What are the power consumption differences between the MacBook Pro M4 and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 during video rendering

1. MacBook Pro with M4 Chips: The M4 series, particularly the M4 Pro and M4 Max, are designed to be highly efficient with favorable power-consumption-to-performance ratios. For instance, the M4 Pro consumes a maximum of about 46 watts under full multi-core load, while the M4 Max can reach up to 57 watts briefly, settling around 50 watts in high-performance mode[6]. However, during video rendering tasks, the M4 Pro might not always utilize its full power capacity, as seen in a scenario where rendering a 4K video uses only 13W of power[1]. This efficiency is partly due to Apple's optimized silicon and cooling systems.

2. 16-inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9: This model, equipped with Intel 9th Gen CPUs like the i9-9880H, is known for its high performance but also for higher power consumption compared to Apple Silicon. Under heavy CPU load, it can draw up to 125W[8]. The Intel Core i9 processors are less efficient in terms of power consumption compared to Apple's M4 chips, which results in higher energy usage during demanding tasks like video rendering.

3. Performance and Efficiency: The M4 Max offers significantly faster video processing performance compared to the Intel Core i9 models. For example, it provides up to 7.8x faster scene rendering performance with Maxon Redshift and up to 30.8x faster video processing in Topaz Video AI compared to the Intel Core i9[3]. This indicates that while the Intel Core i9 might consume more power, the M4 chips achieve better performance per watt.

In summary, the MacBook Pro with M4 chips is more power-efficient and offers superior performance per watt compared to the Intel Core i9 models. However, the M4 series may not always utilize its full power capacity during certain tasks, which can lead to lower power consumption but potentially slower performance in specific scenarios like 4K video rendering.