16 “MacBook Pro: Complaints about heat and fan noise

Apple’s newly launched MacBook Pro can cause problems when connecting one or more external monitors: Together with a monitor, the 16 “MacBook Pro gets noticeably hot after a short time and starts to ventilate loudly, as an increasing number of users report. Even if only Apple basic software is running and no performance-hungry application is used, the notebook quickly turns up the fans — and gets annoyingly loud at times.

AMD GPU as the cause of the problem
The cause of the heat development and fan activity seems to be a bug in interaction with the integrated AMD GPU (Radeon Pro 5000M series): As soon as an external display is connected, the graphics card suddenly draws around 20 watts (instead of around 5 watts) and thus ensures that Development of heat and finally the fans turning up. The problem was simulated on a 16 “MacBook Pro by the Mac & i editorial team when a 4K monitor was connected.
Replacing the device at Apple does not bring any improvement, as several users report who have already taken this step. One user reports that he has now tested a double-digit number of new MacBook Pro models for his company in various configurations and has always encountered the problem. The associated main thread in Apple’s in-house support forum now fills over 50 pages , and there are numerous feedbacks from affected customers in other forums such as MacRumors .
macOS updates don’t help
An update to the current macOS version 10.15.3 does not provide a remedy, the problem persists. The first beta of macOS 10.15.4 does not solve the problem, according to developers. However, it can be assumed that the manufacturer is now concerned with the analysis of the problem. A possible workaround is currently to use the MacBook Pro with the external screen in the closed state (clamshell mode), then the power consumption of the GPU drops again to around 5 watts — but of course you have to do without an additional display.