16" MacBook Pro M1 Pro vs Max: Idle power consumption and surface temperature

[brosenz]

I was able to get:

16" M1 Pro: 10C CPU, 16C GPU 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD
16" M1 Max: 10C CPU, 32C GPU, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

I did a lot of measurements over a 24 hours period, both laptops with the initial Monterrey 12.3.1 setup, no additional apps installed, both configured from scratch, brand new, with their respective batteries at 100% charge.

I measured the power consumed at the Power Brick, both using the Apple 87W charger. I used an Emporia Energy meter between the wall and the Apple charger.

The temperature was measured with this device. On the aluminum surface just above the F6 key.

The automatic brightness was disabled and the brightness was set at exactly 50%. Both power settings were set at Low Power. Idle was measured only with Safari open with the www.apple.com website at the home page.

Pro: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 6.910W
Idle surface temperature: 27.458C

Max: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 7.239W
Idle surface temperature: 27.817C

Taking into account, manual errors, instrument calibration, and other minor differences, I would say both devices behave very close to each other, at least on power consumption and temperature management.

 

[darngooddesign]

Interesting numbers, thanks for researching it.

 

[Maziar]

I was able to get:

16" M1 Pro: 10C CPU, 16C GPU 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD
16" M1 Max: 10C CPU, 32C GPU, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

I did a lot of measurements over a 24 hours period, both laptops with the initial Monterrey 12.3.1 setup, no additional apps installed, both configured from scratch, brand new, with their respective batteries at 100% charge.

I measured the power consumed at the Power Brick, both using the Apple 87W charger. I used an Emporia Energy meter between the wall and the Apple charger.

The temperature was measured with this device. On the aluminum surface just above the F6 key.

The automatic brightness was disabled and the brightness was set at exactly 50%. Both power settings were set at Low Power. Idle was measured only with Safari open with the www.apple.com website at the home page.

Pro: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 6.910W
Idle surface temperature: 27.458C

Max: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 7.239W
Idle surface temperature: 27.817C

Taking into account, manual errors, instrument calibration, and other minor differences, I would say both devices behave very close to each other, at least on power consumption and temperature management.

Thanks for doing these test, I've been looking for a direct comparison such as this one.
How are the differences in terms of noise in idle/load ?

 

[brosenz]

Thanks for doing these test, I've been looking for a direct comparison such as this one.
How are the differences in terms of noise in idle/load ?

The Fans never turned on, on either MacBook. I didn't do any load test, only idle.

 

[pshufd]

The 2021 MacBook Pros are the only models that I've seen that run with the fans off in idle. All of the other MacBook Pros that I've seen have the fans spinning at a minimum base level. It's like you're using a MacBook Air.

 

[solouki]

I was able to get:

16" M1 Pro: 10C CPU, 16C GPU 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD
16" M1 Max: 10C CPU, 32C GPU, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

I did a lot of measurements over a 24 hours period, both laptops with the initial Monterrey 12.3.1 setup, no additional apps installed, both configured from scratch, brand new, with their respective batteries at 100% charge.

I measured the power consumed at the Power Brick, both using the Apple 87W charger. I used an Emporia Energy meter between the wall and the Apple charger.

The temperature was measured with this device. On the aluminum surface just above the F6 key.

The automatic brightness was disabled and the brightness was set at exactly 50%. Both power settings were set at Low Power. Idle was measured only with Safari open with the www.apple.com website at the home page.

Pro: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 6.910W
Idle surface temperature: 27.458C

Max: (average of 50 measurements over many hours)

Idle power consumption: 7.239W
Idle surface temperature: 27.817C

Taking into account, manual errors, instrument calibration, and other minor differences, I would say both devices behave very close to each other, at least on power consumption and temperature management.

Wow, thanks for all the work. Since you collected so many data, would it be possible to also post the +/-1sigma values (i.e., the standard deviations) too? Thanks. And if you don't mind my asking, what was the room temperature while you were running these tests?

