Hacker News Reader

Comment by ehakan | Hacker News Reader

The Macbook Pro 16" thermal throttling problems with external monitors [1] finally seems to be fixed with Monterey by enabling low power mode. (At least with 16:9 60Hz monitors).

I've been dealing with `kernel_task` hitting 900% CPU usage and the entire window server running at 2 FPS when using external monitors since I got the mbp 16" a year ago. Good riddance.

[1]: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an...

View on HN

It's not fixed though, it simply cripples the CPU in order to keep it cooler. This was already achievable by disabling Turbo Boost [0]. I can't tell which solution works better but before switching to an M1 Air I was running TBS on my 16" and it made things more acceptable.

[0] https://github.com/rugarciap/Turbo-Boost-Switcher

No idea if this is a hardware issue, but this approach (underclocking and permanent low power modes) is historically how Apple have "fixed" other hardware flaws - cough - nvidia - cough - After you've experienced it you tend to not buy macs any more.

Some reports in the MacRumors thread [0] suggest the problem doesn't happen on Windows, which suggests a driver issue. I haven't tested that myself though.

[0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an...

The GPU is exceptionally bad about certain things - probably in the driver - but turning off texture animations in Minecraft cooled the computer down tremendously.

All that legacy bs crutchy stuff is the reason they are doing their own silicon. I am super stoked about the performance of my M1. Combine my experience w/ this machine + Apple's latest turnaround w/ the Macbook Pro's - my faith is restored. If I needed a new rig I would not hesitate to pick one of these up.

> All that legacy bs crutchy stuff is the reason they are doing their own silicon

I don't deny there are some genuinely interesting tech coming out of Apple (I wish I could buy an M1 without all the Apple baggage), but the problem is not crusty old tech, there will always be flaws and technical issues... the problem is this persistent attitude of covering shit up and flat out lying to customers faces, especially when they have spent so much fricking money on a premium product.

I can't buy from a company who deeply disrespects their customers in this way. This will sound like an extreme reaction to anyone who hasn't experienced this side of Apple yet - but just wait until you experience it first hand.

You're being overdramatic. They responded to the criticism of the pro community with the new Macbook Pro which has been unanimously seen as an olive branch.

My “fix” for this issue was to sell the damned thing and buy an M1 MacBook Air instead. Can’t have fan noise if the computer doesn’t have a fan.

I still to this day can’t believe it was never brought up in any reviews of that machine. Connecting to any external monitor causes the slightest stress to have the fans absolutely screaming.

Castrating your €3k "pro" machine just to run an external monitor goes for a fix these days? Man Apple has it good.

Why else do you think Apple includes screen time features and an ability to disable Safari on the iPhone flavour of the day‽

But it's SO THIN -Jony Ive

I ended up getting tired of this fight and built a windows box. I've recently tried to migrate back to the mac but it's just terrible with another monitor. Crazy that this is still a thing.

Try VRM thermal pad mod.

100% It actually let the fans spin down when plugged into a monitor.

Any link to what exactly you mean?

I experienced this and found that switching to connecting via the right side USB C ports rather than the left side fixes thermal issues. It’s explained a bit more in this SO post: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/363933

While the right side power thing is still an actual bizarre issue, I've been running the exact same "B state" where the power is on the right side and usb-c hub and usb-c to DP cables are on the left since the beginning, and it nothing for me. So whether this helps or not really comes down to your luck in peripherals combination.

My MBP 16" used to be so throttled sometimes that Google Meet would freeze up and disconnect me when it was the only thing I had open. This was after I tried cleaning the fans out by blowing some compressed air in the vents.

I had a computer shop clean the inside of my laptop in August and haven't seen kernel_task ever since.

The irony is that I would like low power mode on the go but certainly not when docked(with an external monitor).

If you want to solve your problem do the VRM mod. And use a small desk fan. It’s easy and reversible.

how about a cooling pad

I've found a laptop cooling pad works wonders, even without the fan on. Just letting ambient air reach the laptop bottom was enough passive cooling to keep the laptop fans off most of the time. But if the bottom of the laptop is touching any surface for extended periods of time, it got so hot that it couldn't even keep the battery charged without thermal throttling while the laptop was essentially idle.

Wow, I didn't realize that was a common problem, and didn't realize it was related to external monitors. Thanks for the link!

The fix is the VRM thermal pad mod btw.

Does that void the warranty? If it does, I'd hardly consider that a 'fix'...

Is this a thing on the smaller ones?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com