Just an observation, I have an M1 Max and M3 Pro. The M3 Pros battery seems to drain much much faster than my M1 when watching YT. Wonder if this P core thing has anything to do with it.
From what I've seen, though, is that M3 machines tend to consume more power than the M1 generation.
Sure, AV1 is the better, newer codec, but h264 has been around for a long time and is certainly implemented very efficiently in the HW decoder.
I believe that's what Safari did for a while with VP8 or VP9 – it was only available while plugged in on my old Mac if I remember correctly. There was a developer option called "support VP9 even on battery power" or something similar.
>...From the independent battery tests I've seen...
> In our video rundown test, the 14-inch Pro lasted even longer, crossing the 30-hour threshold, becoming the longest-lasting laptop we've ever tested.
In this video they compare the M2 Pro and M3 Pro and the M3 Pro has more battery remaining at the end of the video: https://youtu.be/aQvsZQ3QBiU
Same for this video where they compare M1 Max, M2 Max and M3 Max: https://youtu.be/BWeuhxnWDl0
I'm seeing a bit better battery life in general on my 16" M3 Max than I did on my former 16" M1 Pro.