Do majority of MBP users keep their laptop plugged in?

[GGJstudios]

Games and apps that stress the dGPU on the other hand paint an entirely different picture:

plugged in

battery

Major performance hit when plugged in as evidenced by the results.

What were your GPU temps during that test? There is simply no mechanism for throttling CPU or GPU due to power being supplied by battery or AC power. If an app throttles on that basis, that's not your Mac doing the throttling; it's the app.

 

[nerowolfe]

Temps are the same plugged-in or unplugged. Mid60-70s C.

When a car stutters while being tested by 50 good test drivers, it's not the test drivers that are doing the stuttering. : )

This throttling/stuttering problem is reproducible under boot camp and OS X. Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and having tried every nvidia and boot camp driver available. And testing more Direct3D and OpenGL apps than I care to name, ranging from very light to extremely stressing.

And the results are always the same. Plugged-in: stutter and throttle. Battery alone: smooth w/o throttling.

It's not rocket science you know. Like I said, this issue has been raised on many mac forums, including this one. Feel free to read about it.

 

[ZachsMacDaddy]

Most modern batteries are ok with being plugged in the majority of the time. However, it is still important to occasionally cycle your battery.

I had to replace my battery on my early '08 MBP because I always kept it plugged in. It eventually swelled and became dangerous. I had to replace it. Now, I end up using my MBP off battery more than on, but mainly because I am away from my desk more.

My 2012 MBP is always plugged in. The battery only has 4 cycles after almost 2 years, and is now reporting "Replace Now." Luckily, Apple said they will replace it for free under Applecare. Once I get the new battery, I will remember to cycle it more often.

 

[snaky69]

My 2012 MBP is always plugged in. The battery only has 4 cycles after almost 2 years, and is now reporting "Replace Now." Luckily, Apple said they will replace it for free under Applecare. Once I get the new battery, I will remember to cycle it more often.

Why didn't you get an iMac?

 

[GGJstudios]

My 2012 MBP is always plugged in. The battery only has 4 cycles after almost 2 years, and is now reporting "Replace Now." Luckily, Apple said they will replace it for free under Applecare. Once I get the new battery, I will remember to cycle it more often.

Yes, it likely would have lasted much longer if you had run on battery more regularly.

 

[cjmillsnun]

On my machine (2012 rMBP) when benchmarking using geekbench (which focuses on cpu benchmarking) here are the results with the power brick plugged in and with battery use only:


plugged in
Image


battery
Image


No throttling exhibited as you can see.




Games and apps that stress the dGPU on the other hand paint an entirely different picture:


plugged in
Image


battery
Image


Major performance hit when plugged in as evidenced by the results. I don't need to rely on numbers to convince myself that it throttles when plugged in,, as stuttering would occur moments after starting a game while the laptop is plugged in, something that rarely if ever happens while running on battery alone.


I choose my words carefully. I didn't say on some machines for no reason. You may not have encountered this behavior, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist on some macbooks because of hardware limitations or issues.

Most odd...

 

[wytwolf]

The only time I've seen macbooks and MacBook pro's throttling was when the battery was user replacable. If the owner removed the battery and just ran it off the adaptor it would slow down by about 20%. If the owner connected the dead battery again it would return to normal.

Remember those benchmarks can vary slightly. You will not run benchmarks back to back and received the same #'s. They should be reasonably close but never exact.

 

[Meister]

I plug it in, when it needs charging. After all that's the point of a laptop.

 

[Essenar]

On my machine (2012 rMBP) when benchmarking using geekbench (which focuses on cpu benchmarking) here are the results with the power brick plugged in and with battery use only:


plugged in
Image


battery
Image


No throttling exhibited as you can see.




Games and apps that stress the dGPU on the other hand paint an entirely different picture:


plugged in
Image


battery
Image


Major performance hit when plugged in as evidenced by the results. I don't need to rely on numbers to convince myself that it throttles when plugged in,, as stuttering would occur moments after starting a game while the laptop is plugged in, something that rarely if ever happens while running on battery alone.


I choose my words carefully. I didn't say on some machines for no reason. You may not have encountered this behavior, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist on some macbooks because of hardware limitations or issues.

This effect should be tested on the 2014 with 750M to see if they kept the voltage issue the same.

Huge if true.

 

[nerowolfe]

This effect should be tested on the 2014 with 750M to see if they kept the voltage issue the same.

Huge if true.

As far as I know, 2014 rMBP do not have this issue. And from my understanding they also run cooler in comparison.

 

[Veuxtres]

mine is plugged in whenever at home and only turn to sleep never shut down , because i need to connect it on a bigger monitor at home and awake it easier.
run battery when i bring it out.