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

[Coyote2006]

Can't be true. I went to the Apple store today and asked them about this issue and they said they have tested the 16" with their external monitor and everything is fine, "no problem, we never heard anything about any troubles ... do you want to buy one"? ... ?

 

[impulse462]

Yeah I don't see this getting fixed. Time to wait for the bugs to get worked out.

The “problem” will only get fixed if you can break the laws of thermodynamics

 

[dingobiatch]

I don't see the refresh rate issue, however my Radeon uses ~5w if I'm at 1080p on my HP 27" screen, but uses ~20w if I'm at 2560x1440.

 

[x3sphere]

I don't see the refresh rate issue, however my Radeon uses ~5w if I'm at 1080p on my HP 27" screen, but uses ~20w if I'm at 2560x1440.

Try running in clamshell mode. I'm only getting 5-6W usage with my 3440x1440@120Hz monitor.

However, if I have both the built-in and external display on, it shoots up to 20W even at idle.

 

[Daverru]

my Radeon uses ~5w if I'm at 1080p on my HP 27" screen, but uses ~20w if I'm at 2560x1440.

Almost the same: 5w at 1920*1080, but 18w at 1920*1200 (which is native for my display)

 

[freitz]

So the solution is Clam shell mode?

 

[Daverru]

Nope. Or at least not in my case.

 

[x3sphere]

Weird. I posted this in another thread, but here's my output from iStats with my 3440x1440 monitor connected while in clamshell mode. As you can see, only ~6W usage. This is on the i9/32GB/5500M 4GB model.

 

[dingobiatch]

Weird. I am in clamshell mode.

It is an older monitor.. I'm actually getting a widescreen w your resolution soon, so I'm hoping it's a weird bug?

 

[Idec50]

Well on first pass, this looks unacceptable.

I have a 2017 15" model and a 2019 16" model. For both, I connected to a 3440x1440 60hz monitor through a Caldigit TS3Plus dock with a Display Port cable.

I turned on apple music, activity monitor, finder, messages, and loaded gmail and a google search onto safari. The older machine has many more applications running in the background and I have kept the new machine running over night a few times to catch up on indexing. After loading the apps I waited a couple minutes and then clicked them a little before capturing screen-shots. I watched both machines and attempted to grab representative screen-shots. I'm not using clamshell mode for either.

Here's the 15" (2.8ghz, 4 cores, radeon pro 555 2gb):

Here's the 16" (2.4ghz, 8 cores, radeon pro 5500m 8gb):

So with barely anything running, the new machine runs much hotter. The DC In is much higher. The fans are practically off in both scenarios. I usually override the fans to let them run much more often but I went back to system control for this test.

As well, I'm seeing the new machine spike to 200 degrees when loading more intensive applications and I have gotten the machine to where I can't cool it below 180 degrees with fans at full blast after running some more intensive applications. I can try to do a more intensive comparison later. Let me know if you have any tips that I can apply to make this comparison more equal.

Meanwhile has anyone tried the model with 2.6ghz, 6 core, 5300M 4gb?

 

[Mr. Incandenza]

Just got my 16" yesterday and this is unlivable. Also it keeps crashing on reboot, fresh installation. Boot is fast but login seems to take forever for some reason.

If I connect a 4k LG display the fans go up to max speed and the left and right fin stacks hit 150 degrees. Wild.

Thinking about returning it.

 

[vemac575]

My 2018 works fine, even on 4 monitors.

 

[codemania]

I just don't understand why Apple doesn't allow the iGPU to take over the external monitor even when dGPU is banned. iGPU is just powerful enough to handle such niche jobs, isn't it?

 

[bsbeamer]

Automatic graphics switching has been an issue on macOS since the 2012/2013 MBP’s with NVIDIA 6XX/7XX series. What pro users want/need is basically a PCIe slot control management software style app/interface to direct and/or override the OS and say “use this GPU right now for this”. I seriously doubt we will EVER see that from Apple.

 

[simonmet]

I have to agree unfortunately. Apple still doesn’t have a proper heat sink

So true. Yet infuriatingly most of the reviewers (you know who they are) just blindly parrot Apple’s language and figure of “28% larger” or whatever it is as though that makes it a “new thermal solution” when tear-downs reveal that clearly isn’t the case. It’s just slightly improved/tweaked at best!

