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koziolk

macrumors newbie
Mar 26, 2021
15
0
Yes and no. Apple didn't improve it, AMD upgraded it. It's a hardware design issue.
Then Apple should replace 5500 with 5600 out of charge for us:)

End of the day, you either:
  • buy a model with 5600 and spend a lot of money to limit the issue
  • use in clamshell with external display (one)
Any ideas what 4K monitor works best with it?

Anyway, great summary. I would add SwitchResX to it since it helped some users, unfortunately not me.
 

IceStormNG

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2020
517
676
Then Apple should replace 5500 with 5600 out of charge for us:)
Ahaha.. would not even happen in our dreams.

I would even upgrade to the 5600M, but Apple doesn't let me. The "Apple way" is to sell this computer and buy a new one with a 5600M.
 

kelvincht

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2021
57
51
Then Apple should replace 5500 with 5600 out of charge for us:)


Any ideas what 4K monitor works best with it?

Anyway, great summary. I would add SwitchResX to it since it helped some users, unfortunately not me.
Dell U2720Q, LG UD27UD58 tested to work for me. As soon as they support some standard CTF-RB timing it should work.

I got it working side by side with SwitchResX in clamshell mode. In windows I also need to change the color bit depth to be same (10bit) for both monitors.
 

kelvincht

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2021
57
51
Yeah, honestly I'm happy that with Apple Silicon we will finally get rid of all these problems in the near future.
Apple should at least fix some of the issue for their older products. At the meantime I see apple purposely make the x86 perform badly to make ARM appear better.
I ended up getting frustrated and doing the VRM cooling mod - where you stack some thermal pads on the VRMs so that they reach and dissipate their heat into the bottom shell. These are the chips delivering power to the GPU and CPU and are typically cooled on desktop setups and thicker gaming oriented notebooks.

No more fan when the monitor (Dell P2715Q 4K60hz via Displayport) is connected, and even when I have Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, and Safari open simultaneously working on assets passing through all of them I'm only seeing a constant ~70% fan and more often seeing 3ghz+ clocks rather than the ~1.8ghz it'd settle into previously.


Still obviously getting the high radeon high side draw but this mod seemed to attack the cooling/efficiency aspect of that. Only downside is the bottom gets a little hotter in that area, but that's never bothered me with these. They already get hot from the factory.
I have tried the VRM mod.

It works and lowered idle temperature even when external monitor is connected using 18w.

With the mod, the idle temperature drop 3-5 degrees, making the fan quieter during idle.
 

Jamalien

Suspended
Oct 29, 2014
161
404
Haven't been following this thread, but I see people recently saying that it's the gpu causing the fans spinning up (no it isn't?). It's the thunderbolt controllers heating up - I attached thermal pads from those to the bottom of the case, and voila problem sorted (I have 5500m)
 
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FF89

macrumors newbie
Mar 3, 2021
25
8
Malaysia
Haven't been following this thread, but I see people recently saying that it's the gpu causing the fans spinning up (no it isn't). It's the thunderbolt controllers heating up - I attached thermal pads from those to the bottom of the case, and voila problem sorted (I have 5500m)
I’ve also noticed the temperature increase for the thunderbolt controller of my MBP both in clamshell mode or open lid when connected to external monitor. But, the fans didn’t spin due to that when the MBP in clamshell mode. Open the lid, Radeon High Side Power increase to 17-19 Watt, Radeon temperature increase to above 60 degree, tadaa the fan start spinning to above 4k rpm. Also my MBP is Radeon 5500M 8GB.
 
