Expected 2016 tMBP Battery for Graphic Tasks

[camhabib]

Just picked up a 15" tMBP and was wondering what people are experiencing for normal working times on battery while doing heavy tasks, particularly involving the dGPU? I started on a full charge and have been using Adobe Lightroom and I'm down to about 30% after 1:45 of use. Curious if this is considered normal? Thanks.

 

[ex0dus1985]

Just picked up a 15" tMBP and was wondering what people are experiencing for normal working times on battery while doing heavy tasks, particularly involving the dGPU? I started on a full charge and have been using Adobe Lightroom and I'm down to about 30% after 1:45 of use. Curious if this is considered normal? Thanks.

I've got a maxed out 15" tMBP, in light usage the battery life is great - Intel and AMD's power saving features have helped tremendously. The thing is, when you start using the dGPU and asking more of the CPU, the power consumption can go up an order or magnitude. If you max out the load on the CPU and GPU, it could theoretically get through the entire battery in an hour or less.

If you're inclined, check out iStat menus - It gives great information on the tMBP with actual power consumption of the entire system - or if you're nerdy (like me!) you get a breakdown of every major component's power consumption in watts.

 

[Sanpete]

Yes, probably normal, depending on how heavy that Lightroom use is. You can see some numbers for heavy use at the Notebook Check review, among other places.

 

[Jaekae]

Sounds normal, apples up to 10 hours statement is in light usage only on the intel gpu. They only do a web browsing test in safari and a movie playback test in quicktime to get those 10 hours, do something else and battery drains quiker, especially with AMD gpu on

 

[RPhoto]

I started on a full charge and have been using Adobe Lightroom and I'm down to about 30% after 1:45 of use. Curious if this is considered normal? Thanks.

I've had around 4 hours out of my fully loaded 13" TB but I've also under 3.

You can't really simply say 'I've been using Lightroom' as there are so many variables. How much importing, what size files, what editing tools used, how much zooming in to 1:1 ratio, building smart previews, screen brightness etc etc. This is especially true with the 15" and it's dGPU that might kick in.

Like anything to do with the battery, unless you're comparing indentical usage patterns you'll never really know how well your battery is performing for the task at hand. My guess is, as most would.

I equate battery consumption posts to fuel economy posts when I used to use a car forum a lot. Just too many variables unless a common test is performed, so try not to worry about it and just use the machine as you need and enjoy

 

[leman]

Of course its normal. The GPU alone can drain the battery in around two hours. Add to it the power consumption from CPU/RAM and your battery life will disappear very quickly.

Note also that no laptop on the market can deliver good battery life when taxing the GPU. Even with the legally maxed out 99.9Whs battery, a mid-range GPU will eat through it in under two hours.