Battery Life Impact 2.6 vs 2.7 vs 2.9GHZ?

[shadow82x]

Does anyone know if there is a noticeable battery life difference between these processors? I currently have a 15" 2.9GHZ (i7 6920) and my battery life is garbage. I'm at 85% now and it's estimating 4.5 hours of usage remaining...and all I'm currently doing is light browser usage in Safari. Would the 2.6 or 2.7 have improved battery life and have reduced heat?

Edit - According to Activity Monitor, I'm using integrated graphics as well.

 

[shadow82x]

Bumping this. Seems a lot of people on the forums have been questioning this with no definite answer. I wonder if some of the battery life issues reported are attributed to upgraded processors. Makes you wonder..

 

[GBlansten]

Bumping this. Seems a lot of people on the forums have been questioning this with no definite answer. I wonder if some of the battery life issues reported are attributed to upgraded processors. Makes you wonder..

That has certainly been true in the past for i5 vs i7 processors.

 

[shadow82x]

That has certainly been true in the past for i5 vs i7 processors.

Really? It's odd because they all have the same TDP, but I'm assuming there are other factors that contribute.

 

[GBlansten]

Really? It's odd because they all have the same TDP, but I'm assuming there are other factors that contribute.

Typically the i7 runs a bit hotter and the fans have to do more work so there is a slight battery benefit to having the i5. There are lots of good links if you google i5 vs i7 battery life macbook pro.

 

[yillbs]

uhhh, no. The fans will kick on at the same temps across the board I've fired up a number of VM's using virtual box, etc, etc. Hell, I'm doing backup right now, CPU is pegged at 70%, fans are not even audible. Temp is like 35c.. that's nothing. It would take a significant amount of CPU throttling to cause what you're describing. From a general use standpoint, their is no difference, the wattage on the CPU is the same across the board on all of them.

 

[kokhoong0624]

Is the battery life of the new 15inch.. garbage? ._. I might want to cancel my order if that's the case (there's no returns in my country).
Can you check how many % you use in 1 hour and report back? Thanks in advance.

 

[shadow82x]

I'm losing about 13% every hour. I'm at 80% now and it's estimating 6 hours remaining.

If I could, I'd probably drop my processor down to the 2.7GHZ, it might improve efficiency.

 

[yillbs]

Does anyone know if there is a noticeable battery life difference between these processors? I currently have a 15" 2.9GHZ (i7 6920) and my battery life is garbage. I'm at 85% now and it's estimating 4.5 hours of usage remaining...and all I'm currently doing is light browser usage in Safari. Would the 2.6 or 2.7 have improved battery life and have reduced heat?

Edit - According to Activity Monitor, I'm using integrated graphics as well.

what is your consumption wattage? Download battery health 2, it'l tell you.
[doublepost=1479436794][/doublepost]

I'm losing about 13% every hour. I'm at 80% now and it's estimating 6 hours remaining.

If I could, I'd probably drop my processor down to the 2.7GHZ, it might improve efficiency.

that's going to be about 12 watts on your battery. Way high. you can turn off turbo on that CPU on a Mac.

 

[kokhoong0624]

I'm losing about 13% every hour. I'm at 80% now and it's estimating 6 hours remaining.

If I could, I'd probably drop my processor down to the 2.7GHZ, it might improve efficiency.

What apps are open? Is there any indexing (I know this is a stupid question)?
God... don't even know how Apple states 10 hour battery life. The 2015 MBP states 9 hours and I thought this year improved.

 

[shadow82x]

what is your consumption wattage? Download battery health 2, it'l tell you.
[doublepost=1479436794][/doublepost]

that's going to be about 12 watts on your battery. Way high. you can turn off turbo on that CPU on a Mac.

Right now it's estimating 10.4 watts. It's not like I'm even doing anything medium-heavy task. I'm browsing the web and typing on Microsoft word documents..
[doublepost=1479437015][/doublepost]

What apps are open? Is there any indexing (I know this is a stupid question)?
God... don't even know how Apple states 10 hour battery life. The 2015 MBP states 9 hours and I thought this year improved.

Safari with 7 tabs, photos (background), messages (background), iTunes (background), mail (background), Microsoft word, activity monitor.

 

[yillbs]

Right now it's estimating 10.4 watts. It's not like I'm even doing anything medium-heavy task. I'm browsing the web and typing on Microsoft word documents..
[doublepost=1479437015][/doublepost]
Safari with 7 tabs, photos (background), messages (background), iTunes (background), mail (background), Microsoft word, activity monitor.

10 watts would be on par with about 5 - 6 hours of battery. although, because you're on the 15, I'd shoot for high six, low 7. Something is obviously running.

Check to see if iCloud is enabled and syncing, same with images. Is time machine on ? is it backing up every hour? is flash installed ? do you have mail open ? what apps are actively running atm ?

 

[shadow82x]

10 watts would be on par with about 5 - 6 hours of battery. although, because you're on the 15, I'd shoot for high six, low 7. Something is obviously running.

Check to see if iCloud is enabled and syncing, same with images. Is time machine on ? is it backing up every hour? is flash installed ? do you have mail open ? what apps are actively running atm ?

