Yes, but the overheating problem with the second monitor was never officially "solved", in fact, it was never admitted by Apple... so every new upgrade is a leap in the dark...
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
I Installed Ventura too, everything is working well.
After my warranty expired I have just done the VRM mod as my macbook pro 16" was just overheating more and more. The VRM mod fixed all my noise issues with multiple external displays and now the fans don't ramp up above the default 1830 RPM.
It does heat up the back side of the bottom panel but thats fine by me as I don't really game or push the device when it's on my lap.
It does heat up the back side of the bottom panel but thats fine by me as I don't really game or push the device when it's on my lap.
Hi, I wanted to add my 2 cents to this problem.
I also had this problem with my Macbook Pro 16" 2019.
It drove me mad because with two external monitors connected the energy consumption would rise quite high without doing anything and light tasks would always trigger the fans on the MacBook.
If I remember correctly sessions where I only did Zoom with two external monitors connected drove the power usage to 45 - 65 watts and the fans ramped up very loud, very annoying!
So beginning this year I sold my MacbookPro 2019 16" to someone in the family and she is very happy with it. She only uses it as a laptop without external monitor. She does web surfing, emails, word processing, photo processing of her iCloud photos and the machine is silent.
I switched to a Macbook Pro 2021 16" M1 Pro in march and am very happy with it, no more problems with heat and fans.
When I run it connected to a 4K 43" monitor and a 27" 2560x1440 monitor which are connected to a Caldigit TS4 dock, it idles at about 10-11 watts.
When I close the laptop lid and use it in clamshell mode connected to the 2 monitors via the dock the idle consumption sinks to about 4-5 watts, this is brillant
I am mostly working with only the two monitors because they are much bigger than the MacBook 16" display and I do not need three monitors, so I keep it in clamshell mode mostly.
Zoom sessions and other more heavy work do not trigger the fans at all, most of the time the fans do not spin atl all (0 rpm). When I am doing something more intensive like gaming or more complex software development, the fans are about 1600 rpm I think and I can not hear them, they are very silent. So in the 8 months that I own the M1 pro device I never have heard the fans and the energy consumption is great, best laptop ever.
So if you cannot live with the problems of the Intel MacBooks I would highly recommend to upgrade to the M1 pro chips, it really makes a big difference and you can have silent operation again.
The only downside for me was that I sold my 2019 Macbook Pro 16" with heavy losses because the advent of the M1 equipped MacBooks really drove the used market prices down for Intel MacBooks :-(
Greetings Janni
I also had this problem with my Macbook Pro 16" 2019.
It drove me mad because with two external monitors connected the energy consumption would rise quite high without doing anything and light tasks would always trigger the fans on the MacBook.
If I remember correctly sessions where I only did Zoom with two external monitors connected drove the power usage to 45 - 65 watts and the fans ramped up very loud, very annoying!
So beginning this year I sold my MacbookPro 2019 16" to someone in the family and she is very happy with it. She only uses it as a laptop without external monitor. She does web surfing, emails, word processing, photo processing of her iCloud photos and the machine is silent.
I switched to a Macbook Pro 2021 16" M1 Pro in march and am very happy with it, no more problems with heat and fans.
When I run it connected to a 4K 43" monitor and a 27" 2560x1440 monitor which are connected to a Caldigit TS4 dock, it idles at about 10-11 watts.
When I close the laptop lid and use it in clamshell mode connected to the 2 monitors via the dock the idle consumption sinks to about 4-5 watts, this is brillant
I am mostly working with only the two monitors because they are much bigger than the MacBook 16" display and I do not need three monitors, so I keep it in clamshell mode mostly.Zoom sessions and other more heavy work do not trigger the fans at all, most of the time the fans do not spin atl all (0 rpm). When I am doing something more intensive like gaming or more complex software development, the fans are about 1600 rpm I think and I can not hear them, they are very silent. So in the 8 months that I own the M1 pro device I never have heard the fans and the energy consumption is great, best laptop ever.
So if you cannot live with the problems of the Intel MacBooks I would highly recommend to upgrade to the M1 pro chips, it really makes a big difference and you can have silent operation again.
The only downside for me was that I sold my 2019 Macbook Pro 16" with heavy losses because the advent of the M1 equipped MacBooks really drove the used market prices down for Intel MacBooks :-(
Greetings Janni
To those who have tried both Turbo Boost Switcher and Low Power Mode, which do you prefer and why?
Has anyone decreased the fan speed? This would reduce noise and wear on the fans. However, I am worried about the additional wear on the other hardware. An Apple employee at the Genius Bar did not see any issues except for faster drying thermal paste.
Besides, I currently use a single cable on the right port for power supply and video signal from an external monitor. Could this exacerbate the heating problem?
Besides, I currently use a single cable on the right port for power supply and video signal from an external monitor. Could this exacerbate the heating problem?
Last edited:
Did you upgrade from Monterey? And do you find Ventura to be better than Monterey? (In relation to the overheating problem).
I think this is "normal". Just playing a youtube video pushing amd's power from 7 watt to 17 watt, this is only for external display. Without external display amd is not used, so no problem. Before monterey we got constant 15-20 watt for AMD, the reason was a faulty amd driver.
