Same thing here, 15" 2018, i7 6core, USB-C Philips monitor with 60w USB-C PD.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(
- Thread starter Appledoesnotlisten
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Same thing here, 15" 2018, i7 6core, USB-C Philips monitor with 60w USB-C PD.
If I remember Nvidia had the chance to secure Apple computer chips some time ago, but they blew it with poor manufacturing, leading Apple to logic board replacements. Am I wrong here?
Hey all,
I just wanted to chime in with my report as yesterday I got the higher end base model (2.3 i9, 16 GB, 1 TB SSD, 4 GB 5500M). Tried it multiple times with a 4K LG TV, connected via a USB-C to HDMI cable. I haven't noticed any increase in fan speed at all... the stats showed them hovering at 1800-1850 rpm which is their regular idle speed. I had Safari open on both displays, one of them playing a YouTube video, also a small Logic Pro session playing at the same time. All quiet, CPU and GPU sitting at 65-70˚.
Artemiy
I just wanted to chime in with my report as yesterday I got the higher end base model (2.3 i9, 16 GB, 1 TB SSD, 4 GB 5500M). Tried it multiple times with a 4K LG TV, connected via a USB-C to HDMI cable. I haven't noticed any increase in fan speed at all... the stats showed them hovering at 1800-1850 rpm which is their regular idle speed. I had Safari open on both displays, one of them playing a YouTube video, also a small Logic Pro session playing at the same time. All quiet, CPU and GPU sitting at 65-70˚.
Artemiy
I had the chance to play around with a USB-C dock and monitor the "Thunderbolt proximity" temps... just to make it clear:
2017 15", charging with Apple stock charger:
No external monitor: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through USB-C hub: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through Thunderbolt: Temp spike 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
2019 16", charging with Apple stock charger:
No external monitor: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through USB-C hub: Temp spike 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
External monitor through Thunderbolt: Temp spikes 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
The interesting thing is, the spike in temperature occurs just by plugging in the USB-C hub without even plugging in any USB device, HDMI cable or anything. Just the hub is enough to make the the temp spike up in the left or right side. This is a different behaviour compared to the my 2017 15" which only lit up the Thunderbolt controller if there was actually a Thunderbolt device plugged in.
So, even before accounting for the watts of dGPU usage (which also go up dramatically using retina resolution scaling) we also have to account for this controller firing up and consuming wattage/heating up the system. This wasn't happening on my 15".
Disclaimer: all of the above is not science and is just the findings of playing around with my configurations. If some of you still have both the 15" and 16", hope you can maybe test and replicate the behaviour.
2017 15", charging with Apple stock charger:
No external monitor: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through USB-C hub: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through Thunderbolt: Temp spike 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
2019 16", charging with Apple stock charger:
No external monitor: both Thunderbolts cool.
External monitor through USB-C hub: Temp spike 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
External monitor through Thunderbolt: Temp spikes 20°C on the side plugged in, +6W usage.
The interesting thing is, the spike in temperature occurs just by plugging in the USB-C hub without even plugging in any USB device, HDMI cable or anything. Just the hub is enough to make the the temp spike up in the left or right side. This is a different behaviour compared to the my 2017 15" which only lit up the Thunderbolt controller if there was actually a Thunderbolt device plugged in.
So, even before accounting for the watts of dGPU usage (which also go up dramatically using retina resolution scaling) we also have to account for this controller firing up and consuming wattage/heating up the system. This wasn't happening on my 15".
Disclaimer: all of the above is not science and is just the findings of playing around with my configurations. If some of you still have both the 15" and 16", hope you can maybe test and replicate the behaviour.
My dual 120 MM fan arrived and it's running and my 2014 MBP is running at 44 degrees. The laptop fans are running around 2158 RPM which is inaudible to me. The surface of the laptop is cold to the touch. I'm running one of my trading programs on a 4K display at 4K resolution. I will start up a second shortly and also do some video stuff in the background. These external fans can move up to 166 CFM but they get up to 35 db at that rate which is a bit loud. I am also looking at some triple and quad fan setups with external AC power. I don't technically need this amount of cooling on this laptop but it's interesting to play with in case I get a 16 that runs on the hot side. I am hoping that Apple fixes this in an updated model or in software.
This may be due to the 16" using a newer Thunderbolt controller. This version allows for higher bandwidth which is why we can run the new XDR Pro Display at 6K resolution while the previous 15" model from 2017 can only run it at 5K.
Perhaps the new controllers use more energy when they are connected to accessories or perhaps it's just a firmware or driver issue Apple and Intel still need to work out.
FWIW, there are absolutely AMD 5XXX series driver issues with macOS Catalina 10.15.2 which are repeatable with both 5500M and RX 5700 XT in eGPU, especially when it comes to METAL. Additional reports in the MacPro forums with MP7,1 using RX 5700 & RX 5700 XT with the same issues. Personally really hoping Apple (and AMD?) address the driver issues before W5700X is available. Guessing 10.15.4 until it's really worked out, but 10.15.3 really should see an improvement if they're working on it.
I actually started playing around with kext, trying to disable the Thunderbolt controllers, either by trying to unload them while live, or disabling them altogether before boot by renaming/moving them in recovery mode to other folders. No dice.
