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14 M1 MAX on Low Power still better than 14 M1 PRO?

C

ChpStcks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2021
104
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I see all these battery threads with tons of variables. Regardless of workflows, personal use cases, etc the max seems to have about 20-30% ("light use") less battery than it's pro counterpart and up to 50% less on (heavy use). Which the latter can be somewhat justifiable if what you're doing on it also takes less time. (rendering 2 - 30 minute videos in the same time it takes 1 - 30 minute video).

I understand based on the Verge review that Apple has confirmed at a stand still MAX will consume more battery. Which also makes sense.

My question is, will a 14 M1 MAX on low power mode provide the same or close to the same battery life as 14 M1 PRO? and if yes, will it perform at least the same or close to as a M1 PRO? I understand when low power mode is turned on the 120hz is disabled, which isn't a deal breaker when portable, what else is disabled?

All things being equal, if the M1MAX on low power mode performs the same and with as comparable battery life (within 10-15%) of the Pro then it's makes it a much more viable option since if you want the portability you can turn low power mode on and if you need the performance you can either turn it off or plug it in...
 
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to make this thread a bit more simpler

If someone has both the max and pro 14; if you're currently getting 9-11 hours with the pro, do you get 8-10 hours with the max on low power? with comparative performances?

If yes, end thread.
 
I get about 8 hours of use from my M1 Max 14" while browsing the web (Safari), watching Youtube, using iMessage, doing Office work, and occasionally loading up Figma for quick design work (about 45 minutes total). Low power mode activated.

End thread
 
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ChpStcks said:
to make this thread a bit more simpler

If someone has both the max and pro 14; if you're currently getting 9-11 hours with the pro, do you get 8-10 hours with the max on low power? with comparative performances?

If yes, end thread.
Click to expand...
I get about 8 hours on the 14inch M1 Max 32GB at 50% brightness doing some YouTube streaming and some web browsing (Safari). This is not on low power mode.
 
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smirking said:
Seemed like a perfectly reasonable response to me. Can we stop with sh!tty attitudes?
Click to expand...

Yeah, he needs to chill, but I get it. It's a stressful, but fun purchasing decision and people are passionate about their tools and toys.

Where this type of comparison-thinking and threads go wrong are exactly as he described - he values both. But you can't have both. Nobody can. The fellow just needs to ask - does he value the 20% - 30% or so extra battery life of the Pro, or does he value the 40% better GPU performance from the Max? The Max does not and cannot match the incredibly low energy consumption of the Pro, even with low power mode.
 
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MGLXP said:
I get about 8 hours on the 14inch M1 Max 32GB at 50% brightness doing some YouTube streaming and some web browsing (Safari). This is not on low power mode.
Click to expand...
Just point of comparison, 16inch M1 Pro will get 13+ hours doing the same thing.
 
ChpStcks said:
I see all these battery threads with tons of variables. Regardless of workflows, personal use cases, etc the max seems to have about 20-30% ("light use") less battery than it's pro counterpart and up to 50% less on (heavy use). Which the latter can be somewhat justifiable if what you're doing on it also takes less time. (rendering 2 - 30 minute videos in the same time it takes 1 - 30 minute video).

I understand based on the Verge review that Apple has confirmed at a stand still MAX will consume more battery. Which also makes sense.
Click to expand...
The best comparisons, which control for the same conditions for both machines, find a much smaller difference than The Verge did. Their test was silly, didn't even attempt to make it the same for both, just reported how long each lasted while doing whatever two different reviewers happened to be doing.

Apple didn't confirm to The Verge how much difference the extra processors in the Max use on idle. Not much is the most likely answer.

According to better tests, for light and heavy use where both machines are doing the same amount of work, the Max gets about the same to 15% less battery life. In tests where the Max is doing more work or faster, the time difference can be larger, but per task it may not be.

ChpStcks said:
My question is, will a 14 M1 MAX on low power mode provide the same or close to the same battery life as 14 M1 PRO? and if yes, will it perform at least the same or close to as a M1 PRO? I understand when low power mode is turned on the 120hz is disabled, which isn't a deal breaker when portable, what else is disabled?

All things being equal, if the M1MAX on low power mode performs the same and with as comparable battery life (within 10-15%) of the Pro then it's makes it a much more viable option since if you want the portability you can turn low power mode on and if you need the performance you can either turn it off or plug it in...
Click to expand...
You don't need low-power mode to get results that are close to the M1 Pro. Low-power mode is also available on the Pro, so I'm not sure it's a useful comparison anyway.
 
War833 said:
It’s not a reasonable response, because it doesn’t answer the OP’s question. Please stop with the canned, trite replies.
Click to expand...

TSE’s reply was a perfectly reasonable response. It just wasn’t as relevant of an answer as the OP wanted. What a tragedy.

