Ah ok. I almost thought you put them onto the VRMs and was like.. "oh.. please not".
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(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(
- Thread starter Appledoesnotlisten
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Maybe the update just doubles the power consumption of the gpu so all ppls gonna sell their mbps and purchase M1 machines...profit for apple ++ 
I installed the macOS 11.4 Beta and nothing changed—still seeing ~19 W for the GPU.
I used arctic 6w/mk 1.5mm with 3-4 layers
I also lift the laptop about an inch to help with ventilation.
Here are some more tips:
In macos
I also install mac turbo boost switcher and auto disable turboboost when fan >2400rpm. Use turbo when fan goes back to 1800. So I still get good performance for light load.
In windows bootcamp
Install throttlestop and set CPU prochot offset to 7. Which means cpu throttle at 93C instead of 100C. It helps with fan noise and has better performance compare to switching off turboboost. I hope somebody make a similar app for macos
I tested some configs and updated the sheet here LINK. (Acer QG221Q 21.5 inch 1080p)
clamshell mode: refresh rate 50 to 60 Hz -> GPU draws about 3-5 watts.
clamshell mode: refresh rate 75 hz -> GPU draws about 17 watts.
Open lid: no matter what refresh rate, always 17 watts, But Radeon Memory usage is LOWER by 50%.
Prolonged usage sometimes causes my kernel_task process to use about 1000% of CPU and everything starts to lag. Then I unplug my external monitor and everything comes back to normal.
Really frustrated, after spending this much money and have to worry about connecting a freaking monitor.
clamshell mode: refresh rate 50 to 60 Hz -> GPU draws about 3-5 watts.
clamshell mode: refresh rate 75 hz -> GPU draws about 17 watts.
Open lid: no matter what refresh rate, always 17 watts, But Radeon Memory usage is LOWER by 50%.
Prolonged usage sometimes causes my kernel_task process to use about 1000% of CPU and everything starts to lag. Then I unplug my external monitor and everything comes back to normal.
Really frustrated, after spending this much money and have to worry about connecting a freaking monitor.
I have applied several pads and it's helping. I now want to add more because summer items are coming.
Can you please share your thoughts about padding these 4 areas in addition to what you have done?
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Padding these wouldn't help
1. Is the heatsink and shouldn't be padded as it would heat up the backplate too much and make every other padding worse than it is
2. is part of the GPU. Should not be padded
3. Is the RAM and doesn't need cooling.
4 is part of the CPU and also shouldn't be padded.
For reference: The picture from iFixit's teardown of the 16".
Also: The black tape on the components is a heat shield. It keeps heat inside. so padding on top on the black insulation is pretty inefficient. But if you remove it, your warranty will be void for sure.
Why do you not want to pad the GPU and CPU? The GPU is the major offender here, so in theory we should pad it first, no?
Because their heat is already dissipated by the heatsink. The bottom plate can only soak up and dissipate a certain amount of heat. If you now connect the GPU or CPU to it via thermal pads, this heat would also heat up the VRMs as the bottom plate will become hotter and hotter and transfers heat back to the VRMs.
My final padding removes 2 and 3 (GPU memory) because they generate too much heat to the black-plate, and the heat transfer back to the VRM and TB.
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Wow...hats off to you guys still fighting to get a cooler running 16". FWIW, I surrendered, sold mine at a huge loss ($3400 > $2300. Bought a 13" M1 MBP... went from the worst apple machine I've ever owned to the best apple machine I've ever owned.
My guess is that this is intentional. If your device is "perfect" there is less incentive to buy a new one. But if every device has this little issue that nags you, and the next gen has it fixed, well... you don't become a multi trillion dollar company if you aren't greedy.actually when i read these forums i have a feeling that every mb is faked by some issue
Is that a thing of the post-Jobs era? I bought a MBP 13 in 2009, and it lasted basically 10 years almost perfect (and getting most OS upgrades) which for a laptop is a record. Maxed its ram to 8GB, which is still what they are selling base M1 Macs in 2021...
In the last few years (3 or 4 I'd say) things got much worse, not a single product I had which was not affected by some WTH issue. Still better than competitors? Unfortunately yes, but the margin has never been thinner.
