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Late 2013 rMBP 5 hour battery life?

R

Ruphio

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2013
21
0
Hi all,

Just bought a maxed out 15" rMBP. I was super excited for the battery life as my 2010 17" MBP only got about 3 hours max, less if I was video editing.

So far I did one power drain and full charge to 100% and I'm only getting 5 hours 11 mins of estimated time showing. This is with just a browser open (no video playing), wifi and brightness at half. Is this to be expected or will the time go up with more cycles? I was hoping to at least get a real time usage of 6.5 hours and video editing time of 4.5 hours (to get thru a flight).

much thanks!
 
Ruphio said:
Hi all,

Just bought a maxed out 15" rMBP. I was super excited for the battery life as my 2010 17" MBP only got about 3 hours max, less if I was video editing.

So far I did one power drain and full charge to 100% and I'm only getting 5 hours 11 mins of estimated time showing. This is with just a browser open (no video playing), wifi and brightness at half. Is this to be expected or will the time go up with more cycles? I was hoping to at least get a real time usage of 6.5 hours and video editing time of 4.5 hours (to get thru a flight).

much thanks!
Click to expand...

i get about 9-11 hours average with brightness 25%-50% using chrome (gpu accelerated) / terminals / wifi

you low battery might be due to spotlight indexing or something else
 
actuallyinaus said:
i get about 9-11 hours average with brightness 25%-50% using chrome (gpu accelerated) / terminals / wifi

you low battery might be due to spotlight indexing or something else
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Do you have spotlight turned off?
 
Ruphio said:
Hi all,

Just bought a maxed out 15" rMBP. I was super excited for the battery life as my 2010 17" MBP only got about 3 hours max, less if I was video editing.

So far I did one power drain and full charge to 100% and I'm only getting 5 hours 11 mins of estimated time showing. This is with just a browser open (no video playing), wifi and brightness at half. Is this to be expected or will the time go up with more cycles? I was hoping to at least get a real time usage of 6.5 hours and video editing time of 4.5 hours (to get thru a flight).

much thanks!
Click to expand...

Are you transferring any files over WiFi? Is your dGPU activated? Check Activity Monitor to see if there are any processes stressing the CPU.

Also, it seems Mavericks uses a different method to estimate the time remaining on battery life - it often takes ~5 minutes or so to properly recalculate time left based on the current usage.
 
Blue Sun said:
Are you transferring any files over WiFi? Is your dGPU activated? Check Activity Monitor to see if there are any processes stressing the CPU.

Also, it seems Mavericks uses a different method to estimate the time remaining on battery life - it often takes ~5 minutes or so to properly recalculate time left based on the current usage.
Click to expand...

No files over wifi and gfxstatus is set on dynamic switching (currently using dgpu). Ah ok, well im glad it's at least showing 5+ hours. When I first got it, it was showing around 3 hours. lol
 
actuallyinaus said:
i get about 9-11 hours average with brightness 25%-50% using chrome (gpu accelerated) / terminals / wifi

you low battery might be due to spotlight indexing or something else
Click to expand...

Your macbook pro isnt maxed out though I bet, 2.3Ghz is what you have?
 
Battery life got crappy again.

88%, been on battery for 30 mins, 3:15 remaining. gah.
 
If you got the 2.6Ghz i7 upgrade, this isn't the first case I heard about poor battery life. The 2.3Ghz seems to get between 8-9 hours and the 2.0Ghz gets 10+ hours. I had no idea 300Mhz would have such an impact on battery life!!
 
Starfyre said:
Do 40%, disable bluetooth. Whats it look lik ethen?
Click to expand...

bluetooth was already disabled, very little change with reduction in brightness.

----------
Windows&Apple said:
If you got the 2.6Ghz i7 upgrade, this isn't the first case I heard about poor battery life. The 2.3Ghz seems to get between 8-9 hours and the 2.0Ghz gets 10+ hours. I had no idea 300Mhz would have such an impact on battery life!!
Click to expand...

