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MacFlop

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2020
23
11
in my case result is the same with both cables
but, as your monitor is capable of 1440p@144Hz I would suggest buying DP cable
HDMI should do for 1440p@60Hz though
Depends on the monitor and what it supports. I wasn't able to change the Hz with HDMI as the specs only allowed 1440p 60 Hz, even with SwitchresX. Yeah, I'm gonna get a Displayport port replicator dock. What monitor do you have? Just curious.
 

Mr.Potato

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2020
12
17
You are right, HDMI 1.4 supports up to 1440p@75Hz, link, and OEMs can make it even lower

Mine is Lenovo L24q-30, wasn't able to make it work with normal power draw at 1440p@75Hz, but that's ok, don't care about those additional 15Hz refresh
 
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MacFlop

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2020
23
11
You are right, HDMI 1.4 supports up to 1440p@75Hz, link, and OEMs can make it even lower

Mine is Lenovo L24q-30, wasn't able to make it work with normal power draw at 1440p@75Hz, but that's ok, don't care about those additional 15Hz refresh
I managed to get ahold of a DisplayPort -> USB-C cable. Now I can change refresh rates and if I choose 85 Hz, 100 Hz or 120 Hz my Radeon power draw stays between 6 and 8 W. However if I choose 144 Hz or 60 Hz Radeon draws around 18 W.

I tried connecting two monitors but that always resulted in 18 W from the Radeon card even when I tried out all the refresh rates.

I am now thinking of replacing my 2 x monitor solution for an Ultrawide to solve this issue for me.
 
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Norbby

macrumors newbie
Nov 15, 2020
2
1
I managed to get ahold of a DisplayPort -> USB-C cable. Now I can change refresh rates and if I choose 85 Hz, 100 Hz or 120 Hz my Radeon power draw stays between 6 and 8 W. However if I choose 144 Hz or 60 Hz Radeon draws around 18 W.

I tried connecting two monitors but that always resulted in 18 W from the Radeon card even when I tried out all the refresh rates.

I am now thinking of replacing my 2 x monitor solution for an Ultrawide to solve this issue for me.

Which monitor ultrawide do you think you take ? I'm in the same situation as you.
 

Fear12

macrumors member
Nov 21, 2020
36
15
US
Does anyone know the trigger for when the dGPU is kicked on? Is it any time an external monitor is connected or is just if your external displays are above a certain resolution / refresh rate?

I use two 1080p 144hz displays but if I lower the refresh for both to 60hz, I can chop about 10°c off. I'm just not sure how to tell when the dGPU is activated.

Edit: It appears that the intel UHD 630 is hard capped at 60hz. Anything above that will kick on the GPU which causes the higher temps, even at idle.

 
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Camarillo Brillo

macrumors 6502a
Dec 6, 2019
531
525
Download iStat menus. It will tell you when the dpgu is active. I set it up so that I can see in my menu bar whether I’m using the dgpu at a glance.
 

MacFlop

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2020
23
11
Which monitor ultrawide do you think you take ? I'm in the same situation as you.
I am thinking about the AOC CU34G2X. It has two DisplayPort ports as well. I am also having a gaming rig so I'd like to get that refresh rate.
 

MacFlop

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2020
23
11
Does anyone know the trigger for when the dGPU is kicked on? Is it any time an external monitor is connected or is just if your external displays are above a certain resolution / refresh rate?

I use two 1080p 144hz displays but if I lower the refresh for both to 60hz, I can chop about 10°c off. I'm just not sure how to tell when the dGPU is activated.

Edit: It appears that the intel UHD 630 is hard capped at 60hz. Anything above that will kick on the GPU which causes the higher temps, even at idle.

Whenever you plug in an external monitor to the MBP 16" the dGPU kicks in and there is no official way to disable that behaviour. Check your monitor manual and see which refresh rates are supported (if you use DisplayPort you may be able to use a few more ones). Use iStat to monitor the AMD Radeon power draw whenever you changed the refresh rate.
 

Fear12

macrumors member
Nov 21, 2020
36
15
US
Whenever you plug in an external monitor to the MBP 16" the dGPU kicks in and there is no official way to disable that behaviour. Check your monitor manual and see which refresh rates are supported (if you use DisplayPort you may be able to use a few more ones). Use iStat to monitor the AMD Radeon power draw whenever you changed the refresh rate.
Thanks for the tip. Having both monitors at 144hz was using full 18W on the dGPU. Lowering that to 120hz on both, which still looks nice and smooth, is only using about 6W.
 
