How to Use High Power Mode on 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro

[bice]

Perhaps the switch is not about adressing any user needs.

After adding this switch, no one can say "they sold me expensive hardware and are secretely throttling it".

 

[pi=e=3]

Can't this be done automatically, then it could be said that it "just works" no need to micro manage settings

It is done automatically. The default setting is automatic.

I tested on my M1 Max 16 to see if auto vs forcing high performance made a difference in something like Cinibench or Wildlife Extreme… It does not, meaning it’s detecting the heavy load and diverting resources on its own anyways.

 

[danielowenuk]

It's not a high power mode at all.

It's a high speed fan mode.

No difference to the power of the chip, just allows the fan to spin faster. If you are doing something so intensive that eventually the M1 chip would need to throttle due to thermal issues, the faster spinning fan will allow that to happen.

 

[nickxiong26]

I don’t know if true or user error, but apple appears to be allowing these machines to “run hot.” I have a 16” max, 32 Core GPU, 64GB Ram, and denoising a 1 minute 8k file in final cut didn’t even trigger the high power mode. In fact, according to TG PRO, the fans never kicked on even at temps over 100 degrees until I manually maxed the fans.

 

[svish]

Very simple. Nice that user can select high power mode when required instead of it working only automatically.

 

[ZipZilla]

we need a dongle that provides us with a Turbo button and a dial that goes up to 11. FEEL THE POWER. ENGAGE!

 

[thawk9455]

Anyone find any specifications as to how much power these things actually need? Yes, the new chargers can fast charge, and the Thunderbolt ports list that they can charge as well, but what do they NEED to run? I'm guessing a monitor with 90W charging will be enough but it would be nice to know. Heck, maybe a 65W would be enough, don't know...

 

[SFjohn]

I can’t imagine, with the heat this gives off, it will be good for the whole computer. Personally I would never use it, I think my new 16” MBP will live longer that way. I may loose a few seconds here & there, but I’ll gain them in the long run.

 

[rssfed23]

Anyone find any specifications as to how much power these things actually need? Yes, the new chargers can fast charge, and the Thunderbolt ports list that they can charge as well, but what do they NEED to run? I'm guessing a monitor with 90W charging will be enough but it would be nice to know. Heck, maybe a 65W would be enough, don't know...

This depends entirely on what you’re doing with the machine I would think.
If all you do is MS Office and browse the internet with a few YouTube here and there, then 65w would be sufficient for most of the time.
90W I would think would cover 90% of users easily.
But if you spend your day in Final Cut Pro ending it with a 8k prores export, then I suspect even 100w chargers might lead your battery to start discharging at some point during the day.

 

[Sanpete]

Ran a Lightroom Classic export of about 1300 images in "Auto" mode, and again in "High Power" mode. Both runs took about 20 minutes, without a discernible difference--possibly ran about 5 seconds faster in "High Power". It seems to be a fully CPU intensive task, and might not be making use of GPU cores. So for this particular use case, it didn't seem to achieve a marked improvement.

Auto mode probably does the same thing as high-power mode in many cases.

It's not a high power mode at all.

It's a high speed fan mode.

No difference to the power of the chip, just allows the fan to spin faster.

This seems to be correct, according to how Apple describes it.

 

[hoodafoo]

I read somewhere that this feature was later added to 14 max laptops, yet I don't see it on my M1 Max. I'm on Sonoma 14.3.1

 

[Chancha]

I read somewhere that this feature was later added to 14 max laptops, yet I don't see it on my M1 Max. I'm on Sonoma 14.3.1

High Power Mode on 14” MBP is only available for M3 Max. It is not meant to be just a software toggle, Apple specifically said the hardware of M3 Max gen 14” 16” had a redesigned cooling / power system such that the 14” now gains the ability to have unleashed power (where the 16” had it since M1 Max).