Especially on a 16", that's very surprising. You should have the "Best of both worlds" battery life, where you have 16", but you have the Pro / base model. How long since you got the laptop / started using it? Sorry if obvious, but usually in the first few days of use, the Mac is running all sorts of indexing / background tasks that use up much more resources and battery, but it settles down after about a few days / week.
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M1 Pro vs M1 Max: cooler system with better battery life?
- Thread starter yurkennis
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I have a 16" M1 Pro MBP (10C/16C/32GB/512GB). Mine got uncomfortably warm, but only during the initial spotlight indexing process. After that, it's been pretty cold. I've never heard the fans, even during the aforementioned spotlight indexing process. I did notice the battery going down a bit quicker than I liked when I was transcoding an .mkv file to .mp4. The source file was on my Synology NAS, and the output file was on my MBP, and I don't have an Ethernet adapter, so it was all done via WiFi. Impressive performance, as the entire process took half of the time (22 minutes) it would normally take, albeit on my 2015 MBP. I'm not missing Ethernet, not even while streaming video from my NAS (occasionally it buffered on my 2015 MBP while on Wifi). I'm really loving my new M1 Pro MBP. As seen in the screenshot, I'm showing just under nine hours on a 99% charge, but this is a lot better than the time to which I've become accustomed on my 2015 MBP. I last charged it two days ago, and the lid has been shut while I am at work.
Why worry about the 24 Core version, if your workload is demanding enough to need an M1-Max, just get the 32 core version.
My usecase: I likely need 64GB RAM (and memory extra bandwidth is nice to have), but don't actually need GPU power. Especially IF more GPU (even idle) translates into shorter battery life.
I have TG Pro running on my MBP 13" M1 and new 16" M1 Pro.. I have the sensor set to "Highest CPU" for monitoring and the MBP 13 M1 idles around like 27-28c vs constantly like 39-40c on the M1 Pro.. I'd assume there's more internal temperatures in the M1 Pro/Max packages.
Curious to know how cold anyone elses M1 Pro and M1 Max idles at (Use 'Highest CPU' sensor).
Curious to know how cold anyone elses M1 Pro and M1 Max idles at (Use 'Highest CPU' sensor).
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I'm performing a Youtube 4K video (10 hour loop) test at half-brightness (turned off auto brightness to keep the screen at the same brightness) + half volume on my 16" M1 Pro.
For reference, same test on a new Surface Pro 8 got exactly about 8~ hours.
New Asus Chromebook also got about 7 hours, 30 minutes...
It's not exactly apples to apples here as the MBP 16" has a way brighter screen at halfway as well as the speakers are incredibly louder so. However i'm curious to know how long it lasts for me.
Results are in:
16 hours, 45 minutes streaming 4K 10+ hour (had to loop it!) at middle brightness (no auto control), middle volume..
Absolute beast!
For comparison, I also have a Surface Pro 8 with and with it's screen set to 60hz, I only got 7 hours, 45 minutes in the same exact scenario.
For reference, same test on a new Surface Pro 8 got exactly about 8~ hours.
New Asus Chromebook also got about 7 hours, 30 minutes...
It's not exactly apples to apples here as the MBP 16" has a way brighter screen at halfway as well as the speakers are incredibly louder so. However i'm curious to know how long it lasts for me.
Results are in:
16 hours, 45 minutes streaming 4K 10+ hour (had to loop it!) at middle brightness (no auto control), middle volume..
Absolute beast!
For comparison, I also have a Surface Pro 8 with and with it's screen set to 60hz, I only got 7 hours, 45 minutes in the same exact scenario.
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And M1 Max, given the thread subject line
I would be interested to see the differences at idle as well from M1pro to M1max...
Indeed, but I think what many of us want to know is by how much and under what usage.
That would help make an informed decision about the downsides of choosing the M1 Max over the M1 Pro.
For example, if I would only benefit from the M1 Max for demanding graphical tasks that I might do a couple of times a week (photo/video editing at the weekend for example), but the battery lasts for 3 hours less - which I would notice every day that I'm away from mains power - then the trade-off may be not be worth it.
Finally a more scientific test.
The M1 Max got 10% to 15% less battery under light usage. But this M1 Max had 64 GB ram, vs 16 GB for the M1 Pro (so the 32 GB Max might fair a little better).
The M1 Max got 40% to 45% less battery under heady load, but also completed tasks 40% faster.
