I know the M1 is power efficient but this is crazy!

[Feek]

My Mac Studio Ultra turned up a couple of days ago and I've started setting it up now. I'm not one for monitoring system statistics but I've always used iStat Menus to display free disk space in my menu bar.

While setting it up, I was curious as to what other sensors are available and I noticed there's one for "Total Power". I enabled it out of curiosity and this is utterly bonkers (in a good way). My Studio Ultra is drawing just 16W at idle compared to around 110W for my 2017 iMac. Even taking into consideration the 30W for the Studio display, this is amazing.

To put it into perspective, I have a Raspberry Pi4 (in fact I have quite a few RPis) which runs my ADS-B feeder and that draws just under 5W.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Did you measure that 30w from the display yourself?

Either way it still ceases to amaze me.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Yep, the M1 processors have been astounding. I had an M1 13' MBP for awhile and that thing sipped a few watts while I was reading. My M1 Max is sipping 4.64 w doing this post right now.

These chips are amazing. And I used to be someone who built gaming computers - i7s with MASSIVE cool master heat sinks - often having to add window ac units to the room I was in to keep it habitable.

 

[Feek]

Did you measure that 30w from the display yourself?

Nope, it’s listed on the final page here.

 

[icymountain]

Did anyone plug their Mac Studio to an energy consumption meter ?
That could give interesting results (average consumption over a while, peak consumption...)

 

[mrbobdobolina]

Did anyone plug their Mac Studio to an energy consumption meter ?
That could give interesting results (average consumption over a while, peak consumption...)

I don't have an energy consumption meter, but according to iStat Menus, my Mac Studio (Max) hovers between 60-80w while exporting 4k video out of Premiere Pro. (It's also mind boggling to me that even under load, the fans hardly deviate from ~1300rpm, while keeping the CPU temps under 80°C

 

[BanditoB]

Many UPSs with a display will tell you the power draw. I use mine to tell when the Mac Studio is actually sleeping. 5W while asleep and 24W when idling with the Studio display asleep. I also have a couple of powered USB hubs attached, so my power draw is probably a little bit higher than just the Mac Studio and Studio display.

 

[Sharky II]

Yes, it's pretty incredible and it's spurred me on to sell all my older gear in favour of newer, lower power equipment. I'm going down from 3 displays to one.

Next year I'll probably buy an M1 MacBook Air (second hand) as my main laptop, replacing the 2012 15" MBP Retina I have.

I'm saving about £30 a month by switching from Mac Pro 5,1 to the Ultra. More as I'm selling my displays too, down to one ACD 30" for the time being.

 

[haralds]

I have an external meter on my UPS that is running some other things including a Dell Ultrawide monitor. In comparison to everything else the Mac Studio barely registers.
It is replacing a cMP 5,1 which regularly drew 750W or higher!

 

[radus]

last week I put my mac studio ultra on an external battery (500 Watt loaded by one removable solar-panel) just to check how it works. The mac studio run 24 h until the battery was empty (light work just email, www, pdf reading…7 hours).

 

[F-Train]

last week I put my mac studio ultra on an external battery (500 Watt loaded by one removable solar-panel) just to check how it works. The mac studio run 24 h until the battery was empty (light work just email, www, pdf reading…7 hours).

How did you have it set up to run off a battery?

 

[BigMcGuire]

How dud you have it set up to run off a battery?

I bet the person you replied to is using something like what I have (but a lot bigger):

Anker 521 Portable Power Station Upgraded with LiFePO4 Battery, 256Wh 6-Port PowerHouse, 300W (Peak 600W) Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional), 2 AC Outlets, 60W USB-C PD Output, Outdoor Generator

portable power station

www.amazon.com

A lot of people I know here in California are buying these things up like crazy because our power keeps going out all the time. You can daisy chain 100+w solar panels to it too.

 

[F-Train]

I bet the person you replied to is using something like what I have (but a lot bigger):

Anker 521 Portable Power Station Upgraded with LiFePO4 Battery, 256Wh 6-Port PowerHouse, 300W (Peak 600W) Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional), 2 AC Outlets, 60W USB-C PD Output, Outdoor Generator

portable power station

www.amazon.com

A lot of people I know here in California are buying these things up like crazy because our power keeps going out all the time. You can daisy chain 100+w solar panels to it too.

Thanks. I have a 12V LiFePO4 battery and an inverter that I've been experimenting with. Energy from solar panels is the next step. Haven't decided whether to continue tinkering with components or just get a power station plus solar package from, e.g. Anker or Jackery.

 

[eicca]

Crazy to think my LED lightbulbs draw more power on average than an M1 Max computer.

 

[radus]

How did you have it set up to run off a battery?

I just connected the battery using a power cord.

 

[MediaGary]

It is replacing a cMP 5,1 which regularly drew 750W or higher!

That's an impressively high number! What was in that cMP 5,1?

 

[Sharky II]

My 12-core 3.46ghz with RX 580 and 6 HDs never went over 500w, but there are more power hungry graphics cards out there for sure

 

[JamesScheller]

Did anyone plug their Mac Studio to an energy consumption meter ?
That could give interesting results (average consumption over a while, peak consumption...)

Plugged mine into a Killawatt meter, mostly to measure idle power consumption as the machine is essentially idle for me most of the time it's on... Pics and other details here...

https://jamesscheller.com/2022-macstudio-versus-2009-mac-pro-review/

At idle, I'm seeing right around ~20 watts of power consumption on an M1 Ultra Mac Studio at the power plug.

 

[Feek]

Pics and other details here...

Very nice, looking forward to the Micro

 

[Fishrrman]

16w at idle is very good, considering the Studio's size.

One more reason why -- for many years -- I do NOT "sleep" my desktops.
If I'm going to be away for a while, I either
a. put the display [only] to sleep
or
b. reach forward and switch OFF the display.

... and just let the Mac "sit there", "awake, but idling"...

 

[Chancha]

For the month of owning my base Mac Studio, using heavy Adobe CC apps (pre-press), according to iStat Menus the peak power draw never exceeded 25W. I haven't thrown the hardest workflow at it yet such as LR CC merging of hundreds of stacks, but can imagine it not break a sweat.

This Studio is also sitting inside a network cabinet behind a 1500VA UPS; ever since adding the Studio I could hardly notice the total load increasing by a meaningful amount, meaning the additional wattage/VA on average is almost in single digit. Run time also not seem to have decreased much.

 

[icymountain]

Plugged mine into a Killawatt meter, mostly to measure idle power consumption as the machine is essentially idle for me most of the time it's on... Pics and other details here...

https://jamesscheller.com/2022-macstudio-versus-2009-mac-pro-review/

At idle, I'm seeing right around ~20 watts of power consumption on an M1 Ultra Mac Studio at the power plug.

These are impressive numbers, I think slightly below what my Intel Mac Mini uses, but of course the Studio provides much, much more computing power.

 

[bigfatipod]

this is interesting - so the Mac Studio uses less power than an old incandescent 60w bulb?

 

[Feek]

this is interesting - so the Mac Studio uses less power than an old incandescent 60w bulb?

Significantly less.

 

[southerndude39]

my Studio Max uses about 8.5w without any peripherals running. It's impressive.