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Macbook air faster when running on battery?

A

ajack

macrumors member
Original poster
May 31, 2010
43
0
Hi everyone,

This isn't the first time that this question came to my mind, cause I found that kinda weird! I'm using lion 10.7.2 and everytime I plug off the charger, my mac just runs faster! I'm using MBA mid 2009, and time just slow it down so much. Most of my relate works is surfing web, iTunes, watching HD movies.

I just made up my mind that I would definitely buy next MBA in mid (or late) 2012, so the battery cycle is not a big deal anymore. But I just don't understand why my MBA just run faster when the power source is merely battery.
 
Abazigal

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,560
22,022
Singapore
Is there some power profile you can check? My guess is there are some programs/processes which are disabled when you are running off battery solely (possibly to cut down on power consumption, but likely hogs less processor power in the process as well). :)
 
johnhurley

johnhurley

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2011
777
56
ajack said:
Hi everyone,

This isn't the first time that this question came to my mind, cause I found that kinda weird! I'm using lion 10.7.2 and everytime I plug off the charger, my mac just runs faster! I'm using MBA mid 2009, and time just slow it down so much. Most of my relate works is surfing web, iTunes, watching HD movies.

I just made up my mind that I would definitely buy next MBA in mid (or late) 2012, so the battery cycle is not a big deal anymore. But I just don't understand why my MBA just run faster when the power source is merely battery.
Click to expand...

Run a geek bench report when on just battery and also on power.

Some people have reported some weird anomalies after fully discharging battery. A couple of bypasses reported by various types of system resets.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
ajack said:
This isn't the first time that this question came to my mind, cause I found that kinda weird! I'm using lion 10.7.2 and everytime I plug off the charger, my mac just runs faster! I'm using MBA mid 2009, and time just slow it down so much. Most of my relate works is surfing web, iTunes, watching HD movies.

I just made up my mind that I would definitely buy next MBA in mid (or late) 2012, so the battery cycle is not a big deal anymore. But I just don't understand why my MBA just run faster when the power source is merely battery.
Click to expand...
There should be no performance difference at all between running on AC power and battery power, unless you've changed some settings. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
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