Here's my activity monitor. Are you thinking my issues are more software related? I'm not running anything out of the blue, in fact I've even done a reinstall already and the battery life issues persist. I was thinking this was slightly attributed to the higher clocked processor.

Everything seems in check with the Activity Monitor, I check it quite frequently for rogue apps, but alas safari is the only thing that ever seems a tad bit high sometimes.

Side note: Safe Connect is a tool required for me to connect to my university network, not sure why it's showing as not responding, however the energy impact on that has never been high.

 

[skids929]

I will just say this...I bought two 2016 MBP. One is a 15 (the upgraded off the shelf model) and one is a 13 (the one with the 2.9 i5 CPU, 8 GBRAM and 512) and there seems to be a significant difference in the battery life. The 15 is draining quicker than this 13, I am on right now. I turned the 13 on at 5:30 and it's been on steady with a mix of surfing and sleep (lid open) for 4.5 hours and I still have 68% battery left, reading 6.29 hours left. This battery feels very normal and on par with the Lenovo Yoga 900 we own. Love that machine, hate the OS....Anyway, there seems to be a clear difference between these two.

I am about decided that am going with the 13 (not because of battery life) because of the size and over all feel. But when I configure it I am sticking with the base 2.9 i5 processor, and putting the $$ into the ram and ssd. Hope this helps, not that it's worth much just my experience with this so far. I can tell you there is a clear difference between the two I have here. No idea whats going on, if I had to guess its the processors.

 

[shadow82x]

I will just say this...I bought two 2016 MBP. One is a 15 (the upgraded off the shelf model) and one is a 13 (the one with the 2.9 i5 CPU, 8 GBRAM and 512) and there seems to be a significant different in the battery life. The 15 is draining quicker than this 13, I am on right now. I turned the 13 on at 5:30 and it's bee on steady with a mix of surfing and sleep (lid open) for 4.5 hours and I still have 68% battery left, reading 6.29 hours left. This battery feels very normal and on par with the Lenovo Yoga 900 we own. Love that machine, hate the OS....Anyway, there seems to be a clear difference between these two.

I am about decided that am going with the 13 (not because of battery life) because of the size and over all feel. But when I configure it I am sticking with the base 2.9 i5 processor, and putting the $$ into the ram and ssd. Hope this helps, not that it's worth much just my experience with this so far. I can tell you there is a clear difference between the two I have here. No idea whats going on, if I had to guess its the processors.

Thanks for your input. I think it's interesting because most reviewers claimed the 15" had better battery life than the 13" with TB. I definitely think there is some inefficiency with the 2.9GHZ I7. AFAIK reviewers were given the 2.7GHZ i7. Only a difference of .2 when it comes to clock speed, but maybe that equates to a lot for heat/efficiency.

 

[yillbs]

Thanks for your input. I think it's interesting because most reviewers claimed the 15" had better battery life than the 13" with TB. I definitely think there is some inefficiency with the 2.9GHZ I7. AFAIK reviewers were given the 2.7GHZ i7. Only a difference of .2 when it comes to clock speed, but maybe that equates to a lot for heat/efficiency.

the CPU uses the same mount of watts. It's not going to be that, they are al the same powerhouses, just different heat signatures. It's not going to consume more based on the fans unless you were really really pushing those higher clocked CPU's. Your issue looks like a combination of steam / word. Word is a hog. If you want good battery, use apples variant. IF you want to use steam... do it on the power adapter, steam is always connected, and sending , receiving data.

when you're constantly sending / receiving data, it's going to be using battery. Did you check to see if iCloud was syncing with images ?

 

[shadow82x]

the CPU uses the same mount of watts. It's not going to be that, they are al the same powerhouses, just different heat signatures. It's not going to consume more based on the fans unless you were really really pushing those higher clocked CPU's. Your issue looks like a combination of steam / word. Word is a hog. If you want good battery, use apples variant. IF you want to use steam... do it on the power adapter, steam is always connected, and sending , receiving data.

when you're constantly sending / receiving data, it's going to be using battery. Did you check to see if iCloud was syncing with images ?

I've actually never used Steam on the battery. Upon setting things up, I started downloading so games but usually its plugged in when I do that sort of thing. iCloud/Photos is synced on this computer but AFAIK everything has finished syncing and downloading since startup.

 

[09mac]

the CPU uses the same mount of watts. It's not going to be that, they are al the same powerhouses, just different heat signatures. It's not going to consume more based on the fans unless you were really really pushing those higher clocked CPU's. Your issue looks like a combination of steam / word. Word is a hog. If you want good battery, use apples variant. IF you want to use steam... do it on the power adapter, steam is always connected, and sending , receiving data.

when you're constantly sending / receiving data, it's going to be using battery. Did you check to see if iCloud was syncing with images ?

It's a little old but...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4

 

[shadow82x]

It's a little old but...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4

That's comparing an i5 vs i7, so I'd assume there is a battery life difference between those. I'm interested in comparisons between the same family of i7's with different clock speeds. But perhaps there is none.