In a word, no.
Edit - You have not indicated your workflow, but if it is typical my answer stands
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Battery life on M1X PRO vs M1X MAX?
- Thread starter Starfyre
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Edit - You have not indicated your workflow, but if it is typical my answer stands
On the battery I will use it only for writing, internet ... During video editing, adobe after effect, coloring will be connected to an external monitor. I'm just worried about overheating and low battery during normal use.
some measurements in cpu-bound gaming:
forums.macrumors.com
16" 32GB Max v. Pro League of Legends battery and temp test
Using Etekcity Infrared Thermometer, aiming center near G, H keys, and center bottom, 50% brightness: Max (32g, 24c, 2tb): run1: top: 94 - 99F, then constant at 95F bottom: 90-93F battery: 96% time: 14 min run2: top: 97F, then constant at 94F bottom: 88-93F battery: 92% time: 20 min Pro...
forums.macrumors.com
A couple more data points: NotebookCheck has its 16" M1 Max (64GB) review out, which compares to a 16" M1 Pro base (16GB). For their well standardized battery tests, the Max ran for 2.6% and 12% shorter time.
For the video loop with screen at 150nits (apparently a little past halfway up on the slider scale), the Max ran for 17:01, compared to 17:28 for the M1 Pro.
For carefully controlled wi-fi web surfing (same brightness), the Max went 14:54, compared to 16:56 for the M1 Pro.
www.notebookcheck.net
For the video loop with screen at 150nits (apparently a little past halfway up on the slider scale), the Max ran for 17:01, compared to 17:28 for the M1 Pro.
For carefully controlled wi-fi web surfing (same brightness), the Max went 14:54, compared to 16:56 for the M1 Pro.
Apple MacBook Pro 16 2021 M1 Max Laptop Review: Full Performance without Throttling
Notebookcheck reviews the brand-new Apple MacBook Pro 16 with the M1 Max SoC, 32 GPU cores, 64 GB RAM and 16.2-inch Mini-LED screen and 120 Hz.
Ho no! Only 15 hours of browsing with the MAX, quick need to exchange for a Pro
/s
/s
12% less battery isn't a horrible trade off for the extra performance on the 16" MAX
Please specify what laptop you have.
8 Core CPU or 10 Core CPU?
14" or 16"?
24 GPU I gather
32 GB Ram I gather (which may be a difference according to some reports in power consumption compared to 64 GB Ram)
To my knowledge, there is nothing like the "Max's keyboard". If by Max you mean 16" (which is not the same), then please say 16".
This discussion trail is trying to find out since quite some time if the battery time n a Mac Book 14" (fourteen inch) is different if there are different specifications of the 14".
You should not worry. Never worry. Let it index and update for 2-3 days and then report to us here. You can still give it back within 2 weeks at least.
16", 24c = 24 gpu cores, 32gb ram yes.
by Max's keyboard I'm referring to my instance of the max keyboard, there is a subtle difference between that and the keyboard on my 16" pro.
What is that subtle difference in the keyboard? There is a difference with the Track Pad of course, but with the keyboard?
the pro keyboard bottoms out faster, more similar to old butterfly just not as bad. its very subtle.
Hm. That‘s not the experience I madeUsually on Macbooks - you can see for example "5 hours remaining" battery life but in reality this number jumps down 2-3 times faster than the real time flows (in 10 minutes by half an hour etc.). So a kind of promo illusion it is
That seems pretty low to me.
M1 Max 32GB
M1 Max 32GB
Package Power
- Idle: ~2W
- YouTube video on Google Chrome: ~3W
- MS Teams (Rosetta app), call with background blur: ~10W
- Package power seems to have a ~92W hard limit
- Fans hardly spin up from zero-RPM
Sorry, but no, the error here is not on my side. I do check, and readings are pretty accurate in general, they always have been, from the days of the Powerbook Aluminium till this day
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As Tested: 10+ Hours of Battery Life on a 14" M1 Max with 24 Core GPU:
I've finally received and tested the battery on my 14" M1 Max 32GB RAM, 24 core GPU, 2TB SSD in a "very light" usage scenario, and the results exceeded my expectations (to put it mildly). The headline here is that you should be able to get 9+ hours of light usage on a similarly spec'd device. Personally, I stopped the battery rundown test at 20%, which I reached after 10 hours and 4 minutes. Read below for details.
