W10 Battery Life on MBP w/ Discrete GPU

[daudi81]

I created a previous thread about my 15" MBP (late '13 model) running really hot and horrid battery life in Windows 10. It looks like it's narrowed down to the discrete graphics my MBP uses and Window's inability to switch to integrated and draw less power like OSX can do.

I'm curious to know if anyone else has a later gen MBP with discrete graphics and is running Windows 10. If so, what's your battery like in Windows 10?

 

[Ipadlover29]

I have exact same MacBook as you. I've always noticed when I was running Windows 7 vs Yosemite. The battery wasn't as good and the laptop was hotter. I believe it's like you said in Windows there is no way to disable the discrete graphics card. Also OS X is just more efficient. What programs are you running on battery? Are you using Chrome? I did update to Windows 10, but I haven't used it on battery yet. I use mostly for gaming plugged in. I'll see how mine is running on battery and get back to you.

 

[Ipadlover29]

I can confirm mine is getting ridiculously hot and the battery is dropping like crazy. Shows the most I would get is 3 hours battery life on 10% brightness browsing one tab on opera. This is definitely worse than it was on windows 7.

 

[daudi81]

I can confirm mine is getting ridiculously hot and the battery is dropping like crazy. Shows the most I would get is 3 hours battery life on 10% brightness browsing one tab on opera. This is definitely worse than it was on windows 7.

Ok that's good (well, not good, but at least I know it's not just my laptop). I keep reading reviews on how good windows 10 is with the MBP....I'm surprised nobody is really complaining about this aspect - it's kind of a deal breaker unless you keep your laptop plugged in 24-7. The bad battery life is one thing, but the fact that it gets pretty warm, and sometimes even hot, means you can't even really use it on your lap etc. I also have a 2yr old Sony Vaio I upgraded windows 7 to 10 and the battery performance isn't as good.

I know windows 10 is brand new, hopefully they can work out the kinks so it's as good on a laptop as it is on a desktop where battery performance isn't a consideration.

 

[macenied]

Ok that's good (well, not good, but at least I know it's not just my laptop). I keep reading reviews on how good windows 10 is with the MBP....I'm surprised nobody is really complaining about this aspect - it's kind of a deal breaker unless you keep your laptop plugged in 24-7. The bad battery life is one thing, but the fact that it gets pretty warm, and sometimes even hot, means you can't even really use it on your lap etc. I also have a 2yr old Sony Vaio I upgraded windows 7 to 10 and the battery performance isn't as good.

I know windows 10 is brand new, hopefully they can work out the kinks so it's as good on a laptop as it is on a desktop where battery performance isn't a consideration.

This is not a Windows 10 issue, this is a missing driver functionality Apple should provide. Have you tried to throttle the discrete GPU down ( MSI Afterburner ) to increase battery performance ?

 

[z31fanatic]

Windows not being able to switch to integrated GPU is Apple's doing. It has something to do with the BIOS that doesn't let Windows see the integrated graphics.

You are right, battery life with Windows on a MBP with dGPU is pretty miserable. I have never been able to get more than 3 hours on W10 or even 8.1 before it on my mid 2014 15" rMBP. nVidia GPU kills the battery really fast.
It's why I stopped running Windows on my Mac and purchased a Dell laptop just for Windows.

 

[Jamiet361]

Yep, Windows on a 15 inch MacBook is just outright miserable for everything but gaming.

I can barely get 2 hours out of my laptop and it practically burns my lap to a crisp.

It's a massive shame really, as buying the top-end MacBook yields a much worse experience under windows.

 

[macenied]

Yep, Windows on a 15 inch MacBook is just outright miserable for everything but gaming.

I can barely get 2 hours out of my laptop and it practically burns my lap to a crisp.

It's a massive shame really, as buying the top-end MacBook yields a much worse experience under windows.

Here is a good read why it is like this and how ( individually and eventually ) it can be solved:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2770866?start=0&tstart=0

It seems Apple does not like Windows .

... I know this is all is on me to blame, as Apple is not to blame for making their systems so tightly integrated to their stuff, and for insisting on using EFI instead of resorting to CSM (which doesn't work when booting from USB media, due to Apple's crippled Franken-EFI implementation) ...

Long story short: Buying a Mac these days does not mean to buy an Intel computer ( capable to run any compatible Operating System without major drawbacks ), it means buying an Intel computer dedicated to OSX. Is this good ? Some say yes.