Battery Problem(?) With 2015 retina MB Pro

[Kostas44]

I got my 15' rMBP a few days ago and the battery runs out pretty fast. I'm not sure if this is normal, especially given that the battery is brand new. I mean, for a new battery I was expecting better performance. Is it normal for a new battery to do this (maybe because it needs some time to calibrate/adapt)(?).
Thanks for any feedback

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I got my 15' rMBP a few days ago and the battery runs out pretty fast. I'm not sure if this is normal, especially given that the battery is brand new. I mean, for a new battery I was expecting better performance. Is it normal for a new battery to do this (maybe because it needs some time to calibrate/adapt)(?).
Thanks for any feedback

That is no information at all.

What screen brightness are you using (apple does all it's battery tests at 75% brightness) This will make a massive difference to battery life.

What sort of apps and how many do you have open??

Are you using chrome and/or flash on the internet?? These will both severely impact your battery life.

What is "pretty fast" that means nothing. If you are rendering a 1080p video with 20 tabs open in chrome without flash disabled and trying to play a game at the same time (plus all the usual mail skype etc) you could get as little as 2 hours.

Have you recently migrated a lot of data to the machine, it could well be spotlight indexing and this canm as much as halve your battery life until it finishes.

See here for a very detailed FAQ on apple notebook batteries, it should answer all your questions.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/9875442/

 

[yjchua95]

I got my 15' rMBP a few days ago and the battery runs out pretty fast. I'm not sure if this is normal, especially given that the battery is brand new. I mean, for a new battery I was expecting better performance. Is it normal for a new battery to do this (maybe because it needs some time to calibrate/adapt)(?).
Thanks for any feedback

First if you're using Chrome, quit using it.

Second, don't use Flash.

Third, make sure your screen brightness isn't too high.

Fourth, what were you doing?

 

[Bending Pixels]

Double dittos on what yjchua95 asked. The "long battery life" is based on doing email or surfing the web with no Flash and limited video viewing.

Also, certain programs like Photoshop, FCPX, and even Lightroom will use up a battery faster than simply surfing.

 

[snaky69]

I got my 15' rMBP a few days ago and the battery runs out pretty fast. I'm not sure if this is normal, especially given that the battery is brand new. I mean, for a new battery I was expecting better performance. Is it normal for a new battery to do this (maybe because it needs some time to calibrate/adapt)(?).
Thanks for any feedback

Battery performance is 100% dependent on what you do while on battery.

Your post provides zero information regarding that, nor does it provide how long it lasted.

With so little info, anyone providing an answer is just taking a stab in the dark.

 

[johannnn]

Disable bluetooth through System Preferences to get some extra juice.

 

[Kostas44]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, I was really in a hurry when posting this so sorry for not providing adequate info. So basically after playing a video game for about 40 minutes my battery went from 100% to ~67%. I then used the remaining charge by browsing the web and doing others simple tasks (no video rendering, or any intensive applications running all at once and also the screen brightness was on 60% after I was done playing my video game ). After the battery completely ran out I charged it once again to 100% and let it sleep for a few hours, the battery went down to 95-97%. Completely normal. Then I used safari and had 1 or 2 other "light" programs open (spotify and mail) and in just 20-25 minutes the charge went from 95-97% to 80%. I am not sure what other info to provide in order to get better assistance, if I missed anything let me know. P.S I don't use chrome

 

[zhenya]

Use the Energy section of the Activity Monitor to identify which processes are using the most power.

Your laptop has an extremely power-hungry cpu capable of consuming 47w under full load, so if anything is occupying a lot of processor cycles, you'll suck the battery dry in no time.

 

[Kostas44]

Use the Energy section of the Activity Monitor to identify which processes are using the most power.

Your laptop has an extremely power-hungry cpu capable of consuming 47w under full load, so if anything is occupying a lot of processor cycles, you'll suck the battery dry in no time.

I have been checking activity monitor, and normally under the energy impact column there isn't a value higher than 20-25...

 

[zhenya]

Average or instantaneous? Is there one process using that much or are there several in that range?

 

[Kostas44]

Average or instantaneous? Is there one process using that much or are there several in that range?

Right now theres on on about 16 and another on 7 and the rest are barely past 1 or under it. However on the average energy readings theres one on 38 another on 16 another on 4 and the rest are below 4 but keep in mind it say last 8 hours and I was sleeping for 7 of these 8 hours so basically this is the last hour's usage.

 

[mlsusa]

I'm seeing the same battery usage as you. I have the model with the dGPU.

I ran a homemade battery test where I wiped out and reinstalled OS X fresh. Then I played a movie on QuickTime and after 2 hours the battery went down about 23-24%. This is in line with their estimate of 9 hours for movie playing.

Bottom line, your battery is probably fine. This model seems like it'll get you about 4-5 hours on the battery for typical to medium usage. I guess it's meant to be plugged in whenever possible if you're going to do any kind of normal tasks.

If you're really concerned you should make a Genius appointment and have them do their fancy diagnostics.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, I was really in a hurry when posting this so sorry for not providing adequate info. So basically after playing a video game for about 40 minutes my battery went from 100% to ~67%. I then used the remaining charge by browsing the web and doing others simple tasks (no video rendering, or any intensive applications running all at once and also the screen brightness was on 60% after I was done playing my video game ). After the battery completely ran out I charged it once again to 100% and let it sleep for a few hours, the battery went down to 95-97%. Completely normal. Then I used safari and had 1 or 2 other "light" programs open (spotify and mail) and in just 20-25 minutes the charge went from 95-97% to 80%. I am not sure what other info to provide in order to get better assistance, if I missed anything let me know. P.S I don't use chrome

Well....there you have it. Video games will use up a battery REALLY fast. They tax not only the CPU but also the GPU.

Most likely, under Apple's "normal operating circumstances" (i.e. surfing non-Flash websites, email), your battery is fine.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Seems normal to me....

If you are using safari use adblock and click to flash plug ins for it. These help enormously if you visit websites with a lot of flash video on them.

 

[Kostas44]

I'm seeing the same battery usage as you. I have the model with the dGPU.

I ran a homemade battery test where I wiped out and reinstalled OS X fresh. Then I played a movie on QuickTime and after 2 hours the battery went down about 23-24%. This is in line with their estimate of 9 hours for movie playing.

Bottom line, your battery is probably fine. This model seems like it'll get you about 4-5 hours on the battery for typical to medium usage. I guess it's meant to be plugged in whenever possible if you're going to do any kind of normal tasks.

If you're really concerned you should make a Genius appointment and have them do their fancy diagnostics.

Well....there you have it. Video games will use up a battery REALLY fast. They tax not only the CPU but also the GPU.

Most likely, under Apple's "normal operating circumstances" (i.e. surfing non-Flash websites, email), your battery is fine.

Thanks a lot for the help guys, I'll try playing a movie on quicktime to see if I get the same results like mlsusa.