MacbookPro is always super hot

I have a MPB, 16", 2019 version. (2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9)

My problem is that it is almost always super hot to the touch near the battery area - like so hot you couldn't hold it in your hands for very long and certainly couldn't put it on your lap. It leaves the desk surface that it's on, considerably hot to the touch.


I've run Activity Monitor and I confirm that there's nothing that's taking up constant CPU or memory. I do hear the fan running a fair amount. I've cleaned out the vents to make sure air is flowing properly. Is there anything else I can check or do to make sure there isn't something wrong with the hardware itself? What should I do?

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Jun 24, 2024 03:23 PM

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Jun 24, 2024 03:29 PM in response to prismatical

16-in 2019 intel MacBook Pro heat and performance:

This computer was built with a ninth generation 14nm Intel processor. The only way to meet the target performance was to make it a six or eight core processor. This processor generates an enormous burst of heat when it does Turbo Boost, and there is only one cooling rail shared by both the CPU and GPU. So getting Either side too hot ramps up the fans.


This processor was supposed to be an eleventh-generation 7nm processor, but intel was three years late, and started to ship its tenth generation 10nm processors much later.


The drive in this computer is more than 100 times the typical speed of drives in computers a decade older. If you have installed software that wastes computer resources on a regular basis, such as third-party Virus Scanners, speeder-uppers, Cleaner-uppers/Removers, Optimizers, third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive, or a VPN that you installed yourself, it will do busywork at previously-impossible speeds and causing seemingly-random panics, typically for access violations or page faults. — heating up at a ferocious rate.


This older junky software used to run as fast as it could, then would then have to suspend itself to wait for the disk drive to catch up before continuing to waste resources. With a really fast drive, that drive-speed restriction is gone. In many cases it still does not show up as using a lot of CPU, because it is doing a lot of intensive I/O, and not a lot of computing. That will still make your computer slow and heat up.


Apple DID redesign the cooling system for this specific Mac. New, high-efficiency fans are used. But for some uses, that is still not enough.


Some of the best practical advice is to install Turbo Boost Switcher and turn off CPU Turbo Boost. This reduces the huge sudden overheating brought on by Turbo Boost, that simply does not translate into real-world performance gains.


For external displays, changing away from HDMI to DisplayPort family (or to DisplayPort over ThunderBolt or USB-C) will reduce the Voltages and slightly reduce the heat generated. It is a good thing to do, but it may not be enough to solve this issue by itself.


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MacbookPro is always super hot

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