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M3 Max Low-Power Mode is INSANE

macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,495
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I've seen a lot of people on here talking about returning the M3 Max or going with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans. If that is the only thing holding you back—don't do it. What if I told you that you could have the best of both worlds? I was speculating about this the other day, based on a video where I saw some numbers that caught my eye about battery usage and render times and I'm glad to see a confirmation here. 3nm is legit.

This video was posted by Max Tech the other day and has everything you need to know:


TL;DW is that by enabling low-power mode when on battery, you get a significant performance bump over the M2 Max while using significantly less power—all with hardly any fan noise and at a lower temperature. In previous M-series Macs, low-power mode didn't seem to do as much as it does on these newer 3nm chips. He didn't mention exact battery figures in the video itself, but wrote and pinned this comment at the top:

As far as battery life, it totally depends on what you're doing. When you are doing simple tasks its just sipping power because of the e-cores, but the display still uses the same. If you don't have the screen maxed out at 600 nits you can get up to 24 hours of battery life. For mixed use you will get about 6 additional hours of battery life. Going from 10-12 up to 16-18 hours.
Click to expand...

That is pretty freaking cool and great to know, especially when traveling and 6 hours of extra battery life means everything. I'm definitely going to enable this on mine for battery usage. It's not often that when I'm using my Mac on battery that I would be doing some kind of render or huge LR export or be tinkering with some AI model. It's mainly to just do regular work tasks or some lighter design work, photo editing, or website development and project management so I can get out of my studio and get some fresh air and sunlight. And a primary reason I got the Max over the Pro anyway is more memory for multitasking. When I connect to my TB dock and displays in my studio—that is when I'm doing serious work and therefore more likely to need those P-cores to top 4 GHz. So now I can have my cake and eat it too, and so can you!

Will definitely be testing this more once my MBP finally arrives.
 
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That's unsurprising for multi-threaded workloads. How is single-threaded performance in low-power mode?
 
In Notebookcheck.net tests, the 14” M3 Max (40 core GPU config) has longer run times on playing a h.264 video and on their web surfing test than both the 14” M1 Max (no surprise) and 14” M2 Pro entry level (surprised me). I don’t think that they did these tests using low power mode. So, M3 Max chip does pretty well in terms of battery run time.

MacBook Pro 14 Battery comparison.png
 
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Something does not add up here. On my M3 max it takes 15 second to Denoise a 50mp photo in LR on automatic and 30 sec in low power mode. That's half the speed.
 
Comparing to an M3 Pro (using the GB data in the video), the M3 pro is faster at GB single core (~3150 vs 2228), but a bit slower on GB multi core (~15,000 vs 16,721)

or comparing to the M2 pro (2624/14,232)

Why not just buy a M2/3 Pro device and not micromanage your power mode? (Assuming you need to micromanage your power mode in the first place.)
 
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richard371 said:
Something does not add up here. On my M3 max it takes 15 second to Denoise a 50mp photo in LR on automatic and 30 sec in low power mode. That's half the speed.
Click to expand...
Makes sense to me. Low power mode should be less performant.

Others' MMV but I could care less about low power mode since regular operation (M2 Max MBP, 96 GB RAM) on battery is already superb for my needs.
 
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Are they basing their premise that it's good to shave off the top-end "turbo" because someone (who seemingly was referring to Intel's turbo boost feature) on Apple's support forum said so?

I mean, sure you can do this and you'll enjoy even greater battery life. But everything you do will now be done slower.

It's probably much closer to the peak power efficiency point for the silicon, though, so I'm not calling the feature useless or anything. Just not something I'd enable just because it saves some irrelevant bar graphs from going red.
 
dgdosen said:
Comparing to an M3 Pro using data in the video, the M3 pro is faster at GB single core (~3150 vs 2228), but a bit slower on GB multi core (~15,000 vs 16,721)

or comparing to the M2 pro (2624/14,232)

Why no just buy a M2/3 Pro device And not micromanage your power mode? (Assuming you need to micromanage your power mode in the first place.)
Click to expand...
Because you have really high performance when you plug in? And on the go you have the same performance as the Pro but with more battery life? Not sure what you mean about micromanage, you just check the box to enable it on battery power and you’re done forever. Easy. If you have the money this is the way to go for sure.
 
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I am curious about one thing.

If in the low-power mode, a specific task (like decoding a raw image) becomes twice slower while the power consumption (watt) is also twice lower, doesn't the total power consumption remain the same for the task? If this scenario is correct, then such a mode doesn't save you any battery life. It just makes things slower. If your battery time becomes longer, it must be that you consciously or unconsciously give less demanding tasks to the computer when you know it's on battery, or the OS decides to run less background tasks, or both.