Half of the replies to any question are mostly irrelevant even though many of them were made in sincerity. Regardless of outcome, those people took time out of their day to try and be helpful. It takes no effort to just ignore those replies and move on.
 
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TSE said:
I get about 8 hours of use from my M1 Max 14" while browsing the web (Safari), watching Youtube, using iMessage, doing Office work, and occasionally loading up Figma for quick design work (about 45 minutes total). Low power mode activated.

End thread
Click to expand...
how does that compare to regular power mode?

do you have any datasets from the pro? similar performance in low power?
 
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TSE said:
Yeah, he needs to chill, but I get it. It's a stressful, but fun purchasing decision and people are passionate about their tools and toys.

Where this type of comparison-thinking and threads go wrong are exactly as he described - he values both. But you can't have both. Nobody can. The fellow just needs to ask - does he value the 20% - 30% or so extra battery life of the Pro, or does he value the 40% better GPU performance from the Max? The Max does not and cannot match the incredibly low energy consumption of the Pro, even with low power mode.
Click to expand...

Pretty chill over here. just tired of reading sh!tty responses that add nothing to the conversation. (your second reply was much more helpful)

and who said you can't have both? as I outlined in my original post if low power is within 10 - 15% of the regular 14 PRO battery life is very acceptable.
 
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MGLXP said:
Just point of comparison, 16inch M1 Pro will get 13+ hours doing the same thing.
Click to expand...
thanks! I understand there are quite a few other threads out there comparing 14 vs 16 and it seems 16 gets about 30-35% more battery which would make sense 100w vs 70w. in my case 16 is not an options though
 
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Sanpete said:
The best comparisons, which control for the same conditions for both machines, find a much smaller difference than The Verge did. Their test was silly, didn't even attempt to make it the same for both, just reported how long each lasted while doing whatever two different reviewers happened to be doing.

Apple didn't confirm to The Verge how much difference the extra processors in the Max use on idle. Not much is the most likely answer.

According to better tests, for light and heavy use where both machines are doing the same amount of work, the Max gets about the same to 15% less battery life. In tests where the Max is doing more work or faster, the time difference can be larger, but per task it may not be.


You don't need low-power mode to get results that are close to the M1 Pro. Low-power mode is also available on the Pro, so I'm not sure it's a useful comparison anyway.
Click to expand...
can you link any sources to those better test that have shown the 15% variance? or just point me in the right direction?

I understand PRO has low power mode also. which will get even better battery, but i also understand there's a sacrifice for more performance / gpus in this case. so as long as it's within 10-15% of the PRO's normal battery life (non low power) that would be great and if the performance (max in low power) is similar to the PRO.But I can't seem to find anything that's been similarly tested
 
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ChpStcks said:
and who said you can't have both? as I outlined in my original post if low power is within 10 - 15% of the regular 14 PRO battery life is very acceptable.
Click to expand...

You really cannot have both. As above, we already have people getting about 8 hours on battery with M1 Max even in Low Power Mode.

A friend of mine just got M1 Max 14" as well, and he's also only getting about 8 hours of use. With Low Power Mode, maybe he got to 9 but the compromise in CPU performance is not worth it for him.

Meanwhile, I have a M1 Pro 14". I am getting 11-12 hours without Low Power Mode and up to 14 hours with Low Power Mode.

So you're not getting to within 10%. It's just not possible. Just like the M1 Pro is unable to get the same battery life as the 13" Pro with M1. The 13" Pro got easily 15-16 (sometimes even 17-18) hours without Low Power Mode. I'm nowhere near 10% battery life of the 13" Pro. Low Power Mode just makes it so the fan doesn't come on that often (and in turn helps a bit with battery life) but it's not "maximize battery life" mode.
 
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ChpStcks said:
I understand when low power mode is turned on the 120hz is disabled, which isn't a deal breaker when portable, what else is disabled?
Click to expand...

By the way, this is false. I can confirm that I still get 120Hz in Low Power Mode. Launch a game like StarCraft 2 and the option is still there. Plus the game can actually get pretty close to that.
 
bill-p said:
You really cannot have both. As above, we already have people getting about 8 hours on battery with M1 Max even in Low Power Mode.

A friend of mine just got M1 Max 14" as well, and he's also only getting about 8 hours of use. With Low Power Mode, maybe he got to 9 but the compromise in CPU performance is not worth it for him.

Meanwhile, I have a M1 Pro 14". I am getting 11-12 hours without Low Power Mode and up to 14 hours with Low Power Mode.