A 28% larger tiny heat sink is still a tiny heatsick. It needed to be 100-200% larger! Or more: a laptop this expensive should have some fancy vapour cooling chambers or something!

 

[robvas]

Works fine on the 13" but the wiring is different when you have a dGPU

 

[snc]

It doesn't look like cooling problem rather drivers for new radeon navi cards are mess in current state

 

[x3sphere]

It doesn't look like cooling problem rather drivers for new radeon navi cards are mess in current state

I would agree. It doesn’t make sense that the GPU is consuming only around 6-7W on some setups and 20W on others, even with a lower res monitor connected.

Hopefully they get it sorted. I’m happy with the performance in clamshell mode, but if I leave the lid open the GPU shoots up to 20W even at idle, which massively increases the heat output.

 

[codemania]

Automatic graphics switching has been an issue on macOS since the 2012/2013 MBP’s with NVIDIA 6XX/7XX series. What pro users want/need is basically a PCIe slot control management software style app/interface to direct and/or override the OS and say “use this GPU right now for this”. I seriously doubt we will EVER see that from Apple.

Indeed, or would some guy invent an app for it?
Or at least, allow the integrated GPU to support external monitors when only iGPU is open.

Honestly, the integrated GPU could handle most of everyday jobs.
We only need the independent GPU when video processing or gaming.
And we should have the right to decide which one to use.

 

[Alex Kurylev]

Indeed, or would some guy invent an app for it?
Or at least, allow the integrated GPU to support external monitors when only iGPU is open.

Honestly, the integrated GPU could handle most of everyday jobs.
We only need the independent GPU when video processing or gaming.
And we should have the right to decide which one to use.

I fully support you! It is necessary to make an option as at eGPU, manually to choose Radeon.

 

[am2am]

Indeed, or would some guy invent an app for it?
Or at least, allow the integrated GPU to support external monitors when only iGPU is open.

Honestly, the integrated GPU could handle most of everyday jobs.
We only need the independent GPU when video processing or gaming.
And we should have the right to decide which one to use.

It won't help you with external monitor. It has something to do with signal/wiring - external monitor runs always through dGPU. If you manually force iGPU only (yes you can do this in terminal - no app is needed) and connect monitor it will remain blanc.

 

[magbarn]

Automatic graphics switching has been an issue on macOS since the 2012/2013 MBP’s with NVIDIA 6XX/7XX series. What pro users want/need is basically a PCIe slot control management software style app/interface to direct and/or override the OS and say “use this GPU right now for this”. I seriously doubt we will EVER see that from Apple.

You would think this would be the case, but no one has done it reliably well. Apple's implementation of graphics switching has only the dGPU connected to external monitor output. Hence for people who have defective dGPU's such as the 2011 MBP who have disabled the dGPU completely to continue using their machines disables the ability to use external monitors.

PC laptops use Nvidia's optimus which does allow igpu usage with external monitor but I've yet to use a PC laptop that consistently correctly chooses which GPU to use as Razer, Alienware, MSI gaming laptops I've used will frequently go to dGPU when they don't need to and end up draining the battery too fast.

TLDR, if you want something cool when using external monitor, stick to iGPU only laptops, get a TB3 enclosed dGPU or get a desktop.

 

[saudor]

The screenshot is attached.

Btw,
1) It's colder in my room now,
2) I have decreased resolutions of both displays, and
3) No heavy apps open, but...

the results are still bad - the case is too warm and the fans are noisy: RPM1=3700 and RPM2=4000.
And remember, these fans are bigger, so they generate more noise at the same RPM.

P.S. If I limit fans at RPM1=RPM2, which is acceptable, the temperature quickly rises to 90+.

not sure if anyone's mentioned it but that system looks like it's running some malware. What's that driverkit user? Also that green button in the menu bar showing 29 degrees is adware/malware

EDIT: driverkit seems to be catalina related (i think)

 

[Mr. Incandenza]

I think this is an Apple/AMD problem in general.

On the PC drivers you'll consistently see people complaining about inflated memory speeds and gpu clocks when a second monitor is connected. AMD will seemingly squash and then reintroduce this bug over and over.

My 2014 iMac does the same thing, connect an external monitor and the graphics card is stuck using 40 watts, constantly.

I think the external monitor forces the GPU into running at elevated clocks, both memory and gpu.

They've got a week to fix it or I'm returning it.

 

[robvas]

They've got a week to fix it or I'm returning it.

Nothing any can do about it without redesigning the laptop