MacBook Pro 16" runs about 10 degrees hotter when plugged in on idle, is this normal?

The degrees delta has a noticable impact on fan noise and is making me consider returning the machine.

Is it normal for MacBook to be running so much hotter when plugged in? Idles at 60 degrees on a charger and just 50 on battery.

Solution 1:

The new Macbook Pro 16" has problems with external displays connected to it, sometimes even just external hdd's or other thunderbolt devices.

Do you have external displays connected?

Basically the GPU will get pinned at 18watt+ and produce max heat on the right side of the laptop where it is located. This will cause the laptop to go at 60 degrees C at idle and 3k~ rpm fans, and spike to 100+ degrees under CPU load.

Apple has not responded officially to this, even though I am in multiple forums that have people mentioning they contact Apple support that have them go trough random tests that does nothing. Please call Apple and report this issue so we get as many people reporting it as possible. I have scheduled calls with them, that they keep postponing.

If you want to see for yourself istat menus can show you the information, it should have a trial so you can see it.

Short video of me having laptop unplugged and plugged with istat menus open: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3vV1-CWMQg

I have installed Turbo Boost Switcher, and turned off Turbo Boost for the time being or my Macbook will go into thermal shutdown on intense cpu tasks. Yay for getting an i9 cpu locked to 2.4Ghz the performance is terrible. Hoping Apple will eventually let me return it for money back, I'm over my no questions asked return days.

Solution 2:

Check "activity monitor" for CPU-usage.

You may have a busy webpage somewhere hidden on a tab in Chrome or Safari, using as much CPU as it can (and being allowed to as the machine is not on battery).

Solution 3:

Ended up solving this issue by installing Macs Fan Control app and setting the fan speed myself to 3000.

At idle now the CPU is at 65 degrees average at 3000RPM, without this the CPU would be at 60 degrees at 5500RPM. Fair trade until Apple figures out its thermal issues, this is almost certainly a bug in their thermal management (potentially a turboboost feedback loop?).

My workload requires bursts of performance (compiling code, etc) and I typically like to have a youtube video playing in the background, and now I can do both with the CPU turboboosting for short periods and 4k videos playing without having to turn the volume up to drown out the sounds of the fans going nuts.