From this, I’m thinking the battery penalty for the Max is well worth it, call it 10% per work done 🤔
Perfect! Particularly since I'm working mostly docked, I think I'll skip the hassle of cancelling, then re-ordering the M1Pro.
Frankly, the most practical test would be: 16" Pro 32GB vs 16" 24-GPU Max 64GB. That is, "If I'd like to maximize RAM, how big will be my battery life penalty?"
Because, after all:
-- if people go M1Max for heavy-GPU reasons, they don't seriously consider M1 Pro
-- no one ever is thinking between 16Gb Pro and 64GB Max, it's just night and day different ballparks
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I'm wondering if the 64gb of ram also contributes to the draining of the battery vs the base M1 Max 32gb config?
Low power mode turns off Pro Motion and locks the screen at 60hz. It also pulls back the TDP (wattage) of the Apple silicon a little and results in less temperatures and slightly slower performance.
That being said, my 16" M1 Pro pulled off 16 hours and 45 minutes streaming a 4K Youtube video at middle brightness and middle volume with RDP stuff happening in the background amongst other things.
Your 14" might have an issue if it's only getting 9.5 hours IDLING.
Yesterday my battery life was decent—probably about 10 hours. Today, I've only been on battery for about 3.75 hours and I'm already down to 39%. And my work has been very light. Just a 45-min Zoom call and then web browsing, email, etc.
I opened Activity Monitor, and Brave.app had been at 125% CPU for a while. I restarted the computer and Brave seems to have normalized.
I'm hoping that was a temporary issue... because ~6 hours of battery life is a definite no-go. I'm on a 14" Pro with 16 GB.
I opened Activity Monitor, and Brave.app had been at 125% CPU for a while. I restarted the computer and Brave seems to have normalized.
I'm hoping that was a temporary issue... because ~6 hours of battery life is a definite no-go. I'm on a 14" Pro with 16 GB.
That doesn't sound great....and recent battery comparison tests on YouTube (plus some other tech site reviews) are dissuading me from my original plan of the 24-core-GPU M1 Max in the MBP14.
If your 14" M1 Pro is only getting 6 hours, the M1 Max would probably be even worse - maybe only 4.5-5 hours which is well below expectations.
I'm even considering whether I should just wait for an M2 MacBook Air....
If battery life is your #1 priority, then the M1 13” MBP or the M1 Pro 16” (not the Max model) is your best choice.
Really curious what the M1 Pro 14" vs M1 Max 14" get battery life wise with low power mode on. I ordered a 14" M1 Max and now possibly regretting it. Mobility + battery life very important to me. I am coming from a 16" Intel MBP and wanted to downgrade size as I will be lugging this to and from work daily... but battery is key. Wondering if the best Mac for me is actually the 16" M1 Pro. I don't need the GPU power, I bought the Max to help future proof this Mac so it stays competent for at least 6 years.
The only time the M1-Max might get similar battery life is when it completes the same task quicker. For all other combinations of work and general use the M1-Pro is simply going to have better battery life.
IMO no one who is concerned about battery life should get the 14" M1-Max.
Interesting battery life threads on Reddit. Making me think that M1 Max on 14” may be saved by low-power mode…
I'll try low power mode today (14" Pro 16 GB), but it's not a full work day and I'm only planning to use the computer for a few hours, so not sure if I"ll be able to determine anything.
And, as I said in another thread, I am getting about 12+ hours with my Pro even with low power mode turned off. I decided to return my Max and keep the Pro regardless, but curious to see how this affects others.
One more data point*:
14" M1 Pro (16 core GPU), 16GB memory
vs
16": M1 Max (32 core GPU), 32GB memory
Equal time for video preview on Final Cut Pro
2hr vs 2hr20min for video export on Final Cut Pro
Also, see comparison on thermals, Premiere Pro: video preview vs video export:
*As published in Japanese, use Google Translate.
14" M1 Pro (16 core GPU), 16GB memory
vs
16": M1 Max (32 core GPU), 32GB memory
Equal time for video preview on Final Cut Pro
2hr vs 2hr20min for video export on Final Cut Pro
Also, see comparison on thermals, Premiere Pro: video preview vs video export:
*As published in Japanese, use Google Translate.
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Enough data points for me:
16” M1 Max 32Gb 1Tb arriving on Wednesday
**sits by post box** ?
16” M1 Max 32Gb 1Tb arriving on Wednesday
**sits by post box** ?