Still there are two main source of fan noise for me:
- intel cpu turbo spikes, this can be solved with LPM or tubo boost switcher, happens mostly when a windows vm goes rogue
- copying large files over gigabit, the thunderbolt chip overheats and the fan kicks in, this is very old problem. Wondering whether this fixed in m1/m2 machines?
Anyway I have a new problem: windows server crashing to login screen, this bug is the worst what I've ever seen on a macbook. You can google for this problem.
I not recommend to upgrade to ventura 13.0
I found problems running parallels vm (the vm not using the amd performance graphic mode, in activity monitor there is no usage for the graphic card) Some times the AMD power goes crazy high, for example shutting down a VM yields 40 watt usage, strange.
For other workflow everything is normal.
(This started from ventura 13.0.1)
For other workflow everything is normal.
(This started from ventura 13.0.1)
Would you kindly double-check and post system firmware version after 13.0.1 update? It appears iBridge got updated from 20P411 to 20P420, but I'm not sure about system firmware (previously EFI version was 1916.40.8.0.0 and iBridge is 20.16.411.0.0,0). I believe many problems (i.e. popping sound) are related to firmware's low-level driver.
I got a window server crash with 13.0.1, just opening a new safari tab. This is a terrible bug, because you lost all your unsaved work. First I thought this only for some specific config (intel?, lg5k?, external graphics on?), but found various forum posts, and seems m1/m2 are also affected. So I hope this will be fixed fast.
My firmware version on 13.0.1 is: 1916.40.8.0.0 (iBridge: 20.16.420.0.0,0)
My firmware version on 13.0.1 is: 1916.40.8.0.0 (iBridge: 20.16.420.0.0,0)
Would love to read more report like this before upgrading myself
This is encouragingMy setup is
i7/5300M + M32U 4K monitor.
Ventura 13.0.1
I tried many variations of setting both on my monitor switchresx.
The best settings that works for me currently is using the 4k scaled down to 1440p/1080p at 60hz with HiDPI.
1440p/1080p at 60hz with HiDPI.
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 6-7W normal use 10-13W when watching youtube.
1080p no scaling 60hz
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 4-5W normal use 8-9W when watching youtube.
1080p no scaling 120hz DSC off on monitor
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 18W+ (I use it to play games very rarely)
If the fixed allowed us to use higher refresh rate this would be perfect, but I am happy with the current fixes. At least I can use the macbook.
Note the normal us is with about 20 chrime tabs open and docker running mssql server along with some excel files.
It makes no sense that small video decoding affects gpu this much. This might be connected to the amd decoder but not sure.
During my trials I was able to get it to 4W-12W on scaled 4K. It is possible but I couldn't replicate again the DSC might be playing a role. Please also note that sometimes you might have to open and close the lid to get the watts down.
I am considering the VRM mod as I use the mbk %90 docked. Or, I might go and get a mac mini m2 if it comes out, and use the macbook as my secondary.
Best Luck to all of you.
i7/5300M + M32U 4K monitor.
Ventura 13.0.1
I tried many variations of setting both on my monitor switchresx.
The best settings that works for me currently is using the 4k scaled down to 1440p/1080p at 60hz with HiDPI.
1440p/1080p at 60hz with HiDPI.
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 6-7W normal use 10-13W when watching youtube.
1080p no scaling 60hz
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 4-5W normal use 8-9W when watching youtube.
1080p no scaling 120hz DSC off on monitor
Clamshell connected via direct thunderbolt usb-c cable LPM off -> 18W+ (I use it to play games very rarely)
If the fixed allowed us to use higher refresh rate this would be perfect, but I am happy with the current fixes. At least I can use the macbook.
Note the normal us is with about 20 chrime tabs open and docker running mssql server along with some excel files.
It makes no sense that small video decoding affects gpu this much. This might be connected to the amd decoder but not sure.
During my trials I was able to get it to 4W-12W on scaled 4K. It is possible but I couldn't replicate again the DSC might be playing a role. Please also note that sometimes you might have to open and close the lid to get the watts down.
I am considering the VRM mod as I use the mbk %90 docked. Or, I might go and get a mac mini m2 if it comes out, and use the macbook as my secondary.
Best Luck to all of you.
I just on to add something to this.
It seems all settings are really unstable. It goes down and up a lot.
Will update it when I have better data.
Currently update the macOS on your risk.
Last edited:
Update
Venture 13.0.1 seems stable for lid closed.
LPM off, 4K scaled to 1440p, HIDPI enable, usb-c direct cable, DSC disabled on Monitor
Normal usage 6-7W
Playing YouTube 10-12W
Youtube when mouse is hovering on the video 18W
With HIDPI disabled it goes to -> 4W-9W
I discovered that if your mouse is hovering on the video it goes to 18W.
So I am assuming that high watt usage when on playback is actually all driver issue.
This might be solved with some setting change. We first need to figure out what is causing the extra 6-8W just mouse hovering on the playback controls.
Venture 13.0.1 seems stable for lid closed.
LPM off, 4K scaled to 1440p, HIDPI enable, usb-c direct cable, DSC disabled on Monitor
Normal usage 6-7W
Playing YouTube 10-12W
Youtube when mouse is hovering on the video 18W
With HIDPI disabled it goes to -> 4W-9W
I discovered that if your mouse is hovering on the video it goes to 18W.
So I am assuming that high watt usage when on playback is actually all driver issue.
This might be solved with some setting change. We first need to figure out what is causing the extra 6-8W just mouse hovering on the playback controls.