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

[Fravin]

The same work in a deskside tower generates the same heat...

No, it doesn't.

Desktops runs at higher power consumption. The heat generated by components are related with the amount of power applied.

The power applied in a desktop CPU it's higher than on a notebook. We are talking about twice as powerful. It's natural that desktop components has bigger thermal solutions, as it has more power in his cores.

The matter here is not about the amount of heat generated, but the control of what is generating the heat. This includes reducing power, increasing the fan speed... But to reduce heat produced you might lose performance. So it's too complicated to be explained like this.

MacBooks so big like the 15" and the 16" have stellar in class thermal solutions. This is related how the computer performs while keeping temperatures at a specified interval.

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

@Appledoesnotlisten Are you close to an Apple Store? Just thinking you could book an appointment and take it in there to connect it up to their LGs?

They refused to connect to their LGs and connected me to an old small monitor with a terrible resolution, no heat got generated and they called it a day.

 

[milhous]

I received a base 16" today and am disappointed because it get's as hot as my 2017 with an external 4K monitor.

Is anybody else experiencing the same issue? I always work with external monitors and running on high resolution and this heating performance is upsetting. It's not cooler than the 2017 version in this respects.

Can you guys share your thoughts on this?

Thanks a lot!

I'm running a base 16 as well, connected to a CalDigit USB-C ProDock connected to a Dell P2715Q running at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz with no problems (Display <-> DisplayPort cable <-> ProDock <-> TB3 cable <-> MacBook Pro). I also had a Late 2013 15-inch connected to the same monitor and resolution without any issues (Display <-> DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable <-> MacBook Pro). Took a quick glance at the thread and here's some thoughts to consider:

1. What model are your displays and what kind of cables/docks are you using to connect the machine to the displays?
2. Remove any software hacks and set the resolution of each display to their native resolution. On the App store there's a free app called EasyRes that lets you pick your resolutions easily. If you're running a resolution higher than the supported display, then it's going to tax the machine as you've described as it needs to display twice as much data on a display that's meant to show only half that amount. So if your display has a native resolution of 3840x2160 @ 60Hz, then set it to this, or something lower like 1920x1080 @ 60Hz, which perfectly halves the native resolution and doubles all the pixels on the screen.
3. In the menu options of your displays, is there any mention of Multi Stream Transport (MST)? This may have to be toggled on/off accordingly, based on your set-up.
4. If you're using a dock that's based on DisplayLINK technology, that's a 3rd party display technology that's buggy and doesn't work well on Macs.

So in a nutshell, remove any hacks, set the displays to their native resolution and refresh rate (per that display's specs) with either EasyRes or System Preferences, and see what happens.

 

[milhous]

I picked up a base 16 inch machine on Sunday and experienced awful temperatures and fan noise. I would boot the machine after setting it up and it would be at 90 degrees and the fan going nuts. Lets not even talk about the jet engine that arrived in my room when I plugged it into my 3440x1440 ultrawide...

During initial boot and startup, the reason the fans and temps go up is because Spotlight is indexing the contents of the hard drive for the first time so that the system can quickly return results from Spotlight searches. I've also observed this after using Migration Assistant to move data over to a new system from a Time Machine backup as I don't believe the metadata is migrated over. Once complete, the fans and temps will go down.

 

[ascender]

They refused to connect to their LGs and connected me to an old small monitor with a terrible resolution, no heat got generated and they called it a day.

Sorry, but I'd go back and talk to someone else and if need be, a manager - that's just rubbish service and not exactly helpful if they were serious about troubleshooting the issue.

 

[Krevnik]

No, it doesn't.

Desktops runs at higher power consumption. The heat generated by components are related with the amount of power applied.

The power applied in a desktop CPU it's higher than on a notebook. We are talking about twice as powerful. It's natural that desktop components has bigger thermal solutions, as it has more power in his cores.

Depends on what chips you compare there. The 9980HK can easily ask for 80W during boost. The problem is that the cooling has no way to dissipate that much heat, and will bring the boost down to match the cooling once saturated.

Boosting has changed how power consumption plays out, and there’s a lot more overlap between laptops and desktops than ever before.

The 8700 used in the Mac Mini and 9980HK in the 16” MBP are surprisingly similar in both power consumption under boost, and final performance.

