Battery Life on MacBook Pro 16.

[SSD-GUY]

Finally, this problem seems to be solved for me.

My battery life was around 3.5 - 4 hours of light use. Activity monitor estimations were always in the same way. I decided not to make important changes to the configuration because if Apple says battery should last 11 hours, I understand that I should get 11 hours using standard configuration.
What I did notice was the computer getting hot and fans running noisy during the first days. After some days, those behaviors became less frequent, so I thought the system was finishing all of those under-the-hood setup processes. Anyway, battery life was still in the 3.5 hour range.
Then I decided to start looking a way to solve my battery issue. After several software updates, uninstalls, computer restarts, and so, nothing really changed, and it was time to start playing with system resets.
After performing a SMC reset, things started looking different. At first, activity monitor estimated that the battery remaining would last 5 hours. A small improvement. But that number started to increase quickly to 6, 7, 8 hours... It finally stopped at 18 hours! Of course, something should be wrong, but since the largest number I had before was 4 hours, I thought there should be some kind of real improvement.
I made some light work on the Mac, and battery consumption kept congruent with those numbers.
After that I fully recharged my battery. I used it for 1.5 hours discharging 3% of the battery. The computer lost another 1% overnight, so it was 96% at the morning. After some work, it is now at 91%, and Activity Monitor says it will last for another 12:56.
I know I have to test it under more demanding work conditions, but at least it seems like I'm going to get those 11 hours finally.
This is the process I used to perform the reset. I hope it brings good news to others.

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

support.apple.com

I'm sorry, but you used it for 1.5 hours and only lost 3%? I don't think that's correct. People often mistakenly inflate their actual usage. I'd reccommend downloading an app like BatteryLogger which stays in your taskbar and notes how long you actually use your laptop, or when it's in sleep mode, or off. Even if you do something light like watching a 1080p video on your MacBook Pro, an hour of that will lose you at least 5%, so 1.5 hours would be at least 7/8%

 

[Glenny2lappies]

Again this happened - 5W. Killed VMWare and it dropped to zero (near zero)

 

[am2am]

Again this happened - 5W. Killed VMWare and it dropped to zero (near zero)

It can be VMWare or something wrong with Radeon drivers in Catalina IMO.
There is something wrong when system reports iGPU only while radeon draws 5W. I'm seeing it as well (my case is different - I see 5W Radeon high side with more than one user logged in)

 

[Glenny2lappies]

It's intermittent I particularly hate.

Like when it *sometimes* fails to wake up the connected Cinema Display when waking from sleep (workaround: mirror monitors and 'un'mirror monitors).

 

[gsades]

I'm sorry, but you used it for 1.5 hours and only lost 3%? I don't think that's correct. People often mistakenly inflate their actual usage. I'd reccommend downloading an app like BatteryLogger which stays in your taskbar and notes how long you actually use your laptop, or when it's in sleep mode, or off. Even if you do something light like watching a 1080p video on your MacBook Pro, an hour of that will lose you at least 5%, so 1.5 hours would be at least 7/8%

That's right. During the first hour the battery reading kept at 100% (I think that was because of calibration or something related to the reset). After that, I used 1% every 10 minutes on average. I don't need to inflate anything, I'm just sharing my experience to whoever could find it useful. I have a clock on the Mac, I know how to use it, so I think I'm safe passing on BatteryLogger. Anyway, it's been several days now and the 1% per 8 or 10 minutes seems to be the norm for me. I'm getting 10+ hours (even 14 hours once); the longest I had before was 4.

 

[SSD-GUY]

That's right. During the first hour the battery reading kept at 100% (I think that was because of calibration or something related to the reset). After that, I used 1% every 10 minutes on average. I don't need to inflate anything, I'm just sharing my experience to whoever could find it useful. I have a clock on the Mac, I know how to use it, so I think I'm safe passing on BatteryLogger. Anyway, it's been several days now and the 1% per 8 or 10 minutes seems to be the norm for me. I'm getting 10+ hours (even 14 hours once); the longest I had before was 4.

