If you’ve been following the recent Apple news, you’ll know that they recently announced the new MacBook Pro with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips along with a redesigned Mac mini, and iMac, with all of them being available starting November 8. It seems that there’s one more feature which wasn’t given any prominence at all among a few others.
Now that the initial reviews of the new MacBook Pro, the redesigned Mac mini, and the iMac are out, some more information has started to emerge about them.
A Mac mini review by Andrew Cunningham from Ars Technica reveals that the M4 Pro chip can be configured to run on High Power Mode, an option previously only limited to the following models:
- 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max, M2 Max, and M3 Max
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max
This is the first time where Apple is expanding support for this option to a “Pro” chip”. However, Andrew mentions that the performance gains are “negligible” with “considerably increased” fan noise.
According to the review, “In our tests on the Mac mini, any performance gain from using High Power mode was essentially negligible, so small that we haven’t bothered to make charts showing the difference—there are signs of a very small upward nudge in a couple of GPU tests, but all the CPU tests and many of the GPU tests show differences that are essentially within the margin of error.
While performance is a bit of a wash, fan noise is considerably increased under High Power mode. The Mac mini is mostly inaudible most of the time, the same way most Apple Silicon Macs have been, but under sustained CPU or GPU load, the mini emits a louder whoosh that you’ll definitely hear unless you’re wearing headphones. That could be a sign that, over many hours of activity, High Power mode will produce better or more consistent results than most of our tests, which generally take no more than a few minutes to run. But from where I sit, the benefits of High Power mode in the M4 Pro Mac mini are negligible, and the downside is noticeable. I would generally leave it turned off.”
To enable High Power Mode, you simply need to go into Settings>Battery and configure your performance mode when using the battery or the power adapter.
Have you used High Power Mode on your Mac? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @appleosophy. Be sure to download the Appleosophy App from the App Store or visit our website to stay updated with the latest Apple News and Deals!