 

[Quu]

I have the higher spec model with the 8-Core i9 and 5500m graphics and mine is quite cool when connected to an external 4K monitor. You're using the SSD temperature in your screenshot so I will show the same:

Overall temperatures and noise are very low. You can see in my screenshot the fan RPM is 2,400 RPM which is inaudible unless my ear is literally perched two inches from the keyboard etc

If you want me to do any tests or something I am happy to do so and show what the temps, noise and fan profiles are like in that scenario.

EDIT:// To clarify some things with my setup. On the internal MacBook Pro Display I am using the maximum "More Space" scaled option. On my 4K monitor I am using a scaled resolution that gives me the equivalent of 2560x1440 desktop space but rendered at 5K and then downscaled to fit the 4K resolution of the panel etc - Both displays @ 60Hz - I believe this is all "worse case scenario" for load on the GPU with regards to external display usage.

I'm running a base 16 as well, connected to a CalDigit USB-C ProDock connected to a Dell P2715Q running at 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz with no problems (Display <-> DisplayPort cable <-> ProDock <-> TB3 cable <-> MacBook Pro). I also had a Late 2013 15-inch connected to the same monitor and resolution without any issues (Display <-> DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable <-> MacBook Pro).

This is almost exactly my setup, I'm using a similar monitor (Dell U2718Q) and the same exact dock. I too am having no temperature or noise problems. (I didn't have any when using the display directly before I got the dock either).

 

[wesStyle]

I have the higher spec model with the 8-Core i9 and 5500m graphics and mine is quite cool when connected to an external 4K monitor. You're using the SSD temperature in your screenshot so I will show the same:

Overall temperatures and noise are very low. You can see in my screenshot the fan RPM is 2,400 RPM which is inaudible unless my ear is literally perched two inches from the keyboard etc

If you want me to do any tests or something I am happy to do so and show what the temps, noise and fan profiles are like in that scenario.

EDIT:// To clarify some things with my setup. On the internal MacBook Pro Display I am using the maximum "More Space" scaled option. On my 4K monitor I am using a scaled resolution that gives me the equivalent of 2560x1440 desktop space but rendered at 5K and then downscaled to fit the 4K resolution of the panel etc - Both displays @ 60Hz - I believe this is all "worse case scenario" for load on the GPU with regards to external display usage.



This is almost exactly my setup, I'm using a similar monitor (Dell U2718Q) and the same exact dock. I too am having no temperature or noise problems. (I didn't have any when using the display directly before I got the dock either).

I see that Radeon High Side is showing a whopping 19.1W for you.
Can you please show your idle Radeon High Side readings with an external display and with a closed lid? For example on 560X I have 11W and 5W.
And maybe also enable cpu/gpu dropdown in istat and check the gpu stats in there as I did in this post too.

 

[Quu]

I see that Radeon High Side is showing a whopping 19.1W for you.
Can you please show your idle Radeon High Side readings with an external display and with a closed lid? For example on 560X I have 11W and 5W.
And maybe also enable cpu/gpu dropdown in istat and check the gpu stats in there as I did in this post too.

I hope this is what you wanted - I closed the lid on the laptop so only the external monitor was active and took this screenshot for you. The fans seemed to go even lower with the internal display off. The room temperature is about 25c.

 

[Larrabee213]

So is this not a major issue? My 2018 15" definitely would get very hot when hooked up to a display. I am on the fence about either buying a 5k iMac to pair with my 16" MBP or return my 16" and go to 32GB RAM and the 8GB 5500 teamed with a 4K LG display.

 

[Fravin]

What App is that you are using for monitoring?

 

[Quu]

What App is that you are using for monitoring?

iStat Menus

 

[Kuro Tanaka]

Larrabee213, if noise is a concern than go with an iMac Pro which is quiet even under full load. The 27-inch 5k display is also a bonus.

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

I have the higher spec model with the 8-Core i9 and 5500m graphics and mine is quite cool when connected to an external 4K monitor. You're using the SSD temperature in your screenshot so I will show the same:

Overall temperatures and noise are very low. You can see in my screenshot the fan RPM is 2,400 RPM which is inaudible unless my ear is literally perched two inches from the keyboard etc

If you want me to do any tests or something I am happy to do so and show what the temps, noise and fan profiles are like in that scenario.

EDIT:// To clarify some things with my setup. On the internal MacBook Pro Display I am using the maximum "More Space" scaled option. On my 4K monitor I am using a scaled resolution that gives me the equivalent of 2560x1440 desktop space but rendered at 5K and then downscaled to fit the 4K resolution of the panel etc - Both displays @ 60Hz - I believe this is all "worse case scenario" for load on the GPU with regards to external display usage.