Damn....well that blows. lol
 
Windows&Apple said:
If you got the 2.6Ghz i7 upgrade, this isn't the first case I heard about poor battery life. The 2.3Ghz seems to get between 8-9 hours and the 2.0Ghz gets 10+ hours. I had no idea 300Mhz would have such an impact on battery life!!
Click to expand...

I don't think that's the problem. OP, try an SMC reset and upload an image of your Activity Monitor showing CPU usage. I'm almost positive it isn't the faster processor causing the excess battery drain.
 
Can anyone else who has a 2.6 confirm or post their battery life results after using it for the same amount of time?

----------
Windows&Apple said:
If you got the 2.6Ghz i7 upgrade, this isn't the first case I heard about poor battery life. The 2.3Ghz seems to get between 8-9 hours and the 2.0Ghz gets 10+ hours. I had no idea 300Mhz would have such an impact on battery life!!
Click to expand...

This is what I was afraid of...
 
Starfyre said:
Can anyone else who has a 2.6 confirm or post their battery life results after using it for the same amount of time?

----------



This is what I was afraid of...
Click to expand...

No confirmation, I was considering the 2.6Ghz that's why I was looking into it. But it seems to be the same case with the i7 13". Less than advertised battery life. Looks like Apple tested the stock CPU's when it comes to battery life.
 
Windows&Apple said:
No confirmation, I was considering the 2.6Ghz that's why I was looking into it. But it seems to be the same case with the i7 13". Less than advertised battery life. Looks like Apple tested the stock CPU's when it comes to battery life.
Click to expand...

I think I read somewhere they used the 2.3GHz as the basis for the battery estimates. Even still, thats a rather huge chunk for a nice geekbench score. 300Mhz difference is more like 12000Mhz being four cores.

This power of the 2.6 is equivalent to that of the most powerful Ivy Bridge processor for 17 inch notebooks... now if we could just get the battery to be better...
 
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1662044/

Another post with a similar issue. And yea, a 1.2Ghz decrease is kind of a bummer for power users, but realistically, if you're using the machine to it's limits and need the 2.6Ghz, it should be plugged in. Still, this isn't acceptable and Apple should either fix their advertising or ensure people who paid more don't get less.
 
Blue Sun said:
I don't think that's the problem. OP, try an SMC reset and upload an image of your Activity Monitor showing CPU usage. I'm almost positive it isn't the faster processor causing the excess battery drain.
Click to expand...

This is what I got.
 

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I'm charging up again cause I drained it to see if this second power cycle helps. Hopefully I can figure this out :/.
 
Ruphio said:
I'm charging up again cause I drained it to see if this second power cycle helps. Hopefully I can figure this out :/.
Click to expand...

I am counting on you. Really would love a 2.6 for an 8 hour flight next month.
 
I've got the 2.6 13" and it's getting 9-11 hours. Lowest has been 6-7-ish, but that's because I watched a movie, and was installing apps, downloading big files etc. I just use autobrightness, and I use chrome specifically for my browsing.

What's weird, is that I've also got the high end 15" and it's getting NEARLY the same results. 9 hours usual on a charge, and I haven't been able to get it lower than 6. Go figure.

Also, that estimator has never been right for me. It's always wayyyy too conservative. Just my experience at least.
 
daudi81 said:
I've got the 2.6 13" and it's getting 9-11 hours. Lowest has been 6-7-ish, but that's because I watched a movie, and was installing apps, downloading big files etc. I just use autobrightness, and I use chrome specifically for my browsing.

What's weird, is that I've also got the high end 15" and it's getting NEARLY the same results. 9 hours usual on a charge, and I haven't been able to get it lower than 6. Go figure.

Also, that estimator has never been right for me. It's always wayyyy too conservative. Just my experience at least.
Click to expand...

Your 15" is 2.6GHz?
 
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