MacBook – My new 2020 MacBook Pro is getting very hot

macbook pro

I got this laptop roughly a week ago and have not used it for anything too computationally extensive as of yet. Using it on Zoom has got my laptop incredibly hot, yet the use on my CPU doesn't peak about 20% according to activity monitor.

Is this a defective laptop, or is it just how they usually work?

Best Answer

Using any teleconferencing software (Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco WebEx) puts a heavy load on the CPU and the GPU processing the video stream. My 2019 MBA's fans ramp up and the Mac gets hot when participating in a Zoom with 10 people.

My iMac at home, with a dedicated GPU and a very fast Core i9 CPU, shakes it off and barely breaks a sweat, even in Zoom calls with many more participants.

Which 2020 MBP are you using? The 13" does not have a dedicated GPU, whilst the 16" has an additional AMD Radeon Pro GPU of various flavours, depending on the build.