Apple’s new High Power mode is exclusive to the 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro

Apple’s latest 16-inch MacBook Pro (starting at $3,139) with the M1 Max chip has an exclusive feature that is not available on any other MacBook — ‘High Power’ mode.

As shared by YouTuber Brian Tong, the High Power mode enables users to get a performance boost from their machines in intensive scenarios, such as video rendering or while colour grading an 8K ProRes video. On the flip side, High Power Mode may result in higher fan noise, implying that the mode allows the M1 Max CPU to operate at a hotter while ramping up fan speeds.

The new High Power Mode isn’t available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, even when equipped with an M1 Max processor, or on any M1 Pro-equipped variants which might owe to a difference in internal thermals of the different laptops.

In Tong’s review of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, he exported a 90-minute Premiere Pro video in just seven minutes and eighteen seconds with the High Power Mode on. For comparison, it took Tong about sixteen extra seconds to export the same video with High Power Mode off. While not a big difference, it took Tong nineteen minutes to export the same video in a 2021 24-inch M1 iMac and about 37 minutes on a 2019 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro.

Tong also noted that when he tested High Power Mode, the bottom of the MacBook Pro felt much hotter to the touch than when he used it normally.

You can check out Brian Tong’s full review of the new 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro below:

Source: Brian Tong