I've noticed the same thing. I confirmed it by using iStat to monitor the gpu power. It seems that sometimes it doesn't switch back to integrated graphics correctly after using the discrete card.
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Massive drop in battery life after installing Lion
- Thread starter joeshaw92
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I've noticed the same thing. I confirmed it by using iStat to monitor the gpu power. It seems that sometimes it doesn't switch back to integrated graphics correctly after using the discrete card.
I haven't verified it that way. My findings are a lot more rudimentary. In SL the GUP diode indicator while using the integrated GPU would return a negative value. Under Lion, even with integrated graphics selected, it returns a value ~70 F with the GPU itself returning ~110 F; roughly the same temp as the CPU.
The integrated graphics chip is part of the CPU. To my understanding, if the system was actually utilizing the integrated CPU, there's no way that the discrete GPU should be reporting a temp anywhere close to what the CPU temp is reporting.
The integrated graphics chip is part of the CPU. To my understanding, if the system was actually utilizing the integrated CPU, there's no way that the discrete GPU should be reporting a temp anywhere close to what the CPU temp is reporting.
Perhaps that could be it but what makes me think it's a bug is that sleeping the computer and waking it back up will fix the issue and you'll be back on the intel gpu. If it was just Lion using OpenCL more, you would think that sleeping the machine wouldn't have an effect.
I'm 100% sure the issue isn't related to using a dedicated GPU, mainly due to the fact that myself and other 13" users, who dont have anything but the intel one are also experiencing the problems with battery life. There problem therefore lies elsewhere.
I've notice kernel_task is using about 15% of the cpu, although the inactive percentage never seems to dip below 80%, and I'm still experiencing heat and poor battery.
I've also noticed that I'm suddenly having less than 50mb of RAM free, could it be that there is a memory leak somewhere and the mac is having to constantly write to the HDD, thus reducing speed and increasing power use?
I've notice kernel_task is using about 15% of the cpu, although the inactive percentage never seems to dip below 80%, and I'm still experiencing heat and poor battery.
I've also noticed that I'm suddenly having less than 50mb of RAM free, could it be that there is a memory leak somewhere and the mac is having to constantly write to the HDD, thus reducing speed and increasing power use?
I've probably lost about 1.5 hours of battery life on my 15" MBP 2011 since installing Lion. I would expect a software upgrade could fix this.
lion and battery issues
I am also having reduced battery life while using lion ( I think?).
Here are some of my observations:
1) My battery icon will display anywhere from 7.5 + hours to 2 hours with a 90% charge.(note I rarely do CPU intensive stuff)
2) Safari causes random battery durations to appear (currently it says I have 8.35 hours left, only 3 minutes ago it was 4 hours.....)
3) Full screen apps drain the battery the worst. (The more that are opened the quicker it drains)
I really think that the problem isn't that lion is Actually decreasing the battery life but rather the system (for whatever reason) is not able to accurately calculate the battery life in lion. But my opinion is just based on my experience with it, certainly if the Mac dies while using it for only 2 hours then yes lion is actually using more battery power. Either way this is a big issues and is discussed on every forum on every support/blog/whatever website at the moment.
* I currently use a 2.0 Ghz quad core i7 15 inch MBP*
I am also having reduced battery life while using lion ( I think?).
Here are some of my observations:
1) My battery icon will display anywhere from 7.5 + hours to 2 hours with a 90% charge.(note I rarely do CPU intensive stuff)
2) Safari causes random battery durations to appear (currently it says I have 8.35 hours left, only 3 minutes ago it was 4 hours.....)
3) Full screen apps drain the battery the worst. (The more that are opened the quicker it drains)
I really think that the problem isn't that lion is Actually decreasing the battery life but rather the system (for whatever reason) is not able to accurately calculate the battery life in lion. But my opinion is just based on my experience with it, certainly if the Mac dies while using it for only 2 hours then yes lion is actually using more battery power. Either way this is a big issues and is discussed on every forum on every support/blog/whatever website at the moment.