For context, I chose to upgrade to the M1 Max for seamless 4K video editing, but I also value longevity in lighter tasks (web browsing, email, productivity, etc), especially in cases where I may have a long flight, or otherwise want to go mobile and unplugged for a few hours. The Verge's review in particular was concerning to me, because it states that the M1 Max should see a hit of several hours of battery life (relative to the lower wattage M1 Pro), and it implies quite bluntly that the GPU cores are to blame for the battery drain. Beyond The Verge, there are other reviews, both written and on YouTube, that similarly suggest a disparity between battery life of the M1 Pro and M1 Max in lighter tasks. To be clear, I am not as focused on battery life when doing 4K editing, as I would most likely be plugged in for longer editing sessions. My question is straightforward and the use case is basic: What is the battery life for very light usage only, and will the M1 Max be able to "sip" the battery slowly when not dealing with demanding tasks?
After reading The Verge review, I decided to purchase a Max build with only 24 cores of GPU (instead of the base 32 cores), hoping to get some battery life savings, especially since I didn't think I'd need 32 cores for 4K video editing; I have no plans for gaming, coding, or 3D design on this device.
Test Details
- During the 10 hour test, I primarily used the laptop for web browsing in Safari, remotely controlling a Windows PC in Safari, iMessage chat, and some streaming video (in both YouTube and Apple TV). I spent a minimal amount of time using Office Applications (Word and Excel). I only had Zoom on for a few minutes out of the entire test, so it was not likely a factor. Partway through the test, I downloaded and installed a Safari ad blocker to prevent excessive autoplay ads (on some websites) from draining the battery; I already use a blocker on my Apple mobile devices.
- Brightness level was typically between 6-7 clicks (8 clicks is 50%). My setting of 6-7 may seem low to many people, and I recognize it's not always feasible to keep brightness below 50%. However, the point of this test was to emulate what I would do away from plug in for long stretches, i.e., on an airplane. In these cases, I'm willing to lower brightness if I can get away with it in the workflow.
- For several hours (I think ~3-4), I had an external 4K 60Hz 27" monitor plugged in and set to mirroring. At some point with the monitor plugged in, I lowered the brightness to 5 clicks since I was only using the 27" display.
- When streaming video through YouTube or Apple TV (a total of around 2 hours), I mostly played audio through my bluetooth headphones, and only minimally through the laptop speakers. The video streaming included around 1 hour and 40 minutes of a 4K HDR movie through the Apple TV app, which looked incredible, even with brightness at half or just below half.
- I had a Bluetooth trackpad and magic keyboard connected during the vast majority of the test.
- Wifi and bluetooth were turned on, "low power mode" was turned off, and "optimize video streaming while on battery" was turned off. Promotion was turned on.
- The laptop was put to sleep overnight and lost 4% in around 8-9 hours of being asleep.
- Room temperature was around 72 degrees and the laptop was used indoors.
- I did not notice the fans at all during the test. The laptop was either cool or only slightly warm.
Battery Rundown (The time elapsed indicates duration of screen-on usage when I reached the percent of battery remaining listed below:
89% - 2 hours (the second hour was plugged in to a 27" monitor with brightness at only 5 clicks for most of that hour).
