MP 7,1 Whatever happens to the rumored ‘Pro Mode’?

[basehead617]

I haven’t heard anything about this since the initial burst of articles like this:

Apple secretly working on Mac 'beast mode' that offers a huge power boost

The new feature will improve performance but drain your battery more quickly.

metro.co.uk

 

[IA64]

Well yeah it's Apple, even if this is something that can be done on windows since Windows7 by registry tweaks to change the processor c-states, p-states etc... Probably nothing more than marketing hype.

I hope it's not some EFI tweaks to overclock the hardware because I'm going to be LMAO.

I bet they didn't go any further because the "beast mode" won't get you a marginal performance gain. Risks outweigh the benefits

 

[deconstruct60]

I haven’t heard anything about this since the initial burst of articles like this:

Apple secretly working on Mac 'beast mode' that offers a huge power boost

The new feature will improve performance but drain your battery more quickly.

metro.co.uk

From the article.

"...
The code warns ‘Apps may run faster, but battery life may decrease and fan noise may increase.’ ..."

Battery life on a Mac Pro? Probably not applicable. Indeed later in article.

"...
The new Pro Mode is expected to roll out to Apple’s high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro, but could come to other devices if it proves successful. ..."


The Mac Pro is present in this article primarily as just misdirection after there is nothing else to discussion with the click back grabbing headline. They aren't coupled in any significant way. The Mac Pro enclosure has no where even remotely near the thermal constraint interaction problems that the MBP 16" has with the CPU and GPU options.
The common configurations of the Mac Pro probably overspec on Thermal load capacity; not under speced. (e.g., 8-16 cores CPU and 5700 ( with full MPX module cooler or 580X/5500W with 'half' cooler at much lower thresholds ) aren't a problem even under full load for extended periods of time.

 

[basehead617]

From the article.

"...
The code warns ‘Apps may run faster, but battery life may decrease and fan noise may increase.’ ..."

Battery life on a Mac Pro? Probably not applicable. Indeed later in article.

"...
The new Pro Mode is expected to roll out to Apple’s high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro, but could come to other devices if it proves successful. ..."


The Mac Pro is present in this article primarily as just misdirection after there is nothing else to discussion with the click back grabbing headline. They aren't coupled in any significant way. The Mac Pro enclosure has no where even remotely near the thermal constraint interaction problems that the MBP 16" has with the CPU and GPU options.
The common configurations of the Mac Pro probably overspec on Thermal load capacity; not under speced. (e.g., 8-16 cores CPU and 5700 ( with full MPX module cooler or 580X/5500W with 'half' cooler at much lower thresholds ) aren't a problem even under full load for extended periods of time.

There was a lot of discussion on release about how no matter what you do the thing stays dead quiet and there had to be room to go harder with performance if desired. I think a lot of people that need the horsepower were hoping that was the case.. yes even if it includes overclocking.

 

[Krevnik]

Not all rumors pan out.

There was a lot of discussion on release about how no matter what you do the thing stays dead quiet and there had to be room to go harder with performance if desired. I think a lot of people that need the horsepower were hoping that was the case.. yes even if it includes overclocking.

That's more due to Apple engineering the cooling to be dead quiet. At least for the CPU. It isn't dead quiet if you load down one of the more expensive GPUs like the Vega II or the W5700X.

With CPU features like Turbo Boost, Intel and AMD are leaving less performance on the table to be gained by OEM/User overclocking. This is because Turbo Boost is in effect a built-in overclock. The chips are designed to ramp up until it either hits the power or thermal limits. The Mac Pro hits the power limits before things get hot.

I'm honestly not sure how much Apple even would have expected to extract out of the MBP 16", for the same reason, though. They could have gotten something, since that hits thermal limits first, but it probably wasn't a whole lot. You are still going to hit thermal limits if you ramp up the fans proactively rather than retroactively, especially with the sort of power spikes the i9s from the last year or so are capable of.

 

[theSeb]

In Mac OS Apple already tweak the voltages and fan curves for each Mac/CPU combo. I am not sure what more tweaking can be done.

 

[deconstruct60]

There was a lot of discussion on release about how no matter what you do the thing stays dead quiet and there had to be room to go harder with performance if desired.

The empty PCI-e slot covers of the Mac Pro are high-end tensile strength solid aluminum. Grossly over engineering. There is a fan just to blow air only over the RAM , SSD and the underside of the CPU mount point. How many systems out there are engineered to have just RAM fans? Same thing for most of the MPX modules. For most, part thermally over engineered for most modules.

Apple may have downclocked the 580X a bit to fit more comfortable in the "half" module , but it isn't anywhere near as kneecapped as the MBP 16" components are by its enclosure. The Pro Vega Solo pragmatically has a Duo heat sink sitting on it. Think going to overclock into the zone of another package worth of heat without damaging the die? The only one even close to the edge is the Duo.


"Pro Mode" on the MBP 16" is basically turning off the limiters that Apple put on the components because "thin" mattered more than doing it "correct" in terms of container-thermal constraint interactions. The Mac Pro is gross 180 turn in direction Apple got caught painted into a corner with the Mac Pro 2013 and so finally Apple took the constraints off doing a thermally conservative ( with lots of head room) design.

I think a lot of people that need the horsepower were hoping that was the case.. yes even if it includes overclocking.

"Pro Mode" in the MBP 16" wasn't about overclocking. It was about bring the components but up to levels would nominally hit if were in a non-thinned-out 6-7l lbs , workstation laptop from a variety of vendors.

Looking for overclocking over spec from Apple is like looking for a BBQ pork ribs at a Kosher deli.

 

[ondioline]

There is a fan just to blow air only over the RAM , SSD and the underside of the CPU mount point. How many systems out there are engineered to have just RAM fans?

TBF the rear blower fan also directly removes heat from the PSU, it's not as superfluous as you're describing lol