(2019) 16" is HOT & NOISY with an external monitor! :(

[Overlord.space]

@Overlord.space How bad is the laptop performance on that "Low Power Mode" profile?

For the last few weeks I have been using low power mode all the time and have not felt any changes in my usual tasks (web dev).

@axu2, @IceStormNG
Without Low Power Mode there are also changes - now 14W instead of 18W

@Minga089
I can't answer all the questions, because I don't know how to check all this, but I did some tests:

Spoiler: Geekbench 5

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M:
OpenCL, Normal — 25997 (Link)
OpenCL, Low Power Mode — 25615 (Link)

Metal, Normal — 22855 (Link)
Metal, Low Power Mode — 23156 (?) (Link)

Intel Core i7-9750H:
Normal — Single: 1046, Multi: 5567 (Link)
Low Power Model — Single: 720, Multi: 4180 (Link)

I also found information that Low Power Mode disable Turbo Boost (Source with info from Intel Power Gadget).

Spoiler: Other stuff: M1 tests in Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R23

Type	Single Core	Multi Core
Geekbench 5	1710	7675
Geekbench 5 (Low Power Mode)	1053 (-38%)	4146 (-46%)
Cinebench R23	1518	7685
Cinebench R23 (Low Power Mode)	907 (-40%)	4427 (-42%)

Source

 

[schriker]

I just installed that latest 5th beta of MacOS Monterey and can confirm that it seems this issue is fixed. I use two FHD external monitors and a built-in screen the wattage in low power mode stays around 6W and without it around 14W - exact same like on bootcamp with the latest AMD drivers. I'm actually happy with this, I'm ok with low power mode it doesn't seem to hurt too much of performance, I guess it turn off turbo boost and the laptop screen seems to lower the max brightness, do not know about GPU clocks.

P.S. sorry for weird language on screenshots

 

[GumaRodak]

Maybe thats the first stage of fix, till they find a better solution.

 

[Minga089]

Maybe thats the first stage of fix, till they find a better solution.

I hope so, but I honestly doubt it. I still would like to have Turbo Boost enabled while Radeon High Side is below 10W lid open + external monitor, but the "Low power mode" doesn't allow that.

 

[Minga089]

For the last few weeks I have been using low power mode all the time and have not felt any changes in my usual tasks (web dev).

@axu2, @IceStormNG
Without Low Power Mode there are also changes - now 14W instead of 18W

@Minga089
I can't answer all the questions, because I don't know how to check all this, but I did some tests:

Spoiler: Geekbench 5

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M:
OpenCL, Normal — 25997 (Link)
OpenCL, Low Power Mode — 25615 (Link)

Metal, Normal — 22855 (Link)
Metal, Low Power Mode — 23156 (?) (Link)

Intel Core i7-9750H:
Normal — Single: 1046, Multi: 5567 (Link)
Low Power Model — Single: 720, Multi: 4180 (Link)

I also found information that Low Power Mode disable Turbo Boost (Source with info from Intel Power Gadget).

Spoiler: Other stuff: M1 tests in Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R23

Type	Single Core	Multi Core
Geekbench 5	1710	7675
Geekbench 5 (Low Power Mode)	1053 (-38%)	4146 (-46%)
Cinebench R23	1518	7685
Cinebench R23 (Low Power Mode)	907 (-40%)	4427 (-42%)

Source

Thx for the detailed information. Does it still idle at around 60C (lid open + external screen)?

 

[Overlord.space]

Thx for the detailed information. Does it still idle at around 60C (lid open + external screen)?

idle around 45-55C

 

[bknaepen]

So Apple is fixing something after systematically telling affected users that it needn't be fixed as it was the normal behaviour...?‍♂️

 

[axu2]

Anyone know which beta added this?

 

[Minga089]

So Apple is fixing something after systematically telling affected users that it needn't be fixed as it was the normal behaviour...?‍♂️

That's typical for Apple.

 

[mihirdelirious]

I just tried the Monterey Beta 5 on my 16" MBP (6 core i7 2.6 Ghz/AMD 5300M/16GB). Note: I regularly open and clean the dust within.

