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Average energy impact : Chrome

G

gr4v1ty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 18, 2014
28
0
Hello

Lately, my MacBook has been draining a lot of energy and the major impact is from Chrome. I know a lot of you say that it is a battery hog on Mac, but I just want to make sure I'm not the only one having a problem

When I look in my avg energy impact I'm at around 50.

My friend is at 20. Just wanna make sure how much you guys have since I don't seem to find what is "normal". I know it is different from a person to another, but I believe most of user are using Chrome as a normal browser with 5-7 tabs open and maybe some music/video once in a while.

Thanks!

PS : I do not have a lot of extensions running (AdBlock and Session Buddy). Installed Google Drive separately and disable Google Now.
 
Yea it takes up a lot of energy. Maximum just restart the computer if problems. Otherwise u r fine. I for one love chrome b/c of its speed.
 
I don't have an average for you, but I can tell you that the ONE time I wanted to stream a video and wanted it separate from Safari, I used Chrome, and watched as the battery overheated on my 2015 13" MBPr, and the power consumption jumped from 10 watts to nearly 30.

Yeah, that bad.

Suffice it to say I'm not using Chrome again anytime soon.

Granted, Flash likely had a lot to do with it, but even when Flash running in Safari, power consumption hasn't been that bad. There is something about Chrome that is just bloated to the core, even despite their supposedly streamlined fork of WebKit.
 
I use Chrome on my early '09 iMac, but haven't installed it on my 2015 13" rMBP yet.

One thing that I've noticed, at least on my iMac, is that Safari uses about 2/3 of a gig of memory, and about .8 to 1.9 for energy usage.

Now when running Chrome, the memory usage jumps up to around 1 gig of memory, and 5.89 energy.

I know that isn't as high as you guys are referring to, but I just figured I'd chime in with my experience on my iMac. And this is with only 1 tab running while reading Macrumors.

My iMac is running Mavericks 10.9.5 and my rMBP is on Yosemite 10.10.3 for whatever that's worth.
 
You can optimize it a bit. I disable all plugins which helps a good amount. It occasionally blocks something I actually need but you can simply click on it to activate it.
 
gr4v1ty said:
Hello

Lately, my MacBook has been draining a lot of energy and the major impact is from Chrome. I know a lot of you say that it is a battery hog on Mac, but I just want to make sure I'm not the only one having a problem

When I look in my avg energy impact I'm at around 50.

My friend is at 20. Just wanna make sure how much you guys have since I don't seem to find what is "normal". I know it is different from a person to another, but I believe most of user are using Chrome as a normal browser with 5-7 tabs open and maybe some music/video once in a while.

Thanks!

PS : I do not have a lot of extensions running (AdBlock and Session Buddy). Installed Google Drive separately and disable Google Now.
Click to expand...

Chrome is rubbish in OSX simple as that everyone here will tell you that. The only way to stop the problem is not run chrome.
 
Personally, even though Chrome uses more resources, I still prefer it because I think it runs faster and smoother.

But now that I saw that the same Adblock which is available in Chrome is also available in Safari, I might give Safari another chance.

I do notice Chrome is more heavy in Windows as opposed to OSX.

Of course I do more browsing on my iMac as opposed to my rMBP, so maybe that's why I don't notice as much issues.
 
Chrome is a browser, so its energy impact is highly driven by what you're doing with it. If you're watching 1080p video or using flash, you're pushing it harder than if you are browsing text.

----------
MaskedCarrot said:
Personally, even though Chrome uses more resources, I still prefer it because I think it runs faster and smoother.

But now that I saw that the same Adblock which is available in Chrome is also available in Safari, I might give Safari another chance.

I do notice Chrome is more heavy in Windows as opposed to OSX.

Of course I do more browsing on my iMac as opposed to my rMBP, so maybe that's why I don't notice as much issues.
Click to expand...

I just tried ublock instead of adblock plus today. Seems to be lower resources and does the same thing. Impressed so far.
 
Yeah I know but I usually don't browse that many videos and do normal browsing of text and Facebook. Some homeworks, etc. I saw that problem coming after 10.10.3 update so this is why I'm asking if anyone had maybe the same problem
 
Freyqq said:
I just tried ublock instead of adblock plus today. Seems to be lower resources and does the same thing. Impressed so far.
Click to expand...

I love uBlock. I recently switched too and I can feel a difference in bottom case temperature and in page load times. Granted, I use Firefox instead of Chrome. But the reason I switched is because Chrome was being such a battery/resource hog. I know Safari would be better than FF, but I can't give up my extensions.
 
Freyqq said:
I just tried ublock instead of adblock plus today. Seems to be lower resources and does the same thing. Impressed so far.
Click to expand...

Adblock and Adblock Pro are by two different people and are developed differently.

Way back when I started with Adblock Pro, I guess I just felt like the word PRO in it made it better. hehe But it didn't do a very good job at blocking stuff. I don't remember why, but I uninstalled it and tried just regular Adblock, and that one runs great. Blocks much more stuff and even blocks opening video ads on Youtube before the main video starts.
 
Here's my Activity Monitor with three tabs open in Chrome and a couple extensions including Adblock and 1Password. Honestly I'm not too worried. I usually have plenty of battery life for what I'm doing, and I like Chrome's UI better. It also helps manage my personal Gmail and school Gmail accounts. I usually stream videos on my iPad Mini anyway. I've just never gotten used to using Safari on the Mac since I got my first MBP for college back in 2009, and the campus internet required that I use Firefox. I switched to Chrome in 2011 when I though FF was causing some problems with my old 09 MBP. I still use it on my late-2013 rMBP.
 

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