is not exclusively hardware related (though it may be a factor) but is heavily influenced by software / drivers, so perhaps there is hope of an official apple fix.
My guess is that potentially your region will have influenced the settings / configuration of both the display(s) you own or use and also the default Mac Hz output setting for your region. This might be why some forum posters have not had the problem and are perplexed why others have it?... If their use case is normally clamshell, and their 'native' Hertz suits the Radeon/Driver setup then they'd have never encountered the issue it. I'm not in the USA and the MBP seems to default to this 59.88Hz on all of the monitors I have tried.
What is next to try:
1) Multi monitor using SwitchResX to see if it works
2) In store an LG ultrafine with the camera built in so I can run MBP in Clamshell at my desk and open when travelling
3) Apple TV 4k
or 4) call to Trading Standards and try to force Apple to take it back and refund me... so sad ?
And before I get flamed for calling these suggestions 'fixes', I fully believe that Apple should actually fix this problem properly; these are just work arounds to a problem that should NEVER have been there in the first place on such a premium machine.
For my 5cents, I think:
A) an Apple software fix will sort the 18W draw at idle with external display, thus mitigating the overheating in 'normal desktop / office' workloads and conditions, but;
B) only a hardware fix will sort the extended problem of when the radeon is drawing Big Watts under load and the heat generated overwhelms the cooling capability of the MBP16 and it throttles the CPU. Like I say, just my 5 cents worth.
Anyway, hope that helps some readers, or gives them ideas on things to try.
With regards to SwitchResX, couldn't you have used the native option in the display option in settings? It gives you access to adjust the resolution and Hz.
They now let CPU to go much warmer before speeding up the fans.
It's a very noticeable difference compared to the previous versions of Catalina.
From my perspective - problem solved, maybe not in the most elegant way,
but I can finally work using my external 4K monitor without noise cancelling headphones.
At last!
Ok so also on 10.15.7 now, been playing a 4k video for the past 20+ minutes. By now my CPU would be throttled to 1GHz or even worse 800MHz. I don't want to get my hopes up but this is atleast very interesting.
Could be that your VRMs got too hot from the constantly high power draw of the Radeon GPU. Then the CPU gets throttled.
Radeon High side sensor seems to be steady at 12W. I'll need to check my previous screenshots but I recall it being at 20W for me before.
I see no differences in the dGPU power consumption before / after updating to 10.15.7
Something definitely changed with 10.15.7. My machine is now +5C hotter at idle. Fans (<2.000 rpm) and Radeon High Side are the same.
Not good but 10.15.7 is overall a miserable update and people seem to have problems regardless of device.
Not good but 10.15.7 is overall a miserable update and people seem to have problems regardless of device.
The major issue is all about using an external monitor with an open lid.
In clamshell you could have solved the issue before the last update by changing the resolutions.
So unfortunately, with an open lid the GPU consumption is still 20W in the last version, at least for me.
Hey,
This is my first post on this forum and here are my findings so far after testing mbp 16 with various monitors
1. Your mbp will overheat if you try to connect it to 1440p monitor that has refresh rate of 60 hz. Idk why this happens but it does and there is not much you can do about it. I've tested this with LG Ultrafine 27 inch ergo monitor and the only soultion to solve this problem is to switch to 75 hz overdrive mode.
2. There is no solution to overheating issues when using MBP16 with open lid no matter what external monitor you gonna try. I've tried various setups and outcome is always the same (20 W Radeon high side power draw).
3. With lid closed every monitor setup but 1440p and 60 hz is fine and will not cause any major overheating issues.
4. Temps are lower if you are using native reslution.
5. Unfortunately iGPU seems to be underpowered or poorly driven software side since there are obvious lags when browsing content that is image heavy.
P.S Everyhing is exactly the same on Big Sur (sorry to shatter your hopes)
Other than that is pretty good laptop but lt is far from perfect.
This is my first post on this forum and here are my findings so far after testing mbp 16 with various monitors
1. Your mbp will overheat if you try to connect it to 1440p monitor that has refresh rate of 60 hz. Idk why this happens but it does and there is not much you can do about it. I've tested this with LG Ultrafine 27 inch ergo monitor and the only soultion to solve this problem is to switch to 75 hz overdrive mode.
2. There is no solution to overheating issues when using MBP16 with open lid no matter what external monitor you gonna try. I've tried various setups and outcome is always the same (20 W Radeon high side power draw).
3. With lid closed every monitor setup but 1440p and 60 hz is fine and will not cause any major overheating issues.
4. Temps are lower if you are using native reslution.
5. Unfortunately iGPU seems to be underpowered or poorly driven software side since there are obvious lags when browsing content that is image heavy.
P.S Everyhing is exactly the same on Big Sur (sorry to shatter your hopes)
Other than that is pretty good laptop but lt is far from perfect.
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This is because a) macOS' UI is quite heavy. It relies on GPU (Metal) acceleration and does a lot of effect rendering and b) because the UHD630 is quite weak. My old 15" from 2013 had the Intel Iris Pro as integrated GPU. That thing is way faster than the current generation Intel iGPU in the 16". I don't know why Intel uses these low performance iGPUs in the top of the line CPUs while the 13" got the much better Iris Plus GPUs.
Somehow all the GPU drivers in Catalina are garbage. I don't know why a 2 Trillion USD company with highly specialized engineers like Apple cannot get their stuff together.
The biggest issue is, we can't do anything besides waiting....
...but apparently we can wait forever.
Apple are getting their **** together by getting rid of the problems i.e intel and AMD. AMD's poor lack of driver optimization for macOS is what is causing this whole issue overheating issue increasing by 20Watts.
Intel is a whole other mess...
In Bootcamp, when the 16" is connected to a external monitor, it only uses 3Watts.
Apple making their own SoC for Macs, is the best bet forward. Apple will have excellent Metal support in their ARM chips.
Heck, the A14 achieves a higher Metal score than the A12Z.
Well, that for sure. But it doesn’t helps us now and „Just buy the Next is no real help for someone who bought a specced out 16“ for a lot of cash.
If ARM is so good as it is anticipated, resale values of Intel Macs will be trash.
If ARM is so good as it is anticipated, resale values of Intel Macs will be trash.
My machine actually seems to be running a LOT cooler . . . I didn't even think to check pre/post 10.15.7 temperatures, but something between that and buying and setting up this:
has my laptop running quietly and much cooler - the area above the touchbar used to be hot enough to cook an egg on, now it's fine to touch.
has my laptop running quietly and much cooler - the area above the touchbar used to be hot enough to cook an egg on, now it's fine to touch.