1. Low Power Mode: Internal + External 4k Display -> ~6 Watt Idle. Turbo Boost automatically disable. Runs very cool. Fans ~1800 rpm. Battery life is significantly better even while running an external display.

2. Normal Mode: Internal + External 4k display -> ~14 Watt Idle. Runs a bit cooler than before. Fans ~2300 rpm.

Praise the Lord! The Low Power mode is the MVP here. I spent months fighting/arguing with Apple about this issue. I am still running Catalina and bought a Sonnet Puck eGPU to not waste any more time/money/energy fighting Apple. So..where are all those Apple Engineers & apologists who told me that the ~18W was 'expected behaviour'?
As a professional musician, I avoided Big Sur completely for reasons.. and wasn't planning on updating to Monterey either. The 6W in low power mode is the real deal for me, and so I plan to update when it's officially out.

I hope Apple does not revert the low power mode from the Final release of Monterey. But considering their arrogance and complete disregard for customers, there's always a chance that they could screw up the final release. I hope this is an intentional fix from Apple and not a random fix that just happened to work in this particular Beta. Fingers crossed.

Also, I am sure that very soon we'll find out some terminal commands to enable Turbo Boost in Low Power mode. So I am not really worried about the CPU performance.

 

[silllli]

Maybe all it needed was 2 years and 500 pages of complaints (combining the Apple community and MacRumors).

All this sounds too good to be true—I am excited!

 

[IceStormNG]

It looks like low power mode also disabled CPU Turbo boost at least from the Intel Power gadget.

 

[mihirdelirious]

It looks like low power mode also disabled CPU Turbo boost at least from the Intel Power gadget.

Indeed. However, I'm sure some 200 IQ developers/programmers will figure out the Terminal command to re-enable it.

 

[IceStormNG]

You can. Use voltageshift, then run

voltageshift turbo 1

You will need to disable SIP for that as it writes to the MSR of your CPU and needs kernel level privileges for that.

 

[WilliamG]

This sort of reminds me of (I lost track of how many) years went by before Apple added proper 24.000fps playback for their Apple TV 4K, instead playing back foreign movies/tv shows at 23.976fps, resulting in stuttering etc. Truly broken frame-rate matching…. And they did eventually fix this.

 

[mihirdelirious]

Apple Support Forum moderators won't even let me talk or post about this Monterey beta that could fix the issue. I removed all mention of Monterey or Beta from my post, yet they won't let me post anything that even hints towards this.

 

[Minga089]

I just tried the Monterey Beta 5 on my 16" MBP (6 core i7 2.6 Ghz/AMD 5300M/16GB). Note: I regularly open and clean the dust within.

1. Low Power Mode: Internal + External 4k Display -> ~6 Watt Idle. Turbo Boost automatically disable. Runs very cool. Fans ~1800 rpm. Battery life is significantly better even while running an external display.

2. Normal Mode: Internal + External 4k display -> ~14 Watt Idle. Runs a bit cooler than before. Fans ~2300 rpm.

Praise the Lord! The Low Power mode is the MVP here. I spent months fighting/arguing with Apple about this issue. I am still running Catalina and bought a Sonnet Puck eGPU to not waste any more time/money/energy fighting Apple. So..where are all those Apple Engineers & apologists who told me that the ~18W was 'expected behaviour'?
As a professional musician, I avoided Big Sur completely for reasons.. and wasn't planning on updating to Monterey either. The 6W in low power mode is the real deal for me, and so I plan to update when it's officially out.

I hope Apple does not revert the low power mode from the Final release of Monterey. But considering their arrogance and complete disregard for customers, there's always a chance that they could screw up the final release. I hope this is an intentional fix from Apple and not a random fix that just happened to work in this particular Beta. Fingers crossed.

Also, I am sure that very soon we'll find out some terminal commands to enable Turbo Boost in Low Power mode. So I am not really worried about the CPU performance.

