MacBook Pro 15'' 2016 -- Battery Issues

[bagrov]

Hi there guys.

Just got my maxed out MBP 15'' (2.9 GHz i7/16 GB/512 GB/AMD 460) 3 days ago. It is really good after the 2013 13'' MBP with the lowest configuration possible, I am really happy with it except one thing: battery life sucks.

I got macOS Sierra 10.12.2 with it and the battery life was a joke: I don't do much right now, mostly just surfing web and watching Youtube videos (720p) and I got about 4 hours.

I read some threads here in which people said that 10.12.3 beta 4 improves battery draining issue by a lot but it doesn't seem to do it for me.

Unfortunately I don't have any battery details from 10.12.2 but right now laptop uses 13.5-14.0 Watt while I am writing this text in Safari.
Other apps that are running in the background: iTunes (no music turned on), Clear, Evernote, Skype, Dropbox, Airmail 3 and Telegram.

I attached couple of screen shots from the Battery Health 2 app.

Do you think there is something I can do about the battery? Like clean OS installation or something like that? Or do i go directly to the Apple Store and get an exchange?
Because 5H with Safari is just a joke. I got about 10 hours by doing all kinds of things with 2013 13'' MBP.

 

[matram]

A couple of ways to trouble shoot.

1. Look at the overall current wattage and look for changes. You can use Battery Health for that. I have set up iStatMenu to show wattage in the menu bar.

2. Next look for use of the discrete graphics. I use gfxcardstatus for that. You can see the "d" in the menubar showing that the discrete graphics is being used. In this case it is caused by Adobe Acrobat. The leads to wattage in the range you are talking about.

3. Look at Activity Monitor, Energy tab which will show you a synthetic measure of energy consumed per app / process.

Be careful with this information as it is primarily based on CPU consumption it does not directly show the effect of the dGPU on power, but it does show if it used and which apps requires it.

Then you have to start / stop apps and check the wattage for different web pages to understand what is causing the power consumption.

Based on you description I would say one of your apps is activating the dGPU.

 

[bagrov]

A couple of ways to trouble shoot.

1. Look at the overall current wattage and look for changes. You can use Battery Health for that. I have set up iStatMenu to show wattage in the menu bar.

View attachment 684862

2. Next look for use of the discrete graphics. I use gfxcardstatus for that. You can see the "d" in the menubar showing that the discrete graphics is being used. In this case iris caused by Adobe Acrobat. The leads to wattage in the range you are talking about.

3. Look at Activity Monitor, Energy tab which will show you a synthetic measure of energy consumed per app / process.

View attachment 684863

Be careful with this information as it is primarily based on CPU consumption it does not directly show the effect of the dGPU on power, but it does show if it used and which apps requires it.

Then you have to start / stop apps and check the wattage for different web pages to understand what is causing the power consumption.

Based on you description I would say one of your apps is activating the dGPU.

Thanks for the reply.
I am using gfxcardstatus and it's almost always 'i'.
Just now I was downloading macOS Sierra 10.12.2 with Transmission (torrent) and the computer was using 22.7 Watts. Right after it finished it uses 18-18.5 Watts.
I also attached Activity Monitor screen shot.

 

[matram]

Run pmset -g rawlog in a terminal window and copy in the first 10 lines. (Screen will be update every minute, you can abort with Ctrl-C once you have enough lines).

 

[bagrov]

Run pmset -g rawlog in a terminal window and copy in the first 10 lines. (Screen will be update every minute, you can abort with Ctrl-C once you have enough lines).

01/22/17 4:13:21 PM

No AC; Not Charging; 79%; Cap=5425: FCC=6796; Design=6669; Time=2:09; -2523mA; Cycles=5/1000; Location=0;

Polled boot=01/22/17 3:35:41 PM; Full=01/22/17 4:05:46 PM; User visible=01/22/17 4:12:46 PM

01/22/17 4:13:46 PM

No AC; Not Charging; 79%; Cap=5384: FCC=6796; Design=6669; Time=2:13; -2425mA; Cycles=5/1000; Location=0;

Polled boot=01/22/17 3:35:41 PM; Full=01/22/17 4:05:46 PM; User visible=01/22/17 4:13:46 PM


(It was 10 lines in Terminal)

 

[matram]

This information does not align with the previous information you have provided.

This shows a instantaneous 30+ Watt power draw. Which would lead to about 2.5 hours of battery life.

This while you activity charts show a light CPU load of 20% on one core and no use of dGPU.

If you are powering some external device from you USB ports this would make sense otherwise not.

 

[bagrov]

This information does not align with the previous information you have provided.

This shows a instantaneous 30+ Watt power draw. Which would lead to about 2.5 hours of battery life.

This while you activity charts show a light CPU load of 20% on one core and no use of dGPU.

If you are powering some external device from you USB ports this would make sense otherwise not.

You are actually correct. I had my USB Flash plugged in to move Sierra installer app to it. Right now I am reinstalling the OS and as soon as I am done if it won't change anything I will run that test again.
[doublepost=1485075711][/doublepost]Just installed macOS Sierra 10.12.2.
First screen shot: computer was idle, no Safari, couple of background apps that show no significant power usage in Activity Monitor.
Screen shot of Activity Monitor was made with Safari open couple of minutes after Battery Health 2 screen show with Safari closed. No USB flash or external drives were plugged in.


01/22/17 4:57:36 PM

No AC; Not Charging; 51%; Cap=3547: FCC=6825; Design=6669; Time=1:54; -1859mA; Cycles=5/1000; Location=0;

Polled boot=01/22/17 4:55:27 PM; User visible=01/22/17 4:57:27 PM

01/22/17 4:58:27 PM

No AC; Not Charging; 51%; Cap=3488: FCC=6805; Design=6669; Time=1:48; -1945mA; Cycles=5/1000; Location=0;

Polled boot=01/22/17 4:55:27 PM; User visible=01/22/17 4:58:27 PM

01/22/17 4:59:27 PM

No AC; Not Charging; 51%; Cap=3502: FCC=6843; Design=6669; Time=2:41; -1305mA; Cycles=5/1000; Location=0;

Polled boot=01/22/17 4:55:27 PM; User visible=01/22/17 4:59:27 PM

 

[bagrov]

So here is the question:
Is 6 hours of Youtube videos is a good battery time for a rMBP TB 15'' (2.9 GHz i7/16 GB/512 GB/AMD 460) or it should be more than that?
I also checked my old computer. It is 3 years old but the battery appears to be totally fine and so I managed to get also around 6 hours of Youtube videos on it. It is most basic configuration (2013 rMBP 13''/i5/4 GB/128 GB/Integrated video).
[doublepost=1485107418][/doublepost]I think I finally figured out what was the problem: Brightness

I LOVE MacBooks' displays and I always use 100% brightness. I guess on 13'' basic model it is not as problematic as on maxed out 15'' because by decreasing brightness I managed to get whole other results.
When I am at 100% brightness, power usage is 12-15 Watts, and as soon as I make it 70%-75% it comes down to just 5 Watts in the same conditions.
While writing this I am at 84%, 1:16 on battery (First hour I used the laptop with 100% brightness) and still have 7:30 till 0% which is amazing result.