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Yurk

macrumors member
Apr 30, 2019
75
90
Well, too good to be true :) but i hope it is true :)
It is simply not true. No change in behavior in Big Sur. Radeon High Side still has high power consumption with open lid and low power consumption with closed lid. This is a hardware/firmware defect, happens in both MacOS and Windows Bootcamp, it won'd be fixed by software.
 

Kung gu

Suspended
Oct 20, 2018
1,379
2,434
It is simply not true. No change in behavior in Big Sur. Radeon High Side still has high power consumption with open lid and low power consumption with closed lid. This is a hardware/firmware defect, happens in both MacOS and Windows Bootcamp, it won'd be fixed by software.
its not a hardware defect as I get 3watts in windows(bootcamp) by using better drivers
 

supaninjax

macrumors member
Jun 23, 2020
58
40
It is simply not true. No change in behavior in Big Sur. Radeon High Side still has high power consumption with open lid and low power consumption with closed lid. This is a hardware/firmware defect, happens in both MacOS and Windows Bootcamp, it won'd be fixed by software.
It does not happen in bootcamp as many people have confirmed.
 
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schriker

macrumors newbie
Nov 23, 2020
27
38
I' ve just created account to share my thoughts about this laptop, because i am experiencing same issues. I have tested few scenarios:

1x external fhd monitor = cool and quiet
2x external fhd monitors = reasonable quiet and cool
1x external fhd monitor + lid open = jet rocket and an oven

This is super annoying, i have tried this with and without dock, directly connecting DP via USB-C, as soon as i open lid it goes crazy and radeon card jumps to 18-19W.

I realy enjoy apple products but this is not what you expect for such a expensive pro machine, it feels like a bug that apple don not even care or try to fix. I was waiting for BigSur update but that did not help. This laptop i perfect as a portable work station but trash when you try to replace desktop with it, and i'm stuck with this machine for couple years. I would love that they at least give me an option to disable radeon gpu - but no, they do it their way. You stuck with hot and noisy machine until we release ARM 16" so you can buy new one.
 

PiresT

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2019
11
5
This can be fixed if some hero develops an unofficial driver for the amd graphics card and release it to the public. If it works fine on bootcamp then it is definitely a driver issue, Apple just wants to leave it that way so that you all run and buy the arm version
 
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acidron

macrumors newbie
Nov 24, 2020
2
0
Is there the list of "compatible" displays exist? For now, I read someone reported a power consuption does not raise on Lg 5k Ultrafine and LG 38UC99-W.
 

timelessbeing

macrumors 6502
Oct 15, 2009
447
131
When I plug an external display to my 16" MBP (open), the Radeon GPU also consumes around 18W. Fans stay quiet though.
 

kzqbfxob

macrumors newbie
Oct 1, 2011
8
4
I'm getting this issue. I have errors in my system console complaining about the following files being missing. the /system/library files do exist, but not the sub-file. the GPUbundle files don't exist.

/Library/GPUBundles/AMDRadeonVADriver2.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonVADriver2
/Library/GPUBundles/AMDRadeonX6000GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX6000SCLib.dylib
/System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonVADriver2.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonVADriver2
/System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX6000GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX6000SCLib.dylib
 

acidron

macrumors newbie
Nov 24, 2020
2
0
I'm getting this issue. I have errors in my system console complaining about the following files being missing. the /system/library files do exist, but not the sub-file. the GPUbundle files don't exist.

/Library/GPUBundles/AMDRadeonVADriver2.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonVADriver2
/Library/GPUBundles/AMDRadeonX6000GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX6000SCLib.dylib
/System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonVADriver2.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonVADriver2
/System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX6000GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX6000SCLib.dylib
This happens on switching to dGPU. I just run Sketchup (that forces dGPU to start) without external display and that errors raise. Consumption is ok btw, no heating issue.
 

c0ppo

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2013
1,890
3,268
Is there the list of "compatible" displays exist? For now, I read someone reported a power consuption does not raise on Lg 5k Ultrafine and LG 38UC99-W.
5K Ultrafine does raise the GPU power draw. I can confirm it.
 
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