Wow, interesting. So the Radeon GPU memory clock isn't maxed out anymore (actually nowhere near to the max). Am I the only one who finds this strange? If you read about this topic on the web it's often stated that Radeon GPU's (not only in Macbooks) always run at high clock (memory) if 2 or more displays are connected in order to guarantee a 'smooth' performance. That's just what they do. So either that was never true at all and it isn't really necessary (but why did Radeon do it then) or you should now see a noticeable performance drop (animations etc.) with that low of a memory clock. I also find it hard to belief that this would work without new GPU drivers. So maybe they actually did also finally update the drivers.

 

[schriker]

Wow, interesting. So the Radeon GPU memory clock isn't maxed out anymore (actually nowhere near to the max). Am I the only one who finds this strange? If you read about this topic on the web it's often stated that Radeon GPU's (not only in Macbooks) always run at high clock (memory) if 2 or more displays are connected in order to guarantee a 'smooth' performance. That's just what they do. So either that was never true at all and it isn't really necessary (but why did Radeon do it then) or you should now see a noticeable performance drop (animations etc.) with that low of a memory clock. I also find it hard to belief that this would work without new GPU drivers. So maybe they actually did also finally update the drivers.

I'm using this low power mode since Sunday on my daily driver MacBook, and didn't notice any drops in animation performance, etc. but didn't try any more demanding tasks because I use my laptop for webdev. Honestly in my workflow, I have a hard time noticing any performance drop neither GPU nor CPU, but working with an external display is such a pleasure now I also believe they update the drivers.

I cannot rant more about AMD and their drivers, I have experienced so many headaches on my gaming machine that I will never buy anything from them. Daily driver crashes, random black screens, need to reinstall drivers every windows update, etc.

 

[aknabi]

It looks like issue with external displays has been fixed in one of the macOS Monterey Beta (with low power mode)
5300M

I have two monitors: BenQ PD3200Q (2K, 60hz) and AOC Q32G1WG4 (2k, 144hz).
Currently on macOS Monterey Beta 5 (21A5304g) i have about 14W with 1-2 external monitors connected
But also if i turn on the new «Low Power Mode» in settings I get about 7W.

The problem only occurs when changing the refresh rate other than 60 hertz (i get 18W+).

Spoiler: Screenshots

View attachment 1821456
View attachment 1821457

I did some tests with different connection combinations

Spoiler: Video (YouTube)

P.S. SwitchResX figured in monitor name, but it not used

Thanks much for this... wish there would be some more "official" clarity around the issue and if they're actively working to fix it... I had to solve the problem with a Blackmagic eGPU (which allows me to run the external monitor and have Teams/Google video calls all day)... If I *knew* it would be fixed in Monterey I'd return the eGPU (have a week or two left) and wait for that...

 

[silllli]

I can confirm the same behavior: I installed the latest Monterey Beta and now see 14 W in normal, and 6 W in low power mode. It finally feels like a machine that works (at least in low power mode).

 

[FF89]

I can confirm the same behavior: I installed the latest Monterey Beta and now see 14 W in normal, and 6 W in low power mode. It finally feels like a machine that works (at least in low power mode).

Is it AMD Radeon Pro 5300M or different models (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M or 5600M)?

 

[arkzrlo]

Is it AMD Radeon Pro 5300M or different models (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M or 5600M)?

I'm seeing the same results with my I9 5500m (14 W in normal and 6 W in low power mode). Monterey Beta seems like a fix, hopefully it will stay that way on the final version. 6 W in normal would make it perfect.

 

[richinaus]

for some reason my MBP has been silent today. It must have read the new 14" MBP rumours

 

[Allan_]

Low power mode doesn't seem to change anything for me (15.2W with a 1K screen). I did reset PRAM and NVRAM and even clean-installed Monterey beta. Am I alone here?

 

[arkzrlo]

Low power mode doesn't seem to change anything for me (15.2W with a 1K screen). I did reset PRAM and NVRAM and even clean-installed Monterey beta. Am I alone here?

Did you activate Low power mode in the Power Adapter part inside the Battery settings? That screenshot it's from the battery tab