High Power Mode for M4 Pro Macs
Last year’s M3 Pro chip was a departure from the M1 Pro and M2 Pro. Compared to the M2 Pro, it came with more E-cores but fewer P-cores, as well as fewer GPU cores and less memory bandwidth. As we wrote at the time, this meant that the architectural improvements to M3 mostly ended up being canceled out, making for a chip that was more efficient but often not meaningfully faster than its predecessor.
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The extra computing resources do increase the M4 Pro’s power usage relative to the M3 Pro, with higher power consumption for our heavily multithreaded Handbrake video encoding test (an average of 43.1 W, up from 33.1 W). But the extra speed does help improve the chip’s power efficiency overall, completing the same amount of work using a little less power overall (both the M3 Pro and M4 Pro use around two-thirds as much power to do the same work as the M2 Pro.
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Apple has added a High Power performance mode for the M4 Pro both in the Mac mini and in the new MacBook Pros. This feature was previously reserved for Max and Ultra chips and allows the chip to run at elevated speeds and temperatures for more extended periods of time; Apple says this should benefit GPU performance in particular at the expense of extra fan noise.
Apple says High Power Mode allows a Mac’s fans to run at higher speeds, and this additional cooling allows the system to deliver higher performance for graphics-intensive sustained workloads, such as 8K video color grading. On supported Macs, the feature can be used when the computer is running on battery power or connected to a power source.
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On recent macOS versions, High Power Mode can be enabled in the System Settings app under “Battery” or “Energy” by clicking on the dropdown menus next to “On battery” or “On power adapter” and selecting the “High Power” option.
Previously:
- Apple M4 Pro and M4 Max
- MacBook Pro 2024
- Mac mini 2024
- High Power Mode for Mac
- Low Power Mode for Mac
Update (2024-11-11): See also: Hacker News.
