Performance With/Without AC Adaptor

[iLog.Genius]

Most of you have probably noticed that the computer runs more smoothly with the AC adaptor than without. Is there a reason for this? Does the CPU get throttled? By "smoothly" I mean the animations and transitions in minimizing and maximizing windows - there IS a noticeable difference with all of my MBP's I've gone through. I haven't found any documentation as to why. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

CPU gets throttled to save power.

 

[kastenbrust]

CPU gets throttled to save power.

I dont notice any difference, but since the last firmware update my MBP has started automatically logging me in to the 9400 when im running on battery and the 9600 when im plugged into AC, and obviously this is going to make a massive difference to graphics performance as your describing. If i want to use the 9600 on battery i have to manually tell the MBP to choose it and then log out and in etc.

 

[iLog.Genius]

CPU gets throttled to save power.

That's like running the computer with only the AC adaptor with no battery installed. Bah...makes Photoshop less fun, more annoying without the smoothness of changes done to windows or within Photoshop itself. Do you know how much the processor gets throttled?

17" probably don't have the issues that the 15" have because of the battery being larger, guess Apple programmed it differently since the 17" could handle a higher load.

 

[ayeying]

I constantly use my 17" on battery and I see no slowdowns. I keep my system running a Vista Virtual Machine whenever its on also.

 

[iLog.Genius]

I constantly use my 17" on battery and I see no slowdowns. I keep my system running a Vista Virtual Machine whenever its on also.

I want to say you probably don't see it because your computer packs more punch (2.93 GHz + 4GB RAM) compared to the stock 15-inch (2.4GHz + 2GB RAM)

 

[ayeying]

I want to say you probably don't see it because your computer packs more punch (2.93 GHz + 4GB RAM) compared to the stock 15-inch (2.4GHz + 2GB RAM)

Shouldn't matter because ever since I switched to Laptops only (I don't have a desktop at home that I use. My dad has a iMac but I never touch that machine unless dad breaks something) I always use the battery constantly.

I even use my 13" MacBook constantly on battery also, but for more minimal tasks (Coding/ColdFusion/Dreamweaver/Fusion w/XP)

 

[iLog.Genius]

Shouldn't matter because ever since I switched to Laptops only (I don't have a desktop at home that I use. My dad has a iMac but I never touch that machine unless dad breaks something) I always use the battery constantly.

I even use my 13" MacBook constantly on battery also, but for more minimal tasks (Coding/ColdFusion/Dreamweaver/Fusion w/XP)

I don't know. Maybe you're experiencing my annoyance (can't really say problem) but you don't see it that way. I'm pretty sure it happens on all current generation MacBook's (Pro's) since I've had them on all the replacements I've gone through, unless there's something wrong with all of those ones including the one I'm happy with now. But computer being throttled definitely makes sense as to why it just isn't smooth without the AC adaptor.

 

[sammich]

If you're really curious you should run xbench with and without the AC plugged in.

But I'm pretty sure there isn't any difference, those batteries can drain pretty fast when you're using it at full ball.

Have you checked your energy saver settings on battery?

I want to say you probably don't see it because your computer packs more punch (2.93 GHz + 4GB RAM) compared to the stock 15-inch (2.4GHz + 2GB RAM)

Wouldn't the performance hit be worse?

 

[RKpro]

Yeah it would make sense for it to do that. To be honest I haven't noticed any performance hit, but I'm not really pushing my system to the limit with Dreamweaver and web browsers.

There is only one way to settle this, and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, run some benchmarks with AC and without. Just a simple geekbench score should be sufficient.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Yeah it would make sense for it to do that. To be honest I haven't noticed any performance hit, but I'm not really pushing my system to the limit with Dreamweaver and web browsers.

There is only one way to settle this, and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, run some benchmarks with AC and without. Just a simple geekbench score should be sufficient.

I guess I wouldn't call it a performance hit. It still runs fast, I don't get any slow downs but the animations/transitions aren't smooth that's all. Just wanted to know the reason for that. Ran Xbench, numbers seem almost identical with or without AC adaptor, there are very minor differences.

 

[ayeying]

I guess I wouldn't call it a performance hit. It still runs fast, I don't get any slow downs but the animations/transitions aren't smooth that's all. Just wanted to know the reason for that. Ran Xbench, numbers seem almost identical with or without AC adaptor, there are very minor differences.

My animations aren't smooth regardless of AC or Battery... could be the high resolution. The MacBook produces the animations like the Stack Animation perfectly without any hitch.

 

[iLog.Genius]

My animations aren't smooth regardless of AC or Battery... could be the high resolution. The MacBook produces the animations like the Stack Animation perfectly without any hitch.

Yeah, I find that stacks animation is not affected just the windows. Sorry if you thought I was actually talking about a performance hit. Should've been more clear. My annoyances is with the animations that's all.

 

[ayeying]

Have you tried running some optimization via Onyx and stuff like repair permissions.

I noticed after I restored this system via Migration Assistant, many of the system were very laggy and bad with performance, such as yours. However after using the system for a few days it gotten faster. It might help, furthermore, if you have extra free hard drive space, it'll help also.

Worse comes to worse, you can back up everything via Time Machine, format and see if it fixes anything. If not, you can easily restore back like nothing happened.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Have you tried running some optimization via Onyx and stuff like repair permissions.

I noticed after I restored this system via Migration Assistant, many of the system were very laggy and bad with performance, such as yours. However after using the system for a few days it gotten faster. It might help, furthermore, if you have extra free hard drive space, it'll help also.

Worse comes to worse, you can back up everything via Time Machine, format and see if it fixes anything. If not, you can easily restore back like nothing happened.

Would have done that but this computer is about a week old. Not much is on here yet other than CS4, Office and a few 3rd party programs so I don't think it's bloated and all my media is on an external HDD.