What is battery impact between M1 Max 32gb and 64gb?

[Aroa]

Hey, is there anyone idea what will be battery impact between 32gb and 64gb ram on new MBP M1 Max?
Is it minimal to point where its not noticeable? or will it just eat another hour of battery?

I'm trying to decide with purchase, but concerned that 64gb will cause much lower battery together with M1 Max.

 

[duanepatrick]

There should be little to no impact on battery consumption when it comes to RAM. The battery consumption will still depend on how many apps are currently running, if an app requires more resources to run, apps running in the background, etc.

64GB might be overkill but will still depend on the tasks that you do.

 

[Aroa]

There should be little to no impact on battery consumption when it comes to RAM. The battery consumption will still depend on how many apps are currently running, if an app requires more resources to run, apps running in the background, etc.

64GB might be overkill but will still depend on the tasks that you do.

I guess I plan to use it for programming in multiple different languages and environments, graphic design, general use, and anything else I get idea for and also for next 6 years or so, so feels like right amount I think.
Only concern is this battery but I really hope it won’t have too big impact, it’s still a portable machine and don’t want to be pinned to charger every 2 hours.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I guess I plan to use it for programming in multiple different languages and environments, graphic design, general use, and anything else I get idea for and also for next 6 years or so, so feels like right amount I think.
Only concern is this battery but I really hope it won’t have too big impact, it’s still a portable machine and don’t want to be pinned to charger every 2 hours.

Might be worth considering the 24 core gpu with battery life in mind.

 

[Charlesje]

There should be little to no impact on battery consumption when it comes to RAM. The battery consumption will still depend on how many apps are currently running, if an app requires more resources to run, apps running in the background, etc.

64GB might be overkill but will still depend on the tasks that you do.

The high bandwith ram might have a high relative impact on these machines. The strength lies in the efficiency of the gpu and cpu cores for these machines. Tests need to be done still…

 

[Aroa]

The high bandwith ram might have a high relative impact on these machines. The strength lies in the efficiency of the gpu and cpu cores for these machines. Tests need to be done still…

At least cores can go idle so Apple can optimize it somehow, but wondering how is it with RAM power usage between 32 and 64 versions since that’s something they can’t turn off.
Hopefully someone can do some tests between these versions of same model.
Most of tests I see are between 14” and 16 but that’s not fair comparison even with same ram amount and cpu because there are factors like screen, temps and stuff.

 

[Sanpete]

wondering how is it with RAM power usage between 32 and 64 versions since that’s something they can’t turn off.

Not sure what you have in mind, but I don't see why RAM not in use can't be kept in a very low-power state.

 

[Aroa]

Not sure what you have in mind, but I don't see why RAM not in use can't be kept in a very low-power state.

To my knowledge RAM cannot be dynamically downclocked or something same as CPU cores etc, and even if you don't use some part of RAM, it will still eat noticeable amount of energy.

 

[Sanpete]

To my knowledge RAM cannot be dynamically downclocked or something same as CPU cores etc, and even if you don't use some part of RAM, it will still eat noticeable amount of energy.

RAM is designed for different power states depending on readiness for use, and LPDDR especially low. Without that, a sleeping laptop would run out of power a lot faster. Don't know anything specifically about what Apple's currently using here.

 

[Aroa]

RAM is designed for different power states depending on readiness for use, and LPDDR especially low. Without that, a sleeping laptop would run out of power a lot faster. Don't know anything specifically about what Apple's currently using here.

Well, from what I heard, new macbooks seem to use way too much power when sleeping, but could be rather cpu/gpu issue, don't remember what was said about it.
Guess still seems to be dependent on Apple in overall, for now M1 Max with high RAM configs seem to eat tons of battery.

 

[Sanpete]

Well, from what I heard, new macbooks seem to use way too much power when sleeping, but could be rather cpu/gpu issue, don't remember what was said about it.
Guess still seems to be dependent on Apple in overall, for now M1 Max with high RAM configs seem to eat tons of battery.

There have been a few complaints about power use during sleep, as there always are. Those typically involve waking during sleep to do stuff. But a properly functioning Mac laptop set to stay asleep will go for weeks sleeping on battery power. No one has shown the RAM to be a major consumer of battery power when not in use, as far as I know, either in the past or for these new ones.

 

[Charlesje]

When a system idles ram will be the biggest factor in power draw (after screen power consumption depending on brightness). But when the laptop sleeps the ram is copied to the ssd and powered down…

 

[Sanpete]

When a system idles ram will be the biggest factor in power draw (after screen power consumption depending on brightness). But when the laptop sleeps the ram is copied to the ssd and powered down…

I've wondered if this is still true. I haven't noticed the delay in waking from sleep that's associated with the hibernation mode that stores memory to SSD and powers down RAM, so I wonder if they still do that.

Anandtech apparently saw some very low figures reported for RAM in Apple's PowerMetrics, so low that they offered the seemingly unlikely theory that the DRAM reports are actually only for the controllers, not the RAM. Don't know if this has been resolved.

 

[Charlesje]

I've wondered if this is still true. I haven't noticed the delay in waking from sleep that's associated with the hibernation mode that stores memory to SSD and powers down RAM, so I wonder if they still do that.

Anandtech apparently saw some very low figures reported for RAM in Apple's PowerMetrics, so low that they offered the seemingly unlikely theory that the DRAM reports are actually only for the controllers, not the RAM. Don't know if this has been resolved.

Yes its strange that anandtech gets different data, certainly as you can see massive increases in the measured dram power when eg hovering on the screen…

Indeed you’re right ram will have a low power mode to retain the data in memory. But the bus will power down.

 

[DoorsFreak87]

I was about to start a thread similar to this and I am came across this one. Are there any updates on this topic? I notice no one is testing the battery life between the 32gb and 64gb with video editing. It would be a complex test, as it would be best to test encodes and decodes(h265, prores, prores raw) vs cpu and GPU bottlenecking(red, r5 raw, black magic, ect). Also tests that are not optimized with metal(blender) will significantly have an impact on the battery vs using the M1 encode/decode engines.

 

[glindon]

I was about to start a thread similar to this and I am came across this one. Are there any updates on this topic? I notice no one is testing the battery life between the 32gb and 64gb with video editing. It would be a complex test, as it would be best to test encodes and decodes(h265, prores, prores raw) vs cpu and GPU bottlenecking(red, r5 raw, black magic, ect). Also tests that are not optimized with metal(blender) will significantly have an impact on the battery vs using the M1 encode/decode engines.

Can't speak to the battery life on video editing (although I do plan on messing w/ Final Cut), but I got my 64gb Max on Thursday, set it up and updated to 12.1 RC (which is now same as release version today). Just doing basic web surfing, email, random YouTube video, personal finance Numbers sheet, etc. on it and I am getting around 20 hours of battery life, easy. This is with dark mode on and Noir extension to keep webpages dark. Screen brightness just under half. I honestly don't think that extra ram is going to use much battery. Typing this message, Coconut battery reports about ~5W of power being used, 70% battery, 15hrs remaining, and I am in office lighting. Activity monitor reports ~40gb used.