M3 Max Low-Power Mode is INSANE! (what you need to know)

The 2023 16" M3 Max MacBook runs HOT & LOUD! This is how to Fix it!

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Timestamps ⬇️
M3 Max Low Power Mode - 00:00
High Power Mode - 02:14
New Discoveries - 04:37
GPU Performance - 07:47
M3 Max Fan Noise - 08:40

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[MaxTechOfficial]

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.

Keep in mind that if you are doing very heavy tasks battery life drops as the CPU/GPU needs more power and the fans have to spin like crazy, but based on the tests you can see how much less power is being used. CPU going from 68W peak to only 22W is a massive difference. Timed tasks will take longer but not by much as you saw. In that scenario, you will go for 3 hours of battery life up to about 6-7, so more than doubling the battery life.

[SoftwareManiacLSM]

It just goes to show, Max, some folks who sometimes just evaluate simple heat/fans performance, it pays to dig into how a product actually works (in low power mode). I am keeping my M3 Max. Couldn't be happier.

[questionyourbeliefs]

This video alone makes this channel noteworthy. Digging deep as you do. Thank you!

[noisetin]

And nothing about battery life? The whole purpose of Low Power mode? C'mon guys 😂

[digitaldevigner]

This is the huge benefit of the 3nm process. The ability to do more with less. The fear was always Apple would make the MBP thinner and smaller because of this but by keeping the size the same they really are able to do so much more with much less resources.

While some are so fixated on speed and performance there are some that also prefer to have a laptop that can run the entire day and have virtually no noise or heat. That’s why the MBA is such an amazing laptop. Having this level of performance running a cool and quiet laptop for most of the day is pretty darn insane. This is the true power of Apple Silicon that a lot of reviews miss out on.

There are a lot of professions out there that could probably just leave the M3 Max on low power mode. The performance was already typically way more than most need and now they can get an all day laptop as well.

[LarryGanz]

I upgraded from a top of the line 2020 i9 16" Macbook Pro to a 14" M1 Max with 64GB/4TB in late summer 2022, and it's so powerful that it's stayed in low power mode since the 2nd or 3rd week of ownership. That was about 5 months before the M2 were available.

[tonyscaminaci]

This is probably the most useful video I’ve seen for the M3 Max systems. Running cooler gives the M3 chip more longevity and longer battery life as well as quiet operation. Low-power mode it is!

[noisetin]

No one is talking about super annoying issue when on low power mode - trackpad delay in 3rd party browsers. It makes it almost unusable for any longer usage. Not expecting it to be resolved on M3 but still would love to hear it from you too. (*edit= just look in the reply 9 messages below to see explanation of this bug)

[gerald]

Thanks for providing the detailed results. The question is how would your 16 core test machine in low-power mode compare to the 14 core M3 Max and even the 12 core M3 Pro MB Pro in full-power mode in terms of temperatures, fan speed, and performance. Indeed, it may make sense to purchase the lower cost machine for those that place fan noise as a key purchase criteria . This info would be appreciated in a follow-up video.

[LeicaGeek]

I have the 14" 14/30 M3 Max. I tested the Denoise function in Adobe Camera Raw which takes a lot of time on my 60 megapixel raw files. I can confirm low power mode is NOT worth it. In automatic mode it took 27 seconds. Low Power mode took 44 seconds. This is a real world test for my workflow and I will NOT be using low power mode. My laptop is silent under both conditions so noise is not an issue nor is heat. This is why I don't like synthetic tests as they mean nothing for real world situations. For those wondering high power mode got the same time of 27 seconds. I'm keeping my system in automatic.

[Upscale_King]

Can you do battery life tests between these modes and between the M3 Max and M3 Pro?

[Epicgamer_Mac]

Wow guys, what an amazing set of tests! M2 Max is already crazy powerful but the fact that you can turn this to low power mode to get the same GPU/more CPU performance, or turn it to high power mode and just go hog wild and destroy the competition, is absolutely insane. Apple did the right thing with this M3 Max chip in a way they haven’t been able to do till now. So glad I purchased!

[hypoluxa]

Very impressive review! Who would've thought LOW POWER mode was actually still high powered??!

[SamuelLavoie]

The M3 Max chip could do wonders in something like the Studio. Can’t wait to see benchmarks for sustained load in it 😮

[herberthoffmann]

Great results 🎉 Can you make a battery test for the 14“ MBP with the base M3 please 🙏🏽❤?

[Joe_Brig]

I want a quiet mode, fast for bursts and low power for long running processes.

[nfrenay]

I would use low power sometimes if Apple allowed the screen to keep it's 120Hz refresh rate, but at 60Hz it's a pretty bad tradeoff.

[zenscape]

I switched to low power battery mode for my M3 Max while watching this video. Hope the battery can last longer without plugging in. Thanks for the tips!

[VoicefulRiver]

My 16" M1 Pro may not be as fast but it's still very quick. As well as being cool(75-85° under load, which is better than it was at launch) and silent(fans never turn on) I love the efficiency/speed combo. Don't need to use low power mode, which means pro-motion stays on.

[JMFKorbl]

Would be really interesting to see this tested on the 14inch!