But this is sending the wrong message out to people, who will assume your 16 hours of usage (1% every 10mins is over 16.5 hours) is the norm. I'm guessing your brightness is all the way down, you're not even connected to WiFi at this stage and are doing simple word processing, or something online.

There is no chance you can get 16 hours from a 15" or 16" MBP by having the brightness at 50% or above, connected to wifi, and are changing websites every minute or two (as in, loading a new link, multi tasking etc).

I'm simply posting this so people don't think there's something wrong with their PCs because they're not getting 16 hours. I simply asked if you could use battery logger as it'll give a definitive answer as to how long your PC lasts, but a better question from me is probably what exactly you are doing on your PC that gives you 1% every 10 mins, is the Wi-Fi on, what apps are you using and what is your brightness level? As these variables will determine the majority of users' battery life.

 

[jackiemarlowe]

Agree... I bought the 2.3/64GB/2TB and barely got 4 hours on a full charge... ridiculous.. Unless you're plugged in, its worthless for the amount of money you pay.

 

[leman]

Agree... I bought the 2.3/64GB/2TB and barely got 4 hours on a full charge... ridiculous.. Unless you're plugged in, its worthless for the amount of money you pay.

You can't be expecting excellent battery life with that much RAM... there is a trade-off with everything. And I'd look into the software you are using — bad battery life is usually due to software abusing computational resources.

 

[souko]

Agree... I bought the 2.3/64GB/2TB and barely got 4 hours on a full charge... ridiculous.. Unless you're plugged in, its worthless for the amount of money you pay.

SMC reset?

 

[Steve686]

I'm sorry, but you used it for 1.5 hours and only lost 3%? I don't think that's correct. People often mistakenly inflate their actual usage. I'd reccommend downloading an app like BatteryLogger which stays in your taskbar and notes how long you actually use your laptop, or when it's in sleep mode, or off. Even if you do something light like watching a 1080p video on your MacBook Pro, an hour of that will lose you at least 5%, so 1.5 hours would be at least 7/8%

If he times his usage from the battery being fully 100%, yes, it might take longer to discharge from 100 to 97. Seems like the same physical property with my phone battery.

The phone and computer will display 100% for quite a bit of time until it starts discharging and showing 99 and so on. From this point on , the battery definitely discharges at a more rapid and consistent rate. Possibly the battery being charged past stated cell capacity?

 

[MacLappy]

But this is sending the wrong message out to people, who will assume your 16 hours of usage (1% every 10mins is over 16.5 hours) is the norm. I'm guessing your brightness is all the way down, you're not even connected to WiFi at this stage and are doing simple word processing, or something online.

There is no chance you can get 16 hours from a 15" or 16" MBP by having the brightness at 50% or above, connected to wifi, and are changing websites every minute or two (as in, loading a new link, multi tasking etc).

That's right. During the first hour the battery reading kept at 100% (I think that was because of calibration or something related to the reset). After that, I used 1% every 10 minutes on average. I don't need to inflate anything, I'm just sharing my experience to whoever could find it useful. I have a clock on the Mac, I know how to use it, so I think I'm safe passing on BatteryLogger. Anyway, it's been several days now and the 1% per 8 or 10 minutes seems to be the norm for me. I'm getting 10+ hours (even 14 hours once); the longest I had before was 4.

My experience with the MacBook Pro 16" closely mirror the findings expressed by Gsades. Doing light tasks such as, surfing the web with Safari(4 tabs), watching YouTube and writing a report in Pages, I concluded the day with slightly more than 10 hours of usage and 34% battery life left.

If he times his usage from the battery being fully 100%, yes, it might take longer to discharge from 100 to 97. Seems like the same physical property with my phone battery.

The phone and computer will display 100% for quite a bit of time until it starts discharging and showing 99 and so on. From this point on , the battery definitely discharges at a more rapid and consistent rate. Possibly the battery being charged past stated cell capacity?

Exactly.

This happens when the MacBook Pro 16" is left to charge for an extra hour, after battery percentage hits 100%.
The result is that battery percentage stays at 100% even after an hour of battery usage.
For example yesterday after 2hrs and 17 mins of usage my battery percentage was at 93%.

