MacBook Pro M1 Max 14" hack to bring to 16" speeds?

[ylluminate]

As we've seen in some videos and test results, it's been very disappointing to see Apple throttling the M1 Max in the 14" vs 16" due to thermal profile trouble, battery life, etc. I can kind of understand their choice, but I think - as in all things - users should have choices to proverbially hang themselves if they so choose to do so.

Has anyone seen or come up with a workaround or hack that allows the 14" system to run exactly identically in terms of performance (even with the added heat and battery consumption) to the 16" yet?

The 14" size and profile seems very attractive, but there's no way on earth many of us will simply accept losing some performance for sizing issues. I would welcome and love a blaring fan in order to keep the performance on par while enjoying the smaller form factor.

 

[wgr73]

As we've seen in some videos and test results, it's been very disappointing to see Apple throttling the M1 Max in the 14" vs 16" due to thermal profile trouble, battery life, etc. I can kind of understand their choice, but I think - as in all things - users should have choices to proverbially hang themselves if they so choose to do so.

Has anyone seen or come up with a workaround or hack that allows the 14" system to run exactly identically in terms of performance (even with the added heat and battery consumption) to the 16" yet?

The 14" size and profile seems very attractive, but there's no way on earth many of us will simply accept losing some performance for sizing issues. I would welcome and love a blaring fan in order to keep the performance on par while enjoying the smaller form factor.

Have you actually ever used 'all' of the 14in M1 Max power? I guess it's something that would make one feel better mentally, but in all reality for 99% of tasks most will never tell unless benchmarking the laptop.

I have both a 14" and a 16" because I couldn't decide which one to keep, and I video edit. I cannot tell a difference at all. And I don't compare export times, I just know it's NIGHT and DAY difference from my 2019 16" Intel MBP

 

[ylluminate]

Some of us simply have a mental wall when it comes to even knowing that this is the case. We will fiddle and futz and never be satisfied until such things like this are resolved... while others, such as yourself perhaps are fine dealing with that (or deal with it by getting both - which many of us simply cannot afford). I don't travel or work out of some relatively confined spaces much, but using the laptop around the office and house in various positions from desk to couch to bed to working out in the forest all lead me to think a smaller/slimmer format is better, but I will 100% absolutely get the 16" due to my unwillingness to castrate performance even by 1%. It simply feels like we're being cheated.

 

[sumarlidason]

Don't feel cheated, the 14" is a great pocket rocket; sporting burst performance e.g. code builds. A reminder that Apple used to force users to move to 16" for equal performance. I am happy they were able to put the max in the 14" form factor.

 

[ylluminate]

A summary of this video:

• If you’re just pushing the graphics and not thermally limited by the CPU, you’re getting about an 11% difference (16" winning).
• For gaming you can see about a 16% difference in performance with the 16” winning.
• If you’re “punishing” the machine, then you can see the 16% doing up to 36% better in performance.

https://imgur.com/a/c2RYKUB

 

[yitwail]

If by 'throttling' you're referring to the lack of High Power mode in 14in M1 Max MBP, then why not install something like iStat Menus and set fan speed to maximum? Because from what I understand, all High Power mode does is make the fans run faster. Of course, you could also do that to a 16in M1 Max MBP, and then the 16in would prevail because it has larger fans.

 

[ylluminate]

Unfortunately that doesn't really seem to be it @yitwail. ? You might want to review that video.

 

[yitwail]

Unfortunately that doesn't really seem to be it @yitwail. ? You might want to review that video.

I'm sick of Max Tech at this point so I'll spare myself the ordeal of watching the whole thing. Anyway, if the machines were set at fan fullspeed continuously, I concede that under some conditions the 16in exceeds the 14in in performance.

 

[richinaus]

Have you actually ever used 'all' of the 14in M1 Max power? I guess it's something that would make one feel better mentally, but in all reality for 99% of tasks most will never tell unless benchmarking the laptop.

I have both a 14" and a 16" because I couldn't decide which one to keep, and I video edit. I cannot tell a difference at all. And I don't compare export times, I just know it's NIGHT and DAY difference from my 2019 16" Intel MBP

Totally agree.

love my 14" and have no complaints on the speed of it [I do push my computers hard, and do max out using certain apps]. Comparing to a much larger body and expecting the same is living in fantasy land.

 

[ylluminate]

I've had fights with Apple CoreOS engineers in the past about how hard I push my Macs. I simply use my systems much harder and heavier than 98% (according to them) of most users due to my lines of work. I run 128GB on my systems and usually run with all of the memory full. I most definitely will go with the 16" due to this obvious inconsideration of everyone including Apple at this point if I actually end up going down this road and getting one of these systems. I had really hoped for a desktop with something like an M1 Max by now since I can no longer wait to replace one of my maxed out older Mac Pros.

I do wish there were another option to push more power out of the 14" (maybe trying the larger 16" power brick would change some dynamics), but clearly no one is interested enough in this topic and I guess some other real annoyances (like the absurd notch at the top) would make more sense to suffer with the pain of lugging a larger system around in order to have more menubar real estate (I live with my menubar about 1/2 full all the time due to various tools I need).

 

[richinaus]

I've had fights with Apple CoreOS engineers in the past about how hard I push my Macs. I simply use my systems much harder and heavier than 98% (according to them) of most users due to my lines of work. I run 128GB on my systems and usually run with all of the memory full. I most definitely will go with the 16" due to this obvious inconsideration of everyone including Apple at this point if I actually end up going down this road and getting one of these systems. I had really hoped for a desktop with something like an M1 Max by now since I can no longer wait to replace one of my maxed out older Mac Pros.

I do wish there were another option to push more power out of the 14" (maybe trying the larger 16" power brick would change some dynamics), but clearly no one is interested enough in this topic and I guess some other real annoyances (like the absurd notch at the top) would make more sense to suffer with the pain of lugging a larger system around in order to have more menubar real estate (I live with my menubar about 1/2 full all the time due to various tools I need).

Mate, you are the outlier as Apple have told you.
They design for the median on the whole, with some headroom.

Maybe you have outgrown the Mac laptops? Or expecting too much out the laptops?

 

[ylluminate]

I really don't think that's the case @richinaus. I think ultimately this is an issue where Apple has lost vision. Steve had a better grasp on what was and was not important and now algorithms drive things and ultimately those don't have the capacity to capture things that folks really need or want (especially when they don't know since they lack context). We could slice and dice this issue for hours literally and I believe that I can objectively prove this out based on my 30+ years in this space, but the root issues just won't go away.

So let's have a quick check of ourselves: I didn't come here to discuss these points that we've strayed into or if anyone thinks I'm wrong or an outlier or if I've outgrown such and such, etc. Whether I'm wrong in your personal opinion in wanting to push the 14" harder is irrelevant to my original question and I'd like to get back on topic:

Does anyone know if there are:

Any hacks/tricks for a MacBook Pro M1 Max 14" that will bring it to 16" speeds?​

If you don't, don't answer and don't comment please. Let's just let this thread sit here until someone figures it out or it simply never happens. I'll probably go ahead with the relatively cheap upgrade to the 16" since that makes sense to me at this juncture (if I get one at all), but I still want to know the answer to this question if anyone ever figures it out...

 

[neekon]

I don't think you will get an answer that will satisfy you. The reasons for the performance discrepancy between the 14" and 16" isn't as easy as changing a code. The 16" has beefier cooling options with regards to the heatsink and fans.

If you actually need 100% of the power that these computers can give, get the 16" or get a desktop. The 14" is not for you.
With that said, if you need as much power as you claim to need, you wouldn't be on a laptop anyway, you would have a dedicated desktop workstation.

 

[Sanpete]

I haven't seen any tips about this. The difference has only been known about for a couple weeks. I don't anyone even knows what limits the power, whether it's a hard cap set by software or a natural result of something else like capacity of components. Your idea about the larger power brick is interesting, worth checking out for someone with access to a 14" and the larger brick. But I wouldn't get my hopes up.

You could also check at overclocking forums, though I don't think the M1 has been the subject of much work there.

 

[Thysanoptera]

The GPU in 14 Max is limited to 62W - well, total power maxes out at it, but it is hard power limit regardless of temperatures. Only Apple can change it and I hope they won’t. There won’t be any hack to disable it. Buy the 16.

There was never a laptop as small as MPB 14 packing so much power. Feeling cheated, are you kidding me?! It’s like people forgot that small MBPs had half the cores and lacked dGPU of the big one.

 

[VArase]

As we've seen in some videos and test results, it's been very disappointing to see Apple throttling the M1 Max in the 14" vs 16" due to thermal profile trouble, battery life, etc. I can kind of understand their choice, but I think - as in all things - users should have choices to proverbially hang themselves if they so choose to do so.

Has anyone seen or come up with a workaround or hack that allows the 14" system to run exactly identically in terms of performance (even with the added heat and battery consumption) to the 16" yet?

The 14" size and profile seems very attractive, but there's no way on earth many of us will simply accept losing some performance for sizing issues. I would welcome and love a blaring fan in order to keep the performance on par while enjoying the smaller form factor.

But if you toast your 14" by making it exceed its designed thermal capabilities, you're still bringing it in for warranty service, right ?