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16" i9 Gaming in BootCamp drains battery (plugged in)
- Thread starter danny_f
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Yes, all the newer MacBook Pros do this...It's the battery management feature. I would say it comes down to preference. If you don't want your battery to discharge at all while plugged in then you should disable it. If you're ok with that, then I think it makes sense to leave it enabled.
Yes, all the newer MacBook Pros do this...It's the battery management feature. I would say it comes down to preference. If you don't want your battery to discharge at all while plugged in then you should disable it. If you're ok with that, then I think it makes sense to leave it enabled.
You've misunderstood the thread. This is not about the battery management feature that will allow the battery to drop a little while plugged in and then get charged back up.
This is about a Mac, booted in Windows (not macOS), playing games, and draining - not a little, but completely
Never happened on any of my Macs with their original chargers - If you use a lower wattage charger, sure, but never seen it with the supplied chargers
I have a MBP/15" also I’ve never had a windows laptop do this only the newer MacBook Pros lol
If the OP meant draining the battery completely then no it is not normal. The sum power consumption of all hardware exceeds the power supply’s output so it pulls energy from the battery. Normally OS X does a good job with power management but I’ve experienced battery drain over a period of gaming on both OS X and Windows.
If the OP meant draining the battery completely then no it is not normal. The sum power consumption of all hardware exceeds the power supply’s output so it pulls energy from the battery. Normally OS X does a good job with power management but I’ve experienced battery drain over a period of gaming on both OS X and Windows.
That's how I understood it at least. I could of course have misunderstood it too, but assuming my understanding was correct, yeah, unless the charger's wattage is low it's not normal
I was using a third party one and not the one that originally came with so I swapped it out for one of my originals Apple power supply.
I also installed ThrottleStop ( in windows ) and disabled "turbo", its slowing down the consumption so at least I can game for a couple of hours.
I have two power supplies one from a MB 2017 13" and another one for 2019 16" MBP, it could be using the 2017 power supply... I had assumed it was all the same since they look similar.
So later I will try swapping power supplies to see if that makes a difference.
I also installed ThrottleStop ( in windows ) and disabled "turbo", its slowing down the consumption so at least I can game for a couple of hours.
I have two power supplies one from a MB 2017 13" and another one for 2019 16" MBP, it could be using the 2017 power supply... I had assumed it was all the same since they look similar.
So later I will try swapping power supplies to see if that makes a difference.
Not at all the same.
The 16" charger can output almost twice the power as the 13" charger
I have seen his on my MBP16 as well in Bootcamp when doing something CPU + GPU intensive i.e. emulator or gaming, which caused a power draw of ~120w vs the 94W that the charger can provide.
As long as you are using the original apple charger and use Throttlestop to disable the CPU from going into Turbo, then it fixes the issue and keeps total power draw to around the 90w mark max with minimal hit on gaming performance.
Cheers
As long as you are using the original apple charger and use Throttlestop to disable the CPU from going into Turbo, then it fixes the issue and keeps total power draw to around the 90w mark max with minimal hit on gaming performance.
Cheers
This was with the charger that came with my MacBook. It's the only MagSafe charger I've ever owned and was during Battlefield 4 if I remember correctly.
This is a known issue and discharge is "normal" when under a continuous extreme load in Windows, but it generally has to be a pretty extreme load that pushes both the CPU and the GPU to its limit. USB-C charging limits the system to only 100 watts (96 watts for the 16-inch), but the 16-inch MacBook Pro can draw 110+ watts during peak CPU and GPU activity. In macOS, the system will throttle accordingly to stop battery depletion so these 110+ watt spikes are brief. However, such aggressive power management is not present with Windows 10 (unless you use an app to do so) and so under heavy load the battery can discharge as the system consumes more energy than USB-C charging can provide.
Many of the computers with this particular CPU (and a correspondingly powerful dedicated GPU) do have USB-C charging capability, but they also have dedicated charging ports with a power supply often closer to 130-150 watts.
As also noted, be sure you are using the OEM charger that comes with the 16-inch, as that one supplies 96 watts. The chargers that come with the 15-inch and 13-inch have a lower wattage and so the discharge process will be faster. The brick itself is labeled with the wattage (it is tiny, but it is on there.) If you are using a lower wattage charger, using the correct 96 watt charger will either reduce the severity of this issue or solve it outright.
Many of the computers with this particular CPU (and a correspondingly powerful dedicated GPU) do have USB-C charging capability, but they also have dedicated charging ports with a power supply often closer to 130-150 watts.
As also noted, be sure you are using the OEM charger that comes with the 16-inch, as that one supplies 96 watts. The chargers that come with the 15-inch and 13-inch have a lower wattage and so the discharge process will be faster. The brick itself is labeled with the wattage (it is tiny, but it is on there.) If you are using a lower wattage charger, using the correct 96 watt charger will either reduce the severity of this issue or solve it outright.