Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Chrome uses more battery than Safari

N

nickbunyun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 19, 2011
9
0
Hi,

This is my first post.. and I hope not to be the 10000th to post this.

I have a late 2010 MBP model. I am a college student, which means at times Im gonna be stuck for a few hours without AC Power support.

I'm at around 90%

Chrome with 3 tabs - battery states ~3.5 hours remaining.
Safari with 3 tabs - battery states ~5-6 hours remaining.

Did anyone else mention that?

i tried googling to get the answers, but all I get is just tests between the browser and which one is faster and etc...

sorry i should've mentioned i have a late 2010 MBP 13''
 
Last edited:
articcine said:
Wow, can it really be such a difference between browsers? We'll see then. Maybe I'll use Safari when I'm not plugged in :p
Click to expand...

It hasn't been my experience even before installing Flashblock, but I don't typically visit flash-heavy sites either.

Easy enough to try for yourself.
 
That is a little more than what it should be.
Is it possible you have 15"/17" MBP and didn't force the Intel GPU with gfcCardStatus for Chrome?
 
i can tell u that 2 of the tabs were the same.... voice and a forum, no flash ads.

I have noticed it first day of school.. i was a 90% with chrome and it was telling me 3:30 remaining. I was a little surprised with the 9-10hour apple stated battery, however now that im switched to Safari, im at 77% and it says 7:02 remaining.
I got Safari with two tabs, voice and this forum.. and CourseSmart book started.

I just launched Chrome.. and opened gmail and this forum and it says 3:16 remaining.

thoughts on it ?

also, should've said i have a mbp 13''
 
like dusk007 said, install gfxcardstatus and see if Chrome forces a switch to the nvidia card, which does draw more power...
 
hi, thanks

i downloaded the program but says its not supported.
i have a 320m, and it shows as a Nvidia GT card..
:/

found this

Note: gfxCardStatus is only for 2010 MacBook Pros with Intel Core i5/i7 processors and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M GPU - ie: it's no help with the Core 2 Duo 13" MacBook Pro, which has only an NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics processor.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
nickbunyun said:
I just launched Chrome.. and opened gmail and this forum and it says 3:16 remaining.

thoughts on it ?

also, should've said i have a mbp 13''
Click to expand...

With Adium, Stickies, and Chrome open showing this forum plus gmail on my mid2010 MBP13 it's showing 11:43 with 99% battery after sitting idle for a couple of minutes. Wifi + Bluetooth on, brightness at ~50%.

What happens if you reboot and don't open CourseSmart?

If you open Activity Monitor and sort by CPU%, is anything chewing up CPU?
 
I have had better battery life with safari than with chrome. Safari+adblock and click to flash is great!
 
One thing worth checking out is the amount of add-on aps. When you start putting the add-ons on Chrome or FF, you see a substantially higher resource consumption. With Safari being optimized for the Apple base and having a relatively light footprint, it doesn't surprise me that you are seeing a dramatic difference.

You hear a lot about Chrome using 'far fewer system resources', but to be honest, my own usage has seen Safari have a consistent resource drain that is not all that different.
 
The problem with all browsers is the same with the 13" as it is with the 15". The difference in the 15" you can do at least somthing about it. In the 13" you cannot tell the 320m driver manually what power state is really necessary.

I really don't like Safari much because it is a crappy bloatware that even if you add a bunch of plug ins and addons cannot compete with Opera or Chrome, but Apple did with Safari and some other Apps great work at opitimizing them for very little power consumption.
Every non Apple App that uses certain frameworks kind of runs by default on a different power state. Only Apple apps or very simple apps really make use of all the power savings that are possible on a MBP.
It is a shame but there is really nothing you can do about it (except for using Apple's own apps). It has nothing to do with one browser putting more load on the cpu than the other but simply that one allows the power management to change to more economic gears and with the other it does not know if it may and thus doesn't switch gears.
Still the difference you report is a little too high. You need to check it not after you start up the app but rather have it open for a while or so and check the battery est.
I get on the MBP sometimes poor battery and sometimes around 6-7h with Chrome and other stuff. The poor runtime is more in the 4-5h range and I am doing exactly the same thing. The only difference is some low level powermanagment that sometimes seems not to work as it should and sometimes works just fine. It is a 15" though with forced Intel in both cases. I cannot stand safari for a long enough time to give you any accurate numbers on how it performs, but it is definitely better than Opera which I use most of the time and Chrome is somewhere in between the two.
 
I have the same experience as the OP. I don't know if the difference on my MPB is as drastic, but Chrome definately sucks up more battery than Safari, regardless what website I'm on.
 
i too prefer chrome over safari, firefox or opera..

I use it when im plugged in or at home.. but at school i have to switch to safari so i can get the most out of my battery..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back