My 2013 Late Retina, which is still working perfectly fine, had no issues. I used it for 7 years. This was one of reason, I spent big bucks on another Apple computer. But the 16" was a disaster from the beginning. Not only did it needed 6 replacements to get one without constant micro-freezes, but now the AMD GPU is working subpar, the TouchBar is regularly unresponsive, macOS is slow as a crawl because of Apple's frequency scaling on the Intel GPU.
But: Except for the iPhone 12, I never had any issues with iDevices (iPhones/iPad). I mean: it's not secret that macs are a niche for Apple. The main money comes still from iPhones and even iPads bring in more cash than Macs.
Since 2016, Apple hat a beef with Intel because their chips didn't perform like Apple wanted it. They started development in Apple Silicon around that time. You can clearly see, that all Macs (especially MacBooks) since 2016 Butterfly model are more or less half-assed. There is not one without serial issues.
The M1 still have some early issues, though. But Apple might iron them out with the next Gen or software updates. But even then, the M1 machines as of now cannot offer the whole thing what the 16" offers. A computer is more than just a CPU. And I'm not even talking about Apple's rip-off prices for RAM and SSD, which is just cheap off-the-shelf stuff they buy and then sell with 1000% margin.
Good thing for me: I'm not tied to macOS at all. When it's time for a new computer, I will look deeper for issues before I buy anything. And might even buy a Windows machine. They're not as bad as Apple fanboys try to tell you.
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My 16" is running 11.3 just fine. I have a 24" LG UltraFine 4K Display with a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 dock. I've never had any issues with over heating or the fan running. Don't remember even hearing the fan come on.
Looks like 11.3 broken my SwitchResX fix for dual monitors. Radeon high side goes back to max even with lid closed.
Hello @kelvincht,
Can you please elaborate more in these observations? because at least for me, they are pure gold.
More specifically i want to know what is heavy load for you? (not sustained heavy load)
In my case (5300m, 4k external monitor, macbook screen,) i am getting 61c and 3.500 rpms only with:
-chrome 4-5 tabs open
-vsc code
If i try to play youtube or join a teams/zoom meeting, then hello 5.000 rpms. So, is that workload for you considered heavy?
Thanks a lot.
Alexandros.
If you are only getting 61c but with 3500, your problem could be a high cpu load.
The fan comes up if the CPU temp is >93c
It comes up faster when using one core with 100% utilisation at high Turbo boost.
The CPU is more themo efficient when using multi core because Turbo boost is not used as much in multicore.
I would suggest you install Turboboost switcher and set auto disable turboboost if fan speed is more than 2400z
For me, heavy load is doing video encoding.
Medium load is multiple browsers tabs, email, and playing 4k HDR video for half hour, fan is usually 2400rpm and temp is about early 60.
Low load is if I just browse the internet and playing 1080p video, usually fan keep at 1800 and temp less than 60.
I was able to fix it.
I tried all the things and what finally helped is cleaning the fans circulation holes.
it may look clean but you cant see the dust and things that got stuck in there. Get some tester and push it inside to removed all the junk that got there.
Once I removed this and cleaned with air pressure Im now able to connect two screen without changing any resolution or playing with any settings.
The only thing I have is cooling station with a small fan to put my laptop on it.
I tried all the things and what finally helped is cleaning the fans circulation holes.
it may look clean but you cant see the dust and things that got stuck in there. Get some tester and push it inside to removed all the junk that got there.
Once I removed this and cleaned with air pressure Im now able to connect two screen without changing any resolution or playing with any settings.
The only thing I have is cooling station with a small fan to put my laptop on it.
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In summary, apple sold us crap and want us to buy new one for another >$2 in few years.
I talked to their support as well - no proper response after talking for about 2h.
I thought originally it has to do something with the monitor itself and contacted the LG suppoet as well (LG UltraFine 5K), upgraded to lates firmware they have with no luck too.
So except pads for heatsinking anybody solved heating issue with doking stations?
If yes, please post the model worked for you with 5K display.
Looking also at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYZJY8M/ref=emc_b_5_i but no idea if it will solve the issue.
I talked to their support as well - no proper response after talking for about 2h.
I thought originally it has to do something with the monitor itself and contacted the LG suppoet as well (LG UltraFine 5K), upgraded to lates firmware they have with no luck too.
So except pads for heatsinking anybody solved heating issue with doking stations?
If yes, please post the model worked for you with 5K display.
Looking also at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYZJY8M/ref=emc_b_5_i but no idea if it will solve the issue.