So you're not getting to within 10%. It's just not possible. Just like the M1 Pro is unable to get the same battery life as the 13" Pro with M1. The 13" Pro got easily 15-16 (sometimes even 17-18) hours without Low Power Mode. I'm nowhere near 10% battery life of the 13" Pro. Low Power Mode just makes it so the fan doesn't come on that often (and in turn helps a bit with battery life) but it's not "maximize battery life" mode.
Click to expand...
What was the compromise in CPU performance?

I would say 14 hours on low power mode is within 10% of 15-16 hours without low power mode 13"
 
ChpStcks said:
What was the compromise in CPU performance?

I would say 14 hours on low power mode is within 10% of 15-16 hours without low power mode 13"
Click to expand...

It's about 20% in multicore CPU performance. Same loss with M1 Pro (I can confirm this).

Also the GPU seems to lose about 10 - 15% performance with M1 Pro as well. My friend with M1 Max has said that the GPU performance loss for him varies, but typically between 20-40%.

I don't think 14 hours is that easy to achieve with my workflow. I can only get that if the machine just sits there looking pretty with very minimal use. With my regular use, it's much closer to 10-12 even with Low Power Mode on. The 13" Pro can easily reach 18-20 with the same usage that can get me 14 hours on the 14", even without activating Low Power Mode.

Conclusion: Low Power Mode helps with worst-case scenario (max screen brightness, high CPU and GPU load) where... I'd only get 2-3 hours of battery life versus 5-6 hours with LPM on. But for idle use case, it's very minimal help. I wouldn't be excited.
 
bill-p said:
It's about 20% in multicore CPU performance. Same loss with M1 Pro (I can confirm this).

Also the GPU seems to lose about 10 - 15% performance with M1 Pro as well. My friend with M1 Max has said that the GPU performance loss for him varies, but typically between 20-40%.

I don't think 14 hours is that easy to achieve with my workflow. I can only get that if the machine just sits there looking pretty with very minimal use. With my regular use, it's much closer to 10-12 even with Low Power Mode on. The 13" Pro can easily reach 18-20 with the same usage that can get me 14 hours on the 14", even without activating Low Power Mode.

Conclusion: Low Power Mode helps with worst-case scenario (max screen brightness, high CPU and GPU load) where... I'd only get 2-3 hours of battery life versus 5-6 hours with LPM on. But for idle use case, it's very minimal help. I wouldn't be excited.
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20% and 40% CPU/GPU loss would put it right with the base 14 8/16 PRO which is similar performance.

I understand the 13" and airs were a beast in themselves in regards to battery efficiency, similar to 16" getting 15+ hours which is why I'm trying to not compare them to those models.

you had mention your friend gets 8 hours and maybe 9 with Low power on, does he have a similar workflow?

I'm not trying to get 13 or 16 battery life. but if low power on a 14 max can be 9-10 that would put it in the acceptable range especially with the performance being similar to the 14 base pro. Basically the trade off of 10-15% battery (max vs pro 14) is worth the upside of the double GPU cores and double ram speeds that could be unlocked by turning off low power or being plugged in on the max imo
 
For clarity, has RAM been shown to cause noticeable differences in battery life? For example, has anyone seen that a 16” M1 Pro 32GB dies quicker than 16” M1 Pro 16GB?
 
ChpStcks said:
can you link any sources to those better test that have shown the 15% variance? or just point me in the right direction?

I understand PRO has low power mode also. which will get even better battery, but i also understand there's a sacrifice for more performance / gpus in this case. so as long as it's within 10-15% of the PRO's normal battery life (non low power) that would be great and if the performance (max in low power) is similar to the PRO.But I can't seem to find anything that's been similarly tested
Click to expand...
A couple of the tests that at least try to apply the same conditions to each are discussed in one of the other threads about this.

First, there's a video that has one ridiculously bad test, followed by one that may be more useful, though details are lacking, so it's hard to say for sure. The bad test has the M1 Max clearly doing more computing than the other machines tested (in both parts of that test), because it can, so it only shows that doing more work uses more power, as we all figured anyway. The more useful test is the second, which starts at 6 minutes in. For moderately light use it finds 11 hours for the M1 Pro and 9.35 hours for the Max, which is 15% less.


The other tests are from a commenter here, who finds no to little difference, though there are potential issues there too. There's more than one post from that user there.

forums.macrumors.com

Battery life on M1X PRO vs M1X MAX?

I did a side by side of one very specific scenario and the battery life was nearly identical. My company got one each of the stock M1 Pro 1TB with 16GB of ram and one stock M1 Max 1TB with 32GB of ram. I was curious about the battery life after seeing The Verge article so since I was lucky...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

I've seen some other mentions of what purport to be good tests too that fit within that range, but I don't recall offhand where. Haven't noticed any tests that look as well done that fall outside that range.

As far as I know, the performance penalty for low-power-mode is similar for both the Pro and Max, so I don't follow what you're after there.
 
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