Do M1 macs perform the same on battery as AC?

[jamiem1987]

As per the title, does anyone know if the M1 macs throttle back on battery power vs ac adapter like I "think" the intels did? Just debating whether to do some 4k exports I need to do on battery or power.

Many thanks

 

[azentropy]

There are some videos out there showing the M1 MBP and MBA perform the same on battery vs ac adapter for the most part. It seemed to take quite a bit to get the MBA to throttle or the MBP to even get the fans to come on.

 

[Krevnik]

Apple hasn’t throttled while on battery as far as I’m aware.

The Intel systems did throttle due to heat though, which could be impacted by draining the battery quickly (heating things up more). My 16” has in a couple situations drained the battery in about an hour. (Yes, it was pulling about 100W all up...)

The M1 MBA will still throttle under longer, heavy loads, but we’re talking something like 15-20 minutes of heavy load to saturate the heat sink. Also keep in mind that the M1 Mac Mini was just given some official power consumption numbers by Apple, where it’s rated at under 40W total draw max. These aren’t terribly power hungry chips to begin with, and generate a lot less heat under load than the Intel systems they replaced.