80% - 3 hours, 18 mins
75% - 4 hours, 0 mins
70% - 4 hours, 46 mins
65% - 5 hours, 32 mins
60% - 6 hours, 13 mins
(At 60%, the laptop was put to sleep for the night; I resumed usage and restarted the "elapsed" time around 8.5 hours later; the battery had lost 4% in the interim)
56% - 6 hours, 13 mins (next morning)
(50% occurred at roughly 6 hours and 45 minutes, but I did not notate precisely at 50%)
47% - 7 hours, 6 mins
40% - 7 hours, 45 mins
(During the prior hour, from 50% to 40%, I did more browsing on media/video heavy sites like ESPN & Yahoo Finance, and I think that may have contributed to a slightly faster drain)
37% - 8 hours, 4 mins
30% - 8 hours, 51 mins
25% - 9 hours, 25 mins
20% - 10 hours, 4 mins
(test ended)
Conclusion
I believe that users should be able to easily reach 9+ hours of light usage on a 14" with the M1 Max, assuming similar specs to mine (i.e., only 32GB of RAM). This also assumes moderate brightness, i.e., 50% or lower.
My own goal was to easily hit 8 hours on light tasks, which would be an improvement from my old 2019 13" Intel MBP. Obviously, the results exceeded my expectations.
I've finally received and tested the battery on my 14" M1 Max 32GB RAM, 24 core GPU, 2TB SSD in a "very light" usage scenario, and the results exceeded my expectations (to put it mildly). The headline here is that you should be able to get 9+ hours of light usage on a similarly spec'd device. Personally, I stopped the battery rundown test at 20%, which I reached after 10 hours and 4 minutes. Read below for details.
For context, I chose to upgrade to the M1 Max for seamless 4K video editing, but I also value longevity in lighter tasks (web browsing, email, productivity, etc), especially in cases where I may have a long flight, or otherwise want to go mobile and unplugged for a few hours. The Verge's review in particular was concerning to me, because it states that the M1 Max should see a hit of several hours of battery life (relative to the lower wattage M1 Pro), and it implies quite bluntly that the GPU cores are to blame for the battery drain. Beyond The Verge, there are other reviews, both written and on YouTube, that similarly suggest a disparity between battery life of the M1 Pro and M1 Max in lighter tasks. To be clear, I am not as focused on battery life when doing 4K editing, as I would most likely be plugged in for longer editing sessions. My question is straightforward and the use case is basic: What is the battery life for very light usage only, and will the M1 Max be able to "sip" the battery slowly when not dealing with demanding tasks?
After reading The Verge review, I decided to purchase a Max build with only 24 cores of GPU (instead of the base 32 cores), hoping to get some battery life savings, especially since I didn't think I'd need 32 cores for 4K video editing; I have no plans for gaming, coding, or 3D design on this device.
Test Details
- During the 10 hour test, I primarily used the laptop for web browsing in Safari, remotely controlling a Windows PC in Safari, iMessage chat, and some streaming video (in both YouTube and Apple TV). I spent a minimal amount of time using Office Applications (Word and Excel). I only had Zoom on for a few minutes out of the entire test, so it was not likely a factor. Partway through the test, I downloaded and installed a Safari ad blocker to prevent excessive autoplay ads (on some websites) from draining the battery; I already use a blocker on my Apple mobile devices.
- Brightness level was typically between 6-7 clicks (8 clicks is 50%). My setting of 6-7 may seem low to many people, and I recognize it's not always feasible to keep brightness below 50%. However, the point of this test was to emulate what I would do away from plug in for long stretches, i.e., on an airplane. In these cases, I'm willing to lower brightness if I can get away with it in the workflow.
- For several hours (I think ~3-4), I had an external 4K 60Hz 27" monitor plugged in and set to mirroring. At some point with the monitor plugged in, I lowered the brightness to 5 clicks since I was only using the 27" display.
- When streaming video through YouTube or Apple TV (a total of around 2 hours), I mostly played audio through my bluetooth headphones, and only minimally through the laptop speakers. The video streaming included around 1 hour and 40 minutes of a 4K HDR movie through the Apple TV app, which looked incredible, even with brightness at half or just below half.
- I had a Bluetooth trackpad and magic keyboard connected during the vast majority of the test.