 

[Glenny2lappies]

Agree... I bought the 2.3/64GB/2TB and barely got 4 hours on a full charge... ridiculous.. Unless you're plugged in, its worthless for the amount of money you pay.

I used to get that, but worked out how to get 10+ hours. Firstly, you won't get it out of the box unless you're running lightweight applications. There's a bunch of driver bugs which leave the high performance (i.e. uses loads of juice) graphics card and the Activity Monitor shows it as switched off.

I installed iStat Menus which lets you see what's going on. From this I discovered a couple of applications which would leave the "Radeon High Side" running (even though Activity Mon showed it as off). Killing (quitting) VMWare Fusion sorted that.

Also, the disc indexing appears to be a big consumer of power; this eventually ceases.

Eventually, using the power meter and being careful with the applications, I now can get 12+ hours showing on the 16" MBP.

BTW connecting an external monitor will force the High-Performance graphics adapter on.

 

[CodySchrank]

Thought I would drop some information in here because I have been annoyed by the way apple uses the dgpu for years (I created gswitch btw https://github.com/CodySchrank/gSwitch). I have an older 15" that is plagued by apple's graphics card drivers because of their stupid feud with nvidia.

The activity monitor is not an accurate way to determine if an app will use the dgpu. Chrome has many subprocesses that will use the dgpu even though it is usually marked as "No" under the graphics card column. This is only an indication that a process is actively trying to use the dgpu. Launch google earth in the chrome browser if you don't believe me.

There is no way to deactivate the dgpu without losing some features of your macbook because of the way apple has designed it. This is why I wrote gswitch to try to force the integrated gpu as much as possible.

Of course I would love it if my application could help you guys out but I don't have the ability to test it on the 16".

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Thought I would drop some information in here because I have been annoyed by the way apple uses the dgpu for years (I created gswitch btw https://github.com/CodySchrank/gSwitch). I have an older 15" that is plagued by apple's graphics card drivers because of their stupid feud with nvidia.

The activity monitor is not an accurate way to determine if an app will use the dgpu. Chrome has many subprocesses that will use the dgpu even though it is usually marked as "No" under the graphics card column. This is only an indication that a process is actively trying to use the dgpu. Launch google earth in the chrome browser if you don't believe me.

There is no way to deactivate the dgpu without losing some features of your macbook because of the way apple has designed it. This is why I wrote gswitch to try to force the integrated gpu as much as possible.

Of course I would love it if my application could help you guys out but I don't have the ability to test it on the 16".

I use it every day! It helps me finding out apps like Photos and HW Accelerated apps kick in my 5300M, thanks for the app it's an essential part of my day to avoid running out of battery when working from home or on the data center.

 

[ThePeD]

Thought I would drop some information in here because I have been annoyed by the way apple uses the dgpu for years (I created gswitch btw https://github.com/CodySchrank/gSwitch). I have an older 15" that is plagued by apple's graphics card drivers because of their stupid feud with nvidia.

The activity monitor is not an accurate way to determine if an app will use the dgpu. Chrome has many subprocesses that will use the dgpu even though it is usually marked as "No" under the graphics card column. This is only an indication that a process is actively trying to use the dgpu. Launch google earth in the chrome browser if you don't believe me.

There is no way to deactivate the dgpu without losing some features of your macbook because of the way apple has designed it. This is why I wrote gswitch to try to force the integrated gpu as much as possible.

Of course I would love it if my application could help you guys out but I don't have the ability to test it on the 16".

I've installed it some months ago, works great and lets me know when apps "need it". I try to force integrated for everything and so far it seems to work. External display need discrete graphics (as long as it's cabled).

 

[polygon99]

Thought I would drop some information in here because I have been annoyed by the way apple uses the dgpu for years (I created gswitch btw https://github.com/CodySchrank/gSwitch). I have an older 15" that is plagued by apple's graphics card drivers because of their stupid feud with nvidia.

The activity monitor is not an accurate way to determine if an app will use the dgpu. Chrome has many subprocesses that will use the dgpu even though it is usually marked as "No" under the graphics card column. This is only an indication that a process is actively trying to use the dgpu. Launch google earