What you need to know
- The latest developer beta of macOS Monterey contains a reference to "High Power Mode."
- The new mode would allow Macs to run at peak performance regardless of being plugged in.
The latest developer beta of macOS Monterey makes reference to a "High Power Mode."
As reported by 9to5Mac, code found within. macOS Monterey beta 8 contains a reference to the new feature, which would act as the opposite to Low Power Mode.
The first references to "Pro Mode" were found in macOS Catalina 10.15.3. Internal macOS code described this option as something to make apps run faster, while also warning about reduced battery life and increased fan noise. This feature was never made available to users, and all references were removed from macOS Monterey beta – until now.9to5Mac has now found references to a new "High Power Mode" added to macOS Monterey beta 8, which was released to developers earlier today. While "Low Power Mode" already exists and reduces the performance of Mac laptops to save battery life, "High Power Mode" is expected to do the opposite by letting users run apps at full performance even when the Mac is not connected to the power.
A "High Power Mode" could let MacBook Air and MacBook Pro users clock the CPU and GPU at the highest performance possible regardless of the hit to battery life. It would be a helpful feature for those who need to eke out even more performance for demanding tasks.
It would be interesting to see how this kind of "Pro Mode" would work across Apple's Mac lineup, especially since the M1 MacBook Air removed fans from the Mac completely. The MacBook Pro models are currently the only portable Macs to feature fans.
It could also be a feature reserved for Apple's rumored 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro refreshes which are expected to be announced at an October event. The new Macs are anticipated to feature the M1X processor, a souped-up version of the M1 chip that was released last year.