- Wifi and bluetooth were turned on, "low power mode" was turned off, and "optimize video streaming while on battery" was turned off. Promotion was turned on.
- The laptop was put to sleep overnight and lost 4% in around 8-9 hours of being asleep.
- Room temperature was around 72 degrees and the laptop was used indoors.
- I did not notice the fans at all during the test. The laptop was either cool or only slightly warm.
Battery Rundown (The time elapsed indicates duration of screen-on usage when I reached the percent of battery remaining listed below:
89% - 2 hours (the second hour was plugged in to a 27" monitor with brightness at only 5 clicks for most of that hour).
80% - 3 hours, 18 mins
75% - 4 hours, 0 mins
70% - 4 hours, 46 mins
65% - 5 hours, 32 mins
60% - 6 hours, 13 mins
(At 60%, the laptop was put to sleep for the night; I resumed usage and restarted the "elapsed" time around 8.5 hours later; the battery had lost 4% in the interim)
56% - 6 hours, 13 mins (next morning)
(50% occurred at roughly 6 hours and 45 minutes, but I did not notate precisely at 50%)
47% - 7 hours, 6 mins
40% - 7 hours, 45 mins
(During the prior hour, from 50% to 40%, I did more browsing on media/video heavy sites like ESPN & Yahoo Finance, and I think that may have contributed to a slightly faster drain)
37% - 8 hours, 4 mins
30% - 8 hours, 51 mins
25% - 9 hours, 25 mins
20% - 10 hours, 4 mins
(test ended)
Conclusion
I believe that users should be able to easily reach 9+ hours of light usage on a 14" with the M1 Max, assuming similar specs to mine (i.e., only 32GB of RAM). This also assumes moderate brightness, i.e., 50% or lower.
My own goal was to easily hit 8 hours on light tasks, which would be an improvement from my old 2019 13" Intel MBP. Obviously, the results exceeded my expectations.
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So, using my base config 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro, as I normally do, at work, which involves tons of Chrome tabs (~ 80 tabs), and other Electron apps - Slack, and Discord and Office 365, I get this battery life:
The computer was also connected to a 27-inch 1440p Dell monitor too during this time.
- 100%: 9:05 am
- 10.8%: 2:55 pm
The computer was also connected to a 27-inch 1440p Dell monitor too during this time.
Any conclusion ?
If you have a workload that can make use of the additional GPU cores the Max will run it faster and therefore get the job done faster and use around the same battery in less time (slightly less as everything else other than GPU had to run for less time to complete the job).
If you're running both machines flat-out for the same time then the max can draw more battery (but will do more work).
Basically if you need the GPU cores for work where time is money/productivity (and the GPU cores will make a difference), get the max.
If you're expecting to do stuff like get faster frame rate in games by using a max - it will drain the battery faster because it is doing more work for the same time.
If both are idling away or not pushing the GPU, expect the same. If any part of these machines is not being used, it is essentially powered off.
This was super-useful; thank you! This is spec that I am considering, and I had exactly the same questions as you. If I can get "about 10 hours" of light usage that would be perfectly acceptable. You had 20% remaining after 10 hours, and presumably weren't using low-power mode, so could have potentially got another 2-3 hours out of it at the same usage.
I tend to have the screen (on my current MBP16) set to at least 60% brightness and I think this would knock some time off your numbers.
This is probably more like my typical work usage if I am not "babying" the machine by keeping open apps and browser tabs to a minimum, watching out for processes consuming power, or lowering screen brightness.
Good to have some extra data points.
Have your tried low-power mode and noticed any effect?
For light usage, sysadmin stuff I got through a work day with about 45% remaining. **
Yeah I was in a couple of meetings, etc. but if you're doing non-compute heavy stuff it will last a work day comfortably.
Low power mode just caps power usage, if you aren't pushing the machine it will do nothing (idle machine already powers stuff down or runs in low power state).