This is almost exactly my setup, I'm using a similar monitor (Dell U2718Q) and the same exact dock. I too am having no temperature or noise problems. (I didn't have any when using the display directly before I got the dock either).

Well, 2,400 RPM is kinda audible, at least to me.

Can you try
Internal: 3072x1920 @ 60
4K: 3840x2160 @ 60 HiDPi
+ regular apps
and see if it gets warm?
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Sorry, but I'd go back and talk to someone else and if need be, a manager - that's just rubbish service and not exactly helpful if they were serious about troubleshooting the issue.

I think that somebody else on this or apple's forum has mentioned that they don't allow to mess with their demo equipment... I'll probably try BestBuy, those guys will do anything to sell!

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

1. What model are your displays and what kind of cables/docks are you using to connect the machine to the displays?

Dell P2415Q (I have two of them and they behave the same)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GVQBY2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXKJC4M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FX2LW35/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GVQBY2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0176BSATS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Do these guys look legit?

2. Remove any software hacks and set the resolution of each display to their native resolution. On the App store there's a free app called EasyRes that lets you pick your resolutions easily. If you're running a resolution higher than the supported display, then it's going to tax the machine as you've described as it needs to display twice as much data on a display that's meant to show only half that amount. So if your display has a native resolution of 3840x2160 @ 60Hz, then set it to this, or something lower like 1920x1080 @ 60Hz, which perfectly halves the native resolution and doubles all the pixels on the screen.

Here is where I am not getting you. The 4K is supposed to give me 3840x2160 am I'm getting it by setting up in SwitchResX or EasyRes. The 1920x1080 is not usable as everything is too big and I don't understand why everybody keeps talking about it.

3. In the menu options of your displays, is there any mention of Multi Stream Transport (MST)? This may have to be toggled on/off accordingly, based on your set-up.

No.

4. If you're using a dock that's based on DisplayLINK technology, that's a 3rd party display technology that's buggy and doesn't work well on Macs.

I have not seen DisplayLINK mentioned in the docs of my devices.

So in a nutshell, remove any hacks, set the displays to their native resolution and refresh rate (per that display's specs) with either EasyRes or System Preferences, and see what happens.

The defaults are 1792x1120 @59.94 (internal) and 1080x60 (external). The computer is just slightly warm, too warm, but acceptable. But why is it choosing 1080x60 if it's a 4K monitor?

 

[grmlin]

So is this not a major issue? My 2018 15" definitely would get very hot when hooked up to a display. I am on the fence about either buying a 5k iMac to pair with my 16" MBP or return my 16" and go to 32GB RAM and the 8GB 5500 teamed with a 4K LG display.

I don't think another MBP with more RAM will fix the heat issues? My 15" from this year has 32GB of ram and the same problems.

I'll use the MBP in clamshell mode and see how that goes the next days. I also consider trying an eGPU, this would be pretty cool if it helps, I could get rid of my normal desktop then.

 

[Akrapovic]

I am surprised to hear of the 16 inch beast struggling to drive external monitors. I have the entry level 13 inch (only upgraded the SSD to 256), and it's driving a WQHD monitor along with the built-in display and the fans never spin up. Yeah I know it's just WQHD, not 4K or 5K, but the entry level 13 isn't known for it's amazing power.

I'm waiting on a cable to add a second stand-alone monitor to it as well, which would be HD.

 

[Kraizelburg]

I am surprised to hear of the 16 inch beast struggling to drive external monitors. I have the entry level 13 inch (only upgraded the SSD to 256), and it's driving a WQHD monitor along with the built-in display and the fans never spin up. Yeah I know it's just WQHD, not 4K or 5K, but the entry level 13 isn't known for it's amazing power.

I'm waiting on a cable to add a second stand-alone monitor to it as well, which would be HD.

4K and above is another level, 16" MBP doen not struggle with external monitor but it gets hot because dGPU has to do all the work to push all those pixels. That's all.

 

[Fravin]

iStat Menus

Great App. Love it.

I was using the iStat Mini.

This one is much more useful. Thanks!
[automerge]1574605316[/automerge]

I am surprised to hear of the 16 inch beast struggling to drive external monitors. I have the entry level 13 inch (only upgraded the SSD to 256), and it's driving a WQHD monitor along with the built-in display and the fans never spin up. Yeah I know it's just WQHD, not 4K or 5K, but the entry level 13 isn't known for it's amazing power.

