Apple’s recently announced 16-inch Pro MacBook Pro with the M1 Max processor will come with a powerful feature called “High Power Mode.”
Although Apple’s new 14-inch MacBook Pro can also be configured with the M1 Max chip, the performance-enhancing feature will only be available on the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip. It’s likely the 14-inch MacBook Pro’s thermal architecture isn’t robust enough to handle High Power Mode.
YouTuber Brian Tong explains the feature in a recent video:
The feature will reportedly be triggered automatically during very intensive tasks, like video rendering, and users will notice the fans inside their MacBook Pro get noticeably louder as they spin faster to cope with the additional heat generated from the intensive workload.
The System Preferences text reads: “Your Mac will optimize performance to better support resource-intensive tasks. This may result in louder fan noise.”
The first references to the new feature were discovered last month by 9to5Mac in the beta of macOS Monterey. Prior to this, in 2020, references to “Pro Mode” were found in MacOS Catalina 10.15.3. At that time, the internal code that was found suggested this option will make apps run faster while faster draining the battery.
