Apple's latest 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max Apple silicon chip features a new High Power Mode for intensive, sustained workloads. This article explains what it does and how to enable it.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max chip includes a new High Power Mode that is designed to optimize performance to better support resource-intensive tasks, such as color grading 8K ProRes video, according to Apple.
The new mode is available in macOS Monterey, and is meant to be enabled when users are rendering larger files or doing graphically intensive tasks that require an added performance boost. In other words, it's not likely to be beneficial in typical work cases like web browsing or productivity. Whether it boosts performance in games remains an open question at this point.
When enabled, High Power Mode will de-prioritize resource-hungry system processes in order to leverage the full performance capability of the M1 Max processor. The setting is basically the opposite of "Low Power Mode," which aims to decrease system performance in favor of prolonging battery life.
The following steps show you how to enable High Power Mode. Bear in mind that High Power Mode is only available on the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip, not MacBook Pro models with the M1 Pro, and not even the 14-inch model equipped with the same M1 Max processor.
- In macOS, click the Apple () symbol in the menu bar and select System Preferences....
- Click the Battery icon in the preferences panel.
- Select Power Adapter from the sidebar.
- Where it says "Energy Mode" click the selection box and choose High Power.
That's all there is to it. Note that High Power Mode may result in louder fan noise for as long as it's turned on. The bottom of the MacBook Pro may also become noticeably hotter to the touch, but rest assured that while the feature can cause the M1 Max chip to run hotter, the mode also ramps up fan speeds to accommodate this.
Top Rated Comments