Battery life benchmarks across MacOS versions

[barrybeebenson]

I've been looking for benchmarks that compare the same system across different MacOS versions. I'm specifically interested in battery life, but I'm curious about other performance metrics too.

For example, I'd like to see if an M1 Macbook Air works better on Ventura or Tahoe. There's a lot of talk about iOS/MacOS 26 hurting performanxe, but I'm curious if there's real data on this!

Does anybody know if there is a good source that generates or aggregates this data?

 

[benwiggy]

I'd be surprised if there is such data. For starters, time is the biggest killer of battery performance, so if you benchmark each OS every year, then by the third or fourth year, you're measuring the natural decline of the battery.

Someone would have to have a set of identical (and identical aged) Macs, running the same tasks, on a variety of OSes; with the same configurations and charging routines.

Of course there are anecdotal reports of "since I installed X, this has happened". But it's difficult to get meaningful data from that, versus Post Hoc reactions.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

There's a lot of talk about iOS/MacOS 26 hurting performanxe, but I'm curious if there's real data on this!

MR is long on talk, short on data 😬

 

[barrybeebenson]

Those are good thoughts. I imagine battery degradation could be (imperfectly) controlled for by dividing by battery health percentage.

I was thinking this data might not be aggregated, but if older machines get benchmarked on new OS versions, maybe I could piece together a picture over articles posted years apart. But I think most outlets are more concerned with keeping on the cutting edge than testing older machines

 

[benwiggy]

It's also worth saying that Apple prides (and markets itself) on the battery life of its laptops, so a great deal of effort is spent making sure that each OS is as efficient as possible. Newer Macs may have bigger/better batteries, but Apple will want to show that increase, rather than using it to compensate against a less-efficient OS.

 

[Brian33]

One could create external boot disks for the macOS versions of interest, and then devise some test(s), all done on the same laptop, booted to different macOS versions. I've never heard of anyone doing anything like that, though.

MR is long on talk, short on data 😬

Ha ha, yes, it seems so!

 

[blufrog]

Look at it this way...the M4 Pro Mini has a peak power rating of 38 W. It is faster than my PC that has a peak power of 800 W (CPU has a peak power of 140 W).