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Jamalien

Suspended
Oct 29, 2014
161
404
I’ve also noticed the temperature increase for the thunderbolt controller of my MBP both in clamshell mode or open lid when connected to external monitor. But, the fans didn’t spin due to that when the MBP in clamshell mode. Open the lid, Radeon High Side Power increase to 17-19 Watt, Radeon temperature increase to above 60 degree, tadaa the fan start spinning to above 4k rpm. Also my MBP is Radeon 5500M 8GB.
Ah fairs - read thorugh the last 10 pages now, and clearly I'm the odd one out haha
 

FF89

macrumors newbie
Mar 3, 2021
25
8
Malaysia
Ah fairs - read thorugh the last 10 pages now, and clearly I'm the odd one out haha
It is good to know you are making progress with your method. Maybe I will also try it out. So, no heating at all when operating your MBP with open lid while connecting to external monitor?
 

kelvincht

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2021
57
51
It's the thunderbolt controllers heating up - I attached thermal pads from those to the bottom of the case, and voila problem sorted (I have 5500m)
Hi Jamalien, when you attached thermal pad for the thunderbolt controller, do you also attach thermal pad for the VRM as well?
 

tigo013

macrumors member
Jan 17, 2018
59
14
Haven't been following this thread, but I see people recently saying that it's the gpu causing the fans spinning up (no it isn't?). It's the thunderbolt controllers heating up - I attached thermal pads from those to the bottom of the case, and voila problem sorted (I have 5500m)
do you have a photo of the thunderbolt controllers with the thermal pads or is there a photo of the internals that you can point towards the thunderbolt controllers?

I've just ordered some thermal pads that I intend to apply.

The thunderbolt controllers and VRM seem to be the cause of issues. I think the last couple of updates for BigSur changed how the internals work, which has messed up the machine when connected to external displays.
 

kelvincht

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2021
57
51
I have now also padded the both thunderbolt controllers as well as the Video Ram, and also the VRM.

I cannot believe, the result is further improvement. Fan is much quieter both idle and under load, even with external monitors and open lid.
IMG_8225.JPG
 

silllli

macrumors member
Apr 7, 2021
32
38
Hello everyone,

I have the same wattage and fan noise problems as most of you and I previously posted my experiences on the Apple Support Community—but since their staff is starting to delete and edit my posts I thought I would rather share it with this community (and keep watching that other thread over there).

I’ve created a public spreadsheet where you can add your display setup(s). I thought it would be handy to keep track of which combinations cause audible fan noise (and high wattage). Get some structure into the reported problems.

Someone in the spreadsheet posted a link to this video that I hadn’t known yet. The video describes our problem, but what is more interesting are the comments underneath.
Two people claim that Apple gave them their money back (even after months of usage). The rationale was that the laptop can’t keep up with the advertised specifications—i. e. supporting two external 6K displays.

6K.png


Connecting two 6K displays was possible, but only with very high wattage, causing heat and—most importantly—a throttled CPU. Fan noise may be subjective (even if many people agree that it’s too loud), but a throttled CPU is not.

I recently also took the customer support path (trying everything they asked for) and was finally asked to run that application that collects lots of data about your system. I was told this would be handed over to the “engineering department” and they would get back to me. I am still waiting for the response.
Anyways, I can only encourage anyone with this problem to contact Apple support and do the same. I think I spent 2 hours in the chat and on the phone. The more people do this and get it to the “engineering” level, the more pressure is built (alone because we are using Apple’s resources to file the complaint).

On a side note, another comment underneath that posted video states that someone at Apple acknowledged the problem and said that they were working on a fix.

The apple support told me that it is a known issue and they work on it (after talking to a upper manager). He told me that it will get fixed in a update.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I want it to!
 
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IceStormNG

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2020
517
676
On a side note, another comment underneath that posted video states that someone at Apple acknowledged the problem and said that they were working on a fix.


I don’t know if it’s true, but I want it to!
Don't hold your breath for it. Apple won't do anything to improve Intel machines. They just move on to the next thing that they will happily sell you (with its own problems of course).
This has always been the case and will very likely never change.

So: If a product is broken now, don't buy it and expect it to get fixed later. Fixing bugs in existing products isn't profitable.

Apple probably just said that to keep us a) silent and b) make sure that you cannot request a replacement because of that issue because they say it's not a hardware problem.
The 16" is now more than a year old, and nothing changed in that regards. Their "fix" is the 5600M (which, haha, you cannot directly upgrade to).
 