Well, when we are dealing with display resolutions we must understand that this is an area measuring. So, 4k resolutions means almost 4x more pixels than WQHD.

I think that the spinning fans are related with the 5X00 series. Those chips runs hotter than the old 560.

The heat pipe goes through the AMD chip and connects with CPU. I think that arrange are contributing to the fans kicking in.

 

[Akrapovic]

Great App. Love it.

I was using the iStat Mini.

This one is much more useful. Thanks!
[automerge]1574605316[/automerge]


Well, when we are dealing with display resolutions we must understand that this is an area measuring. So, 4k resolutions means almost 4x more pixels than WQHD.

I think that the spinning fans are related with the 5X00 series. Those chips runs hotter than the old 560.

The heat pipe goes through the AMD chip and connects with CPU. I think that arrange are contributing to the fans kicking in.

Yeah, I'm aware of how resolutions work - but given the price and performance difference between them, I'd expect the 16 inch to deal with 4K just fine. I've got a crap work Dell generic 13 inch laptop that will push 4K + HD together without fuss.

 

[Fravin]

Yeah, I'm aware of how resolutions work - but given the price and performance difference between them, I'd expect the 16 inch to deal with 4K just fine.

Actually it does handle 4K resolution on an external display very well.

OP is complaining about why the fans are running.

 

[grmlin]

I am surprised to hear of the 16 inch beast struggling to drive external monitors. I have the entry level 13 inch (only upgraded the SSD to 256), and it's driving a WQHD monitor along with the built-in display and the fans never spin up. Yeah I know it's just WQHD, not 4K or 5K, but the entry level 13 isn't known for it's amazing power.

I'm waiting on a cable to add a second stand-alone monitor to it as well, which would be HD.

Using WQHD there is no scaling involved, it's just native resolution. 4K/5K is totally different, and an entry level 13" will have a lot of fun driving these...

 

[Quu]

I am surprised to hear of the 16 inch beast struggling to drive external monitors. I have the entry level 13 inch (only upgraded the SSD to 256), and it's driving a WQHD monitor along with the built-in display and the fans never spin up. Yeah I know it's just WQHD, not 4K or 5K, but the entry level 13 isn't known for it's amazing power.

I'm waiting on a cable to add a second stand-alone monitor to it as well, which would be HD.

I dunno what these other people's issues are, mine is not struggling to drive an external 4K panel even when rendering a 5K image and downscaling it to 4K. The fans are not audible at all under any scenario that I'm using it with my external monitor and that includes with the laptops display open too.

2,200-2,400 RPM is not audible to me unless my head is at the keyboard. 3,000-4,000 RPM is where it becomes audible at a sitting position near the laptop.

With the laptop in clamshell mode the fans fall even further to 1,400-1,600 RPM.

 

[milhous]

Dell P2415Q (I have two of them and they behave the same)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GVQBY2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXKJC4M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FX2LW35/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GVQBY2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0176BSATS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Do these guys look legit?



Here is where I am not getting you. The 4K is supposed to give me 3840x2160 am I'm getting it by setting up in SwitchResX or EasyRes. The 1920x1080 is not usable as everything is too big and I don't understand why everybody keeps talking about it.



No.



I have not seen DisplayLINK mentioned in the docs of my devices.



The defaults are 1792x1120 @59.94 (internal) and 1080x60 (external). The computer is just slightly warm, too warm, but acceptable. But why is it choosing 1080x60 if it's a 4K monitor?

I think a drawing of how everything’s connected would be helpful. But I feel those accessories are questionable and the USB bandwidth is becoming overwhelmed by those displays. Use a Thunderbolt 3 dock and connect the displays to them. Simplify the connections as best as possible.

 

[grmlin]

I dunno what these other people's issues are, mine is not struggling to drive an external 4K panel even when rendering a 5K image and downscaling it to 4K. The fans are not audible at all under any scenario that I'm using it with my external monitor and that includes with the laptops display open too.

2,200-2,400 RPM is not audible to me unless my head is at the keyboard. 3,000-4,000 RPM is where it becomes audible at a sitting position near the laptop.

With the laptop in clamshell mode the fans fall even further to 1,400-1,600 RPM.

I'm sitting here with the MBP in clamshell mode, using Firefox. The CPU sits at 60º C and the fans are inaudible.
But, whenever I do anything that puts some load on the CPU, the fans go off. Reaching 100º takes seconds .

Sitting here, staring at my idling MBP is not what I got it for. It has to work for it's money. And it's thermals are clearly underpowered.