The only "interesting" reaction I got is that when I try to unload them live (and some of those kext fail since they're still running) at some point I can get the Thunderbolt device under system report to show "no drivers are loaded for this device" and when that happens I also see the the Thunderbolt Proximity where nothing is plugged in skyrocket as high as the one where the monitor is plugged in. As if messing with drivers somehow ****s up the controllers but instead of turning them off they stall or something.
By the way I never actually managed to get NO Thunderbolt drivers loaded at all, some still remain there. I'll try and play around a little bit to see If I can manage to disable them all and at least avoid to take that temp penalty, which we shouldn't get since we're actually not using Thunderbolt to drive the Displays.
Very interesting! Do keep up posted!
Typically it's the driver which is responsible for putting the device in a low power mode when not being used. If no driver is loaded, then it's not uncommon for the device to stay in a high power mode when it's turned on. I have seen this behaviour on pcs as well. It is indeed counter intuitive.
Typically it's the driver which is responsible for putting the device in a low power mode when not being used. If no driver is loaded, then it's not uncommon for the device to stay in a high power mode when it's turned on. I have seen this behaviour on pcs as well. It is indeed counter intuitive.
This is what it looks like this morning. I also tried it in clamshell vertical mode which worked fine as well but having the laptop open gives me an extra screen. I didn't do this before because of the height differences in the monitors which I didn't like but this works now. I have my email and browser on the laptop monitor and my trading monitor on the 4K screen. It did occur to me that I could set up quad fans too.
All of the aluminum surface areas are cool to the touch. CPU temp is 50 and internal fans running at 2160.
I have the exact same thing going on with my laptop MBP 16"
2.4 GHZ, 64 GB RAM, Radeon Pro 8 GB, 2 TB SSD
Didn't have this going on with my previous 2017 MBP 15" i7
My experiments basically verified what I thought - two programs result in the internal fans spinning so that it's fairly loud. The CPU temps jump quite a bit with these two things running. The external fan does a decent job keeping things cooler. I'm still experimenting around with placement but I like the laptop running at lower temperatures under load.
My guess is that a 16 will run cooler because it's just more efficient - at least when they get the driver stuff straightened out. I will still run the external fan because cool is good.
My guess is that a 16 will run cooler because it's just more efficient - at least when they get the driver stuff straightened out. I will still run the external fan because cool is good.
I have spoken to Apple Support again this week. This is the third 16" Macbook Pro I have and still have the same issue (check my original post https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747/post-28125365)
A technician from "high level support" told me that the Thunderbolt display's documentation says that it is not supposed to work using an adapter. I said, WTF? If you check the adapter's page https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter?fnode=8b&fs=f=adapter&fh=4595%2B45b0 it reads
"In addition, it can be used to connect Thunderbolt-enabled displays — such as the Apple Thunderbolt Display and LG Thunderbolt 2 displays — to any of the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your MacBook Pro. "
And Thunderbolt 3 did not exist at the time when the Thunderbolt display came out, so of course they did not listed Thunderbolt 3 as an option.
He said, he stands by his statement.
But we all know that this is invalid. My Thunderbolt Display works with a low spec 2019 Macbook Air. Without heat issues.
He assured me that if I would have an LG UltraFine 5K for example, it would work.
Anyone using LG Ultrafine 5K?
A technician from "high level support" told me that the Thunderbolt display's documentation says that it is not supposed to work using an adapter. I said, WTF? If you check the adapter's page https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter?fnode=8b&fs=f=adapter&fh=4595%2B45b0 it reads
"In addition, it can be used to connect Thunderbolt-enabled displays — such as the Apple Thunderbolt Display and LG Thunderbolt 2 displays — to any of the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your MacBook Pro. "
And Thunderbolt 3 did not exist at the time when the Thunderbolt display came out, so of course they did not listed Thunderbolt 3 as an option.
He said, he stands by his statement.
But we all know that this is invalid. My Thunderbolt Display works with a low spec 2019 Macbook Air. Without heat issues.
He assured me that if I would have an LG UltraFine 5K for example, it would work.
Anyone using LG Ultrafine 5K?
Sounds like they should make a proprietary connector and officially abandon support for all non-Apple peripherals. What a tool.
Mine is an Apple Thunderbolt Display, made and sold by Apple. The dongle I use is made and sold by Apple as well.
[automerge]1579330528[/automerge]
And do you have heat/fan noise issues when connected to the display?
the computer runs hotter because the dGPU is enabled with the external monitor. this is by design since it lets the computer push many displays without stuttering. also using the 5k will result in a higher avg temp compared to if you used a 4k because the dGPU is pushing 1.78x the amount of pixels. the computer stays quiet unless im really pushing it in matlab/python
for some values, w/o a display connected idle temps are ~ 35c and web browsing/programming/itunes etc the cpu temp is 35-55c. If i'm really pushing it, itll go over 65c
with the 5k, idle temps are around 45c and web browsing/programming/matlab/itunes the cpu temp is anywhere between 45c-70c depending on how much is happening at a given point.
if im pushing the computer in matlab though (parallel processing basically) the cpu will shoot to 90+ until the fans will kick in and temps settle in around 75-80. curiously the fans don't reach max speed which is kind of nice although i dont' care about noise because i got this computer for power.
i use my computer in clamshell mode. if you were to use the computer with an open lid and connected to external display, it would run hotter because the dGPU is pushing both the external display and the internal display. i did notice in this use case, the overall temperature of the cpu/gpu is a lot hotter and its probably because the voltage to the GPU is much higher here.