Spectra456

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2021
10
1
I fixed the problem with overheating with the Dell D6000 dock station which was using DisplayLink. Everything is fine, but HiDPI mode is not working, even with SwitchResX or RDM. Guys from DisplayLink know about it, and maybe they fix it in new versions of their driver.
image_2021-04-08_16-28-22.png
 

koziolk

macrumors newbie
Mar 26, 2021
15
0
I fixed the problem with overheating with the Dell D6000 dock station which was using DisplayLink. Everything is fine, but HiDPI mode is not working, even with SwitchResX or RDM. Guys from DisplayLink know about it, and maybe they fix it in new versions of their driver.
What Radon card is your MBP using? Is it AMD Radeon Pro 5500M?
 

Jamalien

Suspended
Oct 29, 2014
161
404
It is good to know you are making progress with your method. Maybe I will also try it out. So, no heating at all when operating your MBP with open lid while connecting to external monitor?

Hi Jamalien, when you attached thermal pad for the thunderbolt controller, do you also attach thermal pad for the VRM as well?

do you have a photo of the thunderbolt controllers with the thermal pads or is there a photo of the internals that you can point towards the thunderbolt controllers?

I've just ordered some thermal pads that I intend to apply.

The thunderbolt controllers and VRM seem to be the cause of issues. I think the last couple of updates for BigSur changed how the internals work, which has messed up the machine when connected to external displays.

Very busy atm but I’ll take a pic and do some testing with & without soon. Kelvincht’s response p much sums up my experience though

And no, I didn’t do the VRMs. My thinking was that they get preposterously hot compared to the thunderbolt controllers, so didn’t want them sharing the same heatsink! Also I thought that the VRM’s don’t have any direct or proximity temp sensors, so thought that any throttling or fan-ramp due to VRM temps was based on a predicted thermal profile, i.e. something that adding thermal pads wouldn’t fix. Maybe I’m ignorant tho

(e.g. maybe the VRM’s are well thermally connected to the nearby GPU and CPU, whereby VRM thermal pads would def make a difference)
 
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Spectra456

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2021
10
1
That's why. MBP with 5300M produces less heat and less fan noise comparing to 5500M.
No-no. MBP is not even using AMD GPU, it's converting video via CPU and sending them over USB. You can read about DisplayLink technology
The DisplayLink network graphics technology is composed of Virtual Graphics Card (VGC) software that is installed on a PC and a Hardware Rendering Engine (HRE) embedded or connected to a display device. The DisplayLink VGC software is based on a proprietary adaptive graphics technology. The VGC software runs on a Windows, macOS, or Linux host PC and takes information from the graphics adapter and compresses the changes to the display from the last update and sends it over any standard network including USB, Wireless USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. After receiving the data, the HRE then transforms it back into pixels to be displayed on the monitor. While the basic network graphics technology can be used on a variety of network interfaces (Ethernet, and Wi-Fi), DisplayLink has to date only designed products around USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and Wireless USB connectivity.
 
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Spectra456

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2021
10
1
That's why. MBP with 5300M produces less heat and less fan noise comparing to 5500M.
No-no. MBP is not even using AMD GPU, it's converting video via CPU and sending them over USB. You can read about DisplayLink technology
 

kelvincht

macrumors member
Mar 8, 2021
57
51
Very busy atm but I’ll take a pic and do some testing with & without soon. Kelvincht’s response p much sums up my experience though

And no, I didn’t do the VRMs. My thinking was that they get preposterously hot compared to the thunderbolt controllers, so didn’t want them sharing the same heatsink! Also I thought that the VRM’s don’t have any direct or proximity temp sensors, so thought that any throttling or fan-ramp due to VRM temps was based on a predicted thermal profile, i.e. something that adding thermal pads wouldn’t fix. Maybe I’m ignorant tho

(e.g. maybe the VRM’s are well thermally connected to the nearby GPU and CPU, whereby VRM thermal pads would def make a difference)

I have tested in a few days and decided to remove the padding for the GPU RAM (VRAM). VRAM Generate too much heat and it could feed the heat back to VRM and Thunderbolt controller via the backplate.
 
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Appledoesnotlisten

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 2, 2017
505
208
I have tested in a few days and decided to remove the padding for the GPU RAM (VRAM). VRAM Generate too much heat and it could feed the heat back to VRM and Thunderbolt controller via the backplate.
Where would you advise to apply padding on the 15" 2019 machine?
 
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