New 16-Inch M1 Max MacBook Pro Features ‘High Power Mode’

Apple has confirmed that the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip can invoke a previously hinted-at “High Power Mode.”

As MacRumors reports, references to a “High Power Mode” were discovered this week in the macOS Monterey beta. Apple has since confirmed that High Power Mode is indeed a real feature that will offer an extra burst of performance on certain configurations of the new MacBook Pro during intensive tasks.

Based on the name, it’s reasonable to expect this new boosted performance mode will work much like the Low Power Mode on modern MacBooks, but in reverse.

More specifically, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip will be the only laptop to feature this new mode. It will be triggered automatically during very intensive tasks, for example, video rendering, and users will notice the fans inside their MBP get noticeably louder as they spin faster to cope with the additional heat generated from the intensive workload.

A MacRumors contributor recently discovered text within the macOS Monterey beta that reads “your Mac will optimize performance to better support resource-intensive tasks. This may result in louder fan noise,” so it’s reasonable to expect that this new mode will cause the reportedly whisper-quiet 16-inch MacBook Pro 2021 to get a bit noisy.

However, it’s yet unclear how much of a performance boost this High Power Mode will provide. We’ll have to wait until we have a chance to benchmark a 16-inch MacBook Pro 2021 running macOS Monterey to see exactly how much of a difference this new mode makes, and whether it’s worth trading up to the 16-inch with an M1 Max.

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