Apple Expands High Power Mode with M4 Pro Chip to MacBook Pro and Mac Mini Models

High Power Mode is available on 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip. Ars Teknikby Andrew Cunningham. This feature was previously limited to Macs with Apple’s top-of-the-line “Max” chip, so this is the first time it’s available on Macs with a “Pro” chip.

This is the second time in as many years that Apple has expanded the availability of High Power Mode. This feature was initially limited to 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M1 Max and M2 Max chips, but Apple has made it available at: Both 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip late last year. The feature is now available on even more MacBook Pro models and, for the first time, on the high-end Mac mini.

Apple says High Power Mode allows the Mac’s fans to run at higher speeds, and this additional cooling allows the system to deliver higher performance for sustained graphics-intensive workloads, such as 8K video color grading. On supported Macs, this feature is available when the computer is running on battery power or connected to a power source.

In his Mac mini review, Cunningham said the gains in High Power Mode performance were “essentially negligible” although fan noise was “significantly increased.” However, he acknowledged that his tests were short and that High Power Mode may be more useful “after hours of activity.” As noted, Apple said this feature is for “persistent” workloads.

His review:

In our testing on the Mac mini, any performance increase from using High Power mode was essentially negligible; It was so small that we didn’t bother making graphs showing the difference; There are signs of a very small uptick in a few GPU tests, but all CPU tests and most GPU tests show differences that are essentially within the margin of error.

While performance is a bit low, fan noise increases significantly in High Power mode. The Mac mini, like most Apple Silicon Macs, is inaudible most of the time, but under sustained CPU or GPU load the mini produces a louder sound that you’ll definitely hear unless you’re wearing headphones. This may be a sign that High Power mode will produce better or more consistent results over hours of activity than most of our tests, which typically last no more than a few minutes. But from where I sit, the benefits of High Power mode on the M4 Pro Mac mini are negligible and the downside is notable. I usually leave it off.

In the latest macOS versions, High Power Mode can be enabled by clicking the drop-down menus next to “On battery” or “On power adapter” under “Battery” or “Energy” in the System Settings app and selecting the “High Power” option. .