If you ARE pushing the machine, it will reduce power consumption/performance slightly. Maybe handy if you want to run a game or something that isn't time dependent at slightly reduced performance for more battery, or you want to run something that REALLY pushes and makes the fan come on (which really is difficult, the only thing I've run which made the fan run on my 14" Pro, is Blender doing a render), run without the fan.
In terms of performance difference of low power mode... I haven't been able to notice much, except the machine never runs the fan. I think (based on the published base/boost clocks for the M1-Pro) Apple's low power mode is likely 90% performance, not like on a PC where its probably 60-70% and no discrete GPU...
edit:
** I had a 1920x1080 screen attached, time machine backup drive attached. most Remote Desktop sessions, Safari open with a normal person number of tabs (not hundreds, but lets say 10-20 active across multiple windows), spark email client, ms word, excel use. Firefox for a few corporate internal web apps.
Yeah I was in a couple of meetings, etc. but if you're doing non-compute heavy stuff it will last a work day comfortably.
Low power mode just caps power usage, if you aren't pushing the machine it will do nothing (idle machine already powers stuff down or runs in low power state).
If you ARE pushing the machine, it will reduce power consumption/performance slightly. Maybe handy if you want to run a game or something that isn't time dependent at slightly reduced performance for more battery, or you want to run something that REALLY pushes and makes the fan come on (which really is difficult, the only thing I've run which made the fan run on my 14" Pro, is Blender doing a render), run without the fan.
In terms of performance difference of low power mode... I haven't been able to notice much, except the machine never runs the fan. I think (based on the published base/boost clocks for the M1-Pro) Apple's low power mode is likely 90% performance, not like on a PC where its probably 60-70% and no discrete GPU...
edit:
** I had a 1920x1080 screen attached, time machine backup drive attached. most Remote Desktop sessions, Safari open with a normal person number of tabs (not hundreds, but lets say 10-20 active across multiple windows), spark email client, ms word, excel use. Firefox for a few corporate internal web apps.
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Thanks - this is useful feedback. Interesting info on how the low-power mode works, which makes sense of some reports that it "doesn't do much".
I don't think the battery life difference between M1 Pro and M1 Max is really going to be much of big deal for workloads that don't use the GPU.
I think the only real test for it is to do a battery run-down whilst rendering or pushing the machine at 100% with low power mode on vs. off to compare battery life... And benchmark performance to see the performance difference.
The base clock of the m1 pro is something like 2.9ghz and the boost is something like 3.2 (off the top of my head) - my suspicion is that low power mode just stops the machine boosting and thus will shave 10% or so off the performance (that guesstimate based on my interactive usage of the machine - its not a noticeable difference when say, gaming - but if you were running a render or something maybe it would finish slower. 10% is hard to notice as a human). Given that clock frequency vs. power is non-linear and those last few MHz cost you a lot more power, it probably saves more than 10% battery.
But again - haven't TESTED this. That's gut feel + based on what the specs of the chip say it clocks at.
I certainly haven't been able to notice a performance difference with it on vs. off, but I can tell the fan difference - with it on low power mode fans never come on, sometimes they will if I am running something very heavy with it off.
I'd second that. When the GPU is idle it draws almost no power.
E.g., right now with this browser open and an external 4k display connected, on my M1-Pro (10 CPU, 16 GPU) power metrics reports:
**** GPU usage ****
GPU active frequency: 13 MHz
GPU active residency: 3.11% (389 MHz: 2.8% 486 MHz: .08% 648 MHz: .03% 778 MHz: .22% 972 MHz: .02% 1296 MHz: 0%)
GPU requested frequency: (389 MHz: 2.7% 486 MHz: .04% 648 MHz: .05% 778 MHz: .20% 972 MHz: .10% 1296 MHz: 0%)
GPU idle residency: 96.89%
GPU Power: 15 mW
On a machine not doing GPU workload, Pro vs. Max will be essentially identical. Because the GPU is essentially virtually turned off, it is consuming so little power.