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mlex | 4 years ago

This feels like something that should always be enabled when you're plugged into AC power (maybe only automatic when you're at 100% battery).

discuss

Bud|4 years ago

Not at all, actually. You're forgetting the heavy use of MacBook Pros by recording engineers and musicians. For them, having a machine that is fast without generating the incredibly annoying constant fan noise of the vast majority of PC laptops is a crucial feature.

So no. Definitely not. The user should be able to toggle this. As Apple has wisely chosen.

alx__|4 years ago

Indeed, having this as a opt-in feature is best

Nothing worse than trying to concentrate on something when "helicopter mode" suddenly kicks in :)

stephencanon|4 years ago

Yeah, I kept my old fanless G3 PowerBook long beyond it’s apparent sell-by date for live performance stuff, where a fan was a non-option.

AuthorizedCust|4 years ago

Some enjoy reduced fan noise, so lower power settings have value even when plugged in.

gruez|4 years ago

To add to this, apple probably already tuned the chip so that any additional power wouldn't meaningfully improve performance. You're not trading 10% more power for 10% more performance, you're trading 50% more power for 5% more performance (numbers made up).

msbarnett|4 years ago

Most of the time I'd rather have lower fan noise and a less hot chassis when I'm plugged in.

superjan|4 years ago

Dunno, I think I’d rather wait in blissful silence.

Marsymars|4 years ago

If you really want silence, you're best off with the fanless MBA. Though Apple noted that in non-intense use the MBP should be silent, you can also see from their performance graphs[1] that the M1 is more efficient than the M1 Pro and M1 Max at low power levels. (<12 watts or so, from eyeballing the chart.)

Makes sense when you consider that the M1 has more efficiency cores than the M1 Pro/Max.

I'd actually like to build myself a home NAS/server with only Gracemont cores if we ever see Alder Lake-L available in a mini-ITX form factor. (Was going to try with Jasper Lake, but that seems to have been effectively cancelled with the chip shortage.)

[1]. https://www.anandtech.com/show/17019/apple-announced-m1-pro-...

mbesto|4 years ago

IIRC MBPs circa 2010ish would auto switch the GPU just like this.

killingtime74|4 years ago

Lower heat lengthens battery life span