Apple’s High Power Mode could mean MacBook performance boost

By Alex Blake September 29, 2021

In January 2020, it emerged that Apple was working on a so-called Pro Mode for its Macs. While that never became an official MacOS feature, it looks like it could be making a return under the name High Power Mode.

According to 9to5Mac, MacOS Monterey beta 8 contains references to High Power Mode in its code. Unlike the Pro Mode leak, there are no details as to how exactly this would work. However, Pro Mode itself could give us some clues.

Man using a Macbook Pro at a desk. — Ash Edmonds/Unsplash

That’s because when it was discovered nestled inside MacOS Catalina 10.15.3 code, Pro Mode was accompanied by text explaining its expected effects. For instance, one line mentioned “Apps may run faster, but battery life may decrease and fan noise may increase.” There was also a mention of “Fan speed limit overridden.”

Recommended Videos

If High Power Mode is indeed a continuation of Pro Mode, we would expect a similar outcome. That should mean better performance across the board, at the expense of battery life and fan noise. With that last factor in mind, it will be interesting to see whether High Power Mode gets enabled on the MacBook Air, which since its switch to Apple Silicon no longer needs a fan at all.

The apparent addition of High Power Mode brings MacOS in line with Windows 10, which contains the rather dramatically named Ultimate Performance mode. This tweaks your system settings to ramp up CPU power management to 100% and disable sleep mode for your hard disks, among other things. Some PC laptop manufacturers offer similar tools through fine-grained fan control tools.

The High Power Mode leak comes at a good time for Mac users, as Apple is widely expected to launch revamped MacBook Pro models at an October event. These will likely come with an updated M1X chip, offering higher performance than the current M1 model. Then next year, a high-end iMac and half-sized Mac Pro are in the cards, both of which would likely benefit from High Power Mode.

That means if you’ve been looking for a way to eke every last drop of power from your Mac, there may not be long to wait. In fact, if you want to see the code for yourself, you can download the MacOS Monterey public beta right now.

Topics

Computing Writer

Alex Blake has been working with Digital Trends since 2019, where he spends most of his time writing about Mac computers…

Computing

I’m worried Apple will skip its October event – here’s what that means for the M4 MacBook Pro

For months now, we’ve been hearing that Apple is set to announce a boatload of new products -- including the M4 MacBook Pro range, fresh iPads, and more -- at an event this October. Yet a new report suggests that things might not be quite so simple after all.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman says that Apple is set to reveal these new products “around the end of October,” with the devices going on sale on Friday, November 1. So far, so expected.

Computing

An all-glass MacBook? Here’s what Apple thinks it would look like

Bladur's Gate 3 being played on the M3 MacBook Air.

Patents and clues pointing to all-glass MacBooks and iMacs have been floating around since 2011, and this week, another patent has appeared on Patently Apple -- a "glass housing" for a MacBook-like device. It has a virtual keyboard and trackpad, and there's even a separate patent for "finger devices" that would decrease the strain of typing on a glass surface.

One of the most interesting things about the glass housing is that it "provides I/O functionality." This means, that instead of inserting a separate trackpad or keyboard keys into the housing for users to interact with, the housing itself would provide a method of input and output. In some areas and contexts, the surface would function simply as housing to protect internal components, and in others, it would display information and react to user input.

Computing

The M4 MacBook Pro is apparently listed for sale on Facebook — but I don’t buy it

An open MacBook Pro on a table.

According to analysts and industry experts like Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is expected to announce an M4 refresh of the MacBook Pro possibly this month and most likely before the end of the year. No event announcements have come yet, though Apple has historically held an October Mac event. But now, an online leak discovered by Wccftech claims the new model is up for sale on a private Facebook group. The claim is backed up by alleged images of the retail box, but there's plenty to be suspicious about.

While the images were posted by known leaker ShrimpApplePro, the information was sent to them from an unknown source. There are two posts so far, one with an image of the back of the retail box -- with comments from AppleShrimpPro saying to take it with asome skepticism -- and one showing additional images and claiming it's for sale on Facebook.