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(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(
- Thread starter Appledoesnotlisten
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Or typing feels laggy, or you're trying to drag something and the cursor freezes for a split second. You can learn to live with it for sure, and maybe some people won't even notice. But I wouldn't drop a couple grand on a new machine (soon to be outdated) with what I consider to be a janky experience.
Wow... that did it.
It's working! I can't believe I've been dealing with this since February, gone through 2-3 senior advisors and Apple Engineering, and this worked. Thank you!
I think some "always on top" post should be pinned in this thread.
Summarizing everything community has learned so far, like:
- Heat problem is caused by bad Radeon drivers causing excessive power draw (18 Watts at idle instead of 4-5 Watts)
- Software to check power draw - Stats, iStat Menus
- With lid open heat problem exist for all MBP16 models except the newer 5600M
- With lid open eGPU or DisplayLink can help but eGPU is no cheap and DisplayLink causes frames delay
- With lid closed 1080p monitors are mostly fine
- With lid closed some higher resolution monitors are fine - check all the resolution@refresh modes
- With lid closed the rest of higher resolution monitors can be fixed with custom mode created with SwitchResX by copying 1080p spec or from scratch
- HDMI or DisplayPort - doesn't matter until you want to go beyond 1440p@60Hz as most of the monitors are equipped with HDMI 1.4
Summarizing everything community has learned so far, like:
- Heat problem is caused by bad Radeon drivers causing excessive power draw (18 Watts at idle instead of 4-5 Watts)
- Software to check power draw - Stats, iStat Menus
- With lid open heat problem exist for all MBP16 models except the newer 5600M
- With lid open eGPU or DisplayLink can help but eGPU is no cheap and DisplayLink causes frames delay
- With lid closed 1080p monitors are mostly fine
- With lid closed some higher resolution monitors are fine - check all the resolution@refresh modes
- With lid closed the rest of higher resolution monitors can be fixed with custom mode created with SwitchResX by copying 1080p spec or from scratch
- HDMI or DisplayPort - doesn't matter until you want to go beyond 1440p@60Hz as most of the monitors are equipped with HDMI 1.4
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Sums it up nicely. I sold my 16" today. Good riddance. In smaller, lighter, ice cold M1 land now
Did anyones heat and fan issues improve considerably with big sur? lol. my fans used to rev like crazy not in dock mode. But now I'm my fans dont go bast 2500 and i stay at around 70-75 degrees with a vouple videos playing with my laptop open and external monitor in use. ERR?!!!
5600M is really the only fix. I just watched a 4K video on YouTube fullscreen on an XDR and I never got above 1850 RPM or 67* CPU temp.
Granted it wasn't a cinematic video, it was just a video review of the Canon R5.
Granted it wasn't a cinematic video, it was just a video review of the Canon R5.
It is. I just got one and it is a massively different experience from my 5500m. It’s like using a totally different computer and I will say it is superb.
I got a HP Zbook Create G7 to test out the other day, and that thing gets so hot you cannot use it as a laptop. It is a P.O.S in comparison to the 16” MBP 5600m. And HP advertises it as the competition to get us to move over.
If anyone on this thread is considering anything else, I highly recommend looking at the 5600M first [if you need bootcamp, egpu support, large screen, fully supported apps].
If you look at who I replied to, I had to use SwitchResX to basically test resolutions that dropped my wattage of the GPU to about 4-6w.
For me, 1080p @60hz did that. So I simply copied the exact specs of the 1080p setting that worked, and just changed the resolution up to 2560 x 1440. I didn't touch any other setting, and it worked.
Yes. DisplayLink works, as it avoids the discrete GPU, and uses the CPU instead. No overheating or excessive power consumption. The only problem is that HiDPI modes are not supported very well, and cause lag. Native 1080p or 4K resolutions work well.
yeh the AMD GPU's have ****y drivers that cause the VRAM to ramp up and cause fans to spin at max speed.
Can I ask what is your Radeon power consumption on idle with external display and lid open?
Also, abnormally hot and noisy are quite subjective terms.
In my case, with the lid closed CPU/battery temps are around 45C/27C
If I open the lid they will climb to 60C(and higher over time)/32C
on idle.....
Without the proof of the fact that excessive power draw actually damages hardware, or at least causes random crashes - there isn't much to sue about
For any newcomers trying to figure out why your new 16” can’t run external monitors without getting hot and loud, just return it while it’s still in the return window. Send a message to apple, with your wallet. It will never be fixed. Apple has abandoned this problem because they want you to buy a new m1 model. No use wasting time diagnosing it or trying to find a fix. No use asking other strangers to try different combinations and configurations to see how much power Radeon uses. Who cares... the 16” is a disaster, it only works when you use it just the way it likes to be used. Apple knows there is a problem but they decided to let us suckers who dropped big money on it to just live with it or eat the loss and buy a different computer.
I largely agree with this, except that I don't think Apple deliberately chose to disregard this issue. Rather, they probably took off most of their personnel working on Intel MBP thermal design, GPUs, etc and put them on Apple Silicon projects about 1-2 years ago, and they never looked back.
So the implication is the same: this issue isn't going to be fixed and if it bothers people, they should just go ahead and either (1) buy an M1-equipped Mac today; or (2) wait for the higher-end M1-equipped Macs of 2021.
Personally, I've had it with this and I ordered an M1 MBP to arrive here shortly. Enough is enough. The M1s are as fast as the 16" MBP but much cooler and quieter, and with amazing battery life. Smaller built-in screen? No problem: I'm plugged in to my larger monitor all day. Lack of 4 ports? No worries: hub/dock. Speakers less robust? Not a problem: shouldn't use built-in speakers at my desk anyway. Only supports 1 external display? No biggie: just get one large display and make do. I'm ready for the M1.
So basically, whatever Apple throws at you, you are ready to receive it and give them more $$$?
Indeed, you are ready for the M1
If you are ok with just one big screen why dont you close the LID on your 16” and then the radeon draw is over?