* I currently use a 2.0 Ghz quad core i7 15 inch MBP*
Just wanted to chime in and say that I've also lost a solid 2 hours since upgrading to Lion. Nothing has changed in my browsing habits. I used to get over 9 hours and now I can't get over 5 even if I exercise mad battery saving measures.
Running with a 17" i5 and Vertex 2 SSD.
Running with a 17" i5 and Vertex 2 SSD.
im running a 2011 15" 2.2 with an apple ssd and i've also noticed a drop in battery life after upgrading to lion. it usually occurs when i'm working within multiple "spaces" and i'm constantly flipping through them. if i'm working within a single space and doing light web browsing or working on an essay in MS word, i notice that my battery life is comparable to SL.
i notice that when i'm switching between spaces, the cpu usage spikes, causing a decrease in battery life. not sure if this is the major cause of decreased battery life though
i notice that when i'm switching between spaces, the cpu usage spikes, causing a decrease in battery life. not sure if this is the major cause of decreased battery life though
I reported in this thread before, that my battery became somehow better on my MBP after installing Lion. Later I read that SMC reset can help with battery, so I did it too and regretting it now! Now I have the same problem as many others, battery usage reduced dramatically!!!! At least 2 hours less than what I had before!!!! So this may not be a good thing to do. I wish I didn't reset it!!!!!
In my case Lion uses the discrete gpu even when the system is idle - that's probably the reason why the batt life is lowered and the temps are higher. Use gfxcardswitcher to switch to integrated and check out the difference. Note that youtube didn;t work for me in integrated.
Yep, this is me. And I haven't noticed any issues with battery life either.
In fact, I haven't had any of the problems I see people mentioning since upgrading to Lion.
I've lost easily 2-3 hours from my Mid 2010 13" MBP.
Its really annoying me. I've tried an SMC reset, but this hasn't really helped.
Why haven't we heard anything from Apple about this?
Its really annoying me. I've tried an SMC reset, but this hasn't really helped.
Why haven't we heard anything from Apple about this?
Did you do a clean install or an upgrade? From what I've been reading, people who are doing an install on top of a used system are getting temperature raises, lower battery life, and a slower system.
However this seems to be random across the board so I'm hoping a patch comes soon.
I've got lower battery, temperature raises and a slower system and I did a clean install!
Yep, same here with my 2010 so I went back to SL. Shame coz I quite liked Lion but the battery hit was just too much.
Already tried that but the battery hit was still to great for me to stick with Lion. Hey-ho.
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I will give this (SMC reset) a whirl when I get home to my power adapter, never thought about trying it for this issue.
Has anyone else noticed a lot more swap and paging going on with Lion? It seems my stock 4gb isn't enough...
Well the OS has a lot more UI features than SL does so i'm going to assume it's going to be using more RAM. (hence the 2gb requirement).
I'm (luckily) running my new MB with SL and I don't have any issues; if you can, or want to, rather, go and turn off some of them. The "scroll bars disappearing" thing eats up a lot of CPU.
Good to know, thanks!
I did do an over-the-top upgrade (10.7.2) and have noticed spikes of MDS, MDWORKER, and one other system file (forgot the name) since the install. Temps got a lot hotter during the spikes, but I don't think I should be seeing these processes use up the CPU and heat things up so much.
2011 17" MBP with no time machine, external drives, or anything. Just the laptop itself.
that happened to me when i first installed the update, but now it doesn't do that anymore. it spiked when the system was re-indexing and whatnot.
MacBook Battery Life is a LION problem
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/11/apples-battery-problems-with-osx-10-7-lion-and-what-it-tells-us-about-apple-becoming-a-consumer-electronics-company/
There are also bugs with Mac Mail and Calendar (Especially Exchange).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/11/apples-battery-problems-with-osx-10-7-lion-and-what-it-tells-us-about-apple-becoming-a-consumer-electronics-company/
There are also bugs with Mac Mail and Calendar (Especially Exchange).