And, a further favor if you feel up to it: would you be able to collect the same power and temperature measurements when the machines were under stress (and set at High Power), both with high CPU usages and with high GPU usages? Thanks. (For instance, you might use something like the Handbrake.app compressing the same video on both machines in order to maximize the CPU usages.)
[You don't have to run the tests over a 24 hour period, just stress each machine (CPU and/or GPU) for 10 minutes or so before taking the measurements.]

Thanks, Solouki

 

[brosenz]

Wow, thanks for all the work. Since you collected so many data, would it be possible to also post the +/-1sigma values (i.e., the standard deviations) too? Thanks. And if you don't mind my asking, what was the room temperature while you were running these tests?

And, a further favor if you feel up to it: would you be able to collect the same power and temperature measurements when the machines were under stress (and set at High Power), both with high CPU usages and with high GPU usages? Thanks. (For instance, you might use something like the Handbrake.app compressing the same video on both machines in order to maximize the CPU usages.)
[You don't have to run the tests over a 24 hour period, just stress each machine (CPU and/or GPU) for 10 minutes or so before taking the measurements.]

Thanks, Solouki

I no longer have access to the laptops, unfortunately I cannot do any more testing. From the previous data collected, below are the Standard Deviation (STDEV) numbers:

The Room Temperature was around 25C

Pro:

Power STDEV = 0.123
Temp STDEV = 0.254

Max

Power STDEV = 0.087
Temp STDEV = 0.316

 

[BigMcGuire]

I'm surprised at the ability of the 16' MBP with the Max to sip power when it wants to.

Non-scientific: On low power mode - reading a book for several hours and doing some browsing, I only used 7%. (Doing the same thing on the M1 13' MBP resulted in about 2% usage). I'm testing the standby battery life right now.

Thanks for the info! Great laptops!

 

[brosenz]

I'm surprised at the ability of the 16' MBP with the Max to sip power when it wants to.

Non-scientific: On low power mode - reading a book for several hours and doing some browsing, I only used 7%. (Doing the same thing on the M1 13' MBP resulted in about 2% usage). I'm testing the standby battery life right now.

Thanks for the info! Great laptops!

Thank you, keep us posted on your findings

 

[Sanpete]

Since you're trying to be as precise as possible, you might want to check that indexing wasn't going on during the tests. Might affect your results unpredictably. But I imagine your conclusion will remain the same.

 

[brosenz]

Since you're trying to be as precise as possible, you might want to check that indexing wasn't going on during the tests. Might affect your results unpredictably. But I imagine your conclusion will remain the same.

Valid point, it is possible, both devices were setup at the exact same time, in parallel, I checked again the energy curves over the last 24 hours and there were flat for both, so, if there was indexing, it was happening on both.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I'm surprised at the ability of the 16' MBP with the Max to sip power when it wants to.

Non-scientific: On low power mode - reading a book for several hours and doing some browsing, I only used 7%. (Doing the same thing on the M1 13' MBP resulted in about 2% usage). I'm testing the standby battery life right now.

Thanks for the info! Great laptops!

My 13' M1 MBP (when I had it for a few months) - showed almost no battery loss in standby.

My 16' MBP M1 Max is showing about a 5% workday drop (6am - 3pm). Not terrible. Looks like it might have flattened out too at the end there a little? (I use aldente to keep the battery at 70%). More observations will be needed.

 

[solouki]

I no longer have access to the laptops, unfortunately I cannot do any more testing. From the previous data collected, below are the Standard Deviation (STDEV) numbers:

The Room Temperature was around 25C

Pro:

Power STDEV = 0.123
Temp STDEV = 0.254

Max

Power STDEV = 0.087
Temp STDEV = 0.316

Thanks for the numbers ... I'm really quite amazed at the smallness of the sigmas!

 

[brosenz]

Thanks for the numbers ... I'm really quite amazed at the smallness of the sigmas!

Readings were very consistent during all measurements, never had any spikes or big deviations, Power Management is definitely one of the strengths of these CPUs.

 

[hajime]

Are both models dead silent when running Cinebench?