I am not sure if the above is correct. It sounds too naive to me. If it's not correct, which part went wrong?
 
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So I have both an M3 Pro and M3 Max 18/30, that I've been testing.

I'm been debating returning the M3 Max and going with the Pro for the longer battery life.
But this Low Power mode seems interesting.

I just ran a bunch of benchmarks, it seems to turn turn everything into a "slightly" more powerful M3 Pro chip.

Export times preform as if it's 1 pro-res encoding engine, but I'm guessing both are running at 50% or something.

BUT the laptop isn't a furnace! Keyboard is very cool to the touch, and silent turning on.

My main issues with the M3 Max are it gulping battery life, normal usage was barely getting me 4 hours, but if I'm gonna run it in low power mode 99% of the time, should I just do a M3 Pro and save $400?

All are the 14"/36GB/1TB versions.

M3 Max: 12/30M3 Max:
Low Bat. Mode		M3 Pro 12/18M3 Pro 12/18:
Low Bat. Mode
Geekbench 6-Single3051190031651914
Geekbench 6-Multi19242133701560111180
Geekbench 6-Compute Metal1258941074617796275640
Geekbench 6-Compute OpenCL76709691995003249375
Cinebench 2024 - GPU9735785863305730
Cinebench 2024 - CPU Multi131610021060808
Cinebench 2024 - CPU Single1398113990
3D Mark Wildlife Gaming Test145788775
(5 min) Premiere Pro:
XDCAM Render > ProRes 422HQ		0:511:371:461:44
(5 min) Premiere Pro:
Export ProRes 422HQ Using Previews		0:270:290:280:28
 
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macduke said:
I've seen a lot of people on here talking about returning the M3 Max or going with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans. If that is the only thing holding you back—don't do it. What if I told you that you could have the best of both worlds? I was speculating about this the other day, based on a video where I saw some numbers that caught my eye about battery usage and render times and I'm glad to see a confirmation here. 3nm is legit.

This video was posted by Max Tech the other day and has everything you need to know:


TL;DW is that by enabling low-power mode when on battery, you get a significant performance bump over the M2 Max while using significantly less power—all with hardly any fan noise and at a lower temperature. In previous M-series Macs, low-power mode didn't seem to do as much as it does on these newer 3nm chips. He didn't mention exact battery figures in the video itself, but wrote and pinned this comment at the top:



That is pretty freaking cool and great to know, especially when traveling and 6 hours of extra battery life means everything. I'm definitely going to enable this on mine for battery usage. It's not often that when I'm using my Mac on battery that I would be doing some kind of render or huge LR export or be tinkering with some AI model. It's mainly to just do regular work tasks or some lighter design work, photo editing, or website development and project management so I can get out of my studio and get some fresh air and sunlight. And a primary reason I got the Max over the Pro anyway is more memory for multitasking. When I connect to my TB dock and displays in my studio—that is when I'm doing serious work and therefore more likely to need those P-cores to top 4 GHz. So now I can have my cake and eat it too, and so can you!

Will definitely be testing this more once my MBP finally arrives.
Click to expand...
Sorry but (other than clickbait YouTube videos that I refuse to waste time on) what are the "I've seen a lot of people on here talking about returning the M3 Max or going with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans." ??

Does even one person seriously "go with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans." ?? Even one? Anyone who wants improved battery life or quieter fans should just do less demanding work. A Max chip does not use substantial power, produce substantial heat or make fan noise unless asked to work hard. My guess is that a Max chip with max RAM might do identical hard work tasks using similar power to a Pro chip with lesser RAM being forced to do identical hard work tasks due to more paging and more fan usage by the overworked Pro chip.

Note that in my particular case (M2 Max MBP, 96 GB RAM) I have never noticed fan noise, but I do have an aquarium nearby that may mask such noise. I certainly have never noticed excessive heat, and the battery life is so good that I have never even had to think about it (so no 24 hour usage tests). I cannot imagine a use case where a Pro chip would be a better choice, except to save $$ for undemanding usages.

So debate the cost of the far superior Max chip if computing resource $$ are tight, but do not argue that battery usage differences are particularly relevant.

Benchmarks are kinda silly anyway, but they do have some utility in a gross-performance-estimating kind of way. But agonizing over small benchmark differences is IMO a waste of bandwidth.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Does even one person seriously "go with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans." ?? Even one? Anyone who wants improved battery life or quieter fans should just do less demanding work.
Click to expand...

Ehh, it's just general surfing the web that causes the lil'beast to go into HEAT MODE.

Typing on a cool keyboard can be nice sometimes.
 
jrlcopy said:
Ehh, it's just general surfing the web that causes the lil'beast to go into HEAT MODE.

Typing on a cool keyboard can be nice sometimes.
Click to expand...
Interesting. That sounds like a problem of some kind. Neither my 2016 MBP nor M2 Max MBP ever have gone into HEAT MODE from general surfing the web, but the 17" 2011 MBP and previous would. The M2 has literally never gotten hot. Have you found some HOT NSFW sites? - - small joke ;~)

What is RAM on the hotbox, and how full is the SSD?
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Interesting. That sounds like a problem of some kind. Neither my 2016 MBP nor M2 Max MBP ever have gone into HEAT MODE from general surfing the web. The M2 has literally never gotten hot. Have you found some HOT NSFW sites? - - small joke ;~)

What is RAM on the hotbox, and how full is the SSD?
Click to expand...

36GB/1TB, 300gb free. Yeah my M1Air was fine, I've only had it a week so maybe it's the computer settling in...? I did a new install as well, not a time machine restore.

Looking at the temps with 0 professional apps open, only google chrome, I'm idling at 51°C, which is actually comfortable, I'll turn off low power mode and see what it ramps up to.
 
jrlcopy said:
36GB/1TB, 300gb free. Yeah my M1Air was fine, I've only had it a week so maybe it's the computer settling in...? I did a new install as well, not a time machine restore.

Looking at the temps with 0 professional apps open, only google chrome, I'm idling at 51°C.
Click to expand...
Yes, IMO it is likely to be the new computer indexing. But it ain't right so I would make a call to Apple tech support to discuss it, just so you get a Case Number and a date that you reported the possible problem in case it turns out to be a real issue. No modern Mac with 36 GB RAM and 300 GB free SSD space should easily overheat.
 
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macduke said:
I've seen a lot of people on here talking about returning the M3 Max or going with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans. If that is the only thing holding you back—don't do it. What if I told you that you could have the best of both worlds? I was speculating about this the other day, based on a video where I saw some numbers that caught my eye about battery usage and render times and I'm glad to see a confirmation here. 3nm is legit.

This video was posted by Max Tech the other day and has everything you need to know:


TL;DW is that by enabling low-power mode when on battery, you get a significant performance bump over the M2 Max while using significantly less power—all with hardly any fan noise and at a lower temperature. In previous M-series Macs, low-power mode didn't seem to do as much as it does on these newer 3nm chips. He didn't mention exact battery figures in the video itself, but wrote and pinned this comment at the top:



That is pretty freaking cool and great to know, especially when traveling and 6 hours of extra battery life means everything. I'm definitely going to enable this on mine for battery usage. It's not often that when I'm using my Mac on battery that I would be doing some kind of render or huge LR export or be tinkering with some AI model. It's mainly to just do regular work tasks or some lighter design work, photo editing, or website development and project management so I can get out of my studio and get some fresh air and sunlight. And a primary reason I got the Max over the Pro anyway is more memory for multitasking. When I connect to my TB dock and displays in my studio—that is when I'm doing serious work and therefore more likely to need those P-cores to top 4 GHz. So now I can have my cake and eat it too, and so can you!

Will definitely be testing this more once my MBP finally arrives.
Click to expand...
I already do this with my M2 Max and its great. I haven't tested but anecdotally probably gives me extra 2-3 hours compared to if I don't have low power on all the time for battery. Best computer I've ever owned, I'm sure the M3 Max will be amazing, actually seems to be the best of the M3 lineup. I don't understand why anyone would return an M3 Max for an M3 Pro.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Does even one person seriously "go with the M3 Pro over the M3 Max because they want improved battery life or quieter fans." ?? Even one? Anyone who wants improved battery life or quieter fans should just do less demanding work.
Click to expand...
Dude, chill out. I wouldn’t have posted this if I hadn’t seen people talking about it. I’m not some ****poster, I’ve been on these forums since before the iPhone launched.

So you’re really going to question if even one person has said that, including underlining it as if that’s supposed to drive your point home or something, when the person who literally posted right before you is an example of someone who is considering it?

Come on man, drop the drama. This isn’t a post I can take seriously when you tell people to “just do less demanding work” as if that’s a viable option at all whatsoever. We’re all out here, living our lives, trying to come up with solutions and pick what is best for us. I’m just trying to help the people. And it seems like you missed the whole point of my post, which was telling people they shouldn’t be concerned about battery life with the M3 Max. I ordered the 16/40 which is the top spec. Low power mode will be great for portability and travel with this chip.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Interesting. That sounds like a problem of some kind. Neither my 2016 MBP nor M2 Max MBP ever have gone into HEAT MODE from general surfing the web, but the 17" 2011 MBP and previous would. The M2 has literally never gotten hot. Have you found some HOT NSFW sites? - - small joke ;~)

What is RAM on the hotbox, and how full is the SSD?
Click to expand...
Probably 300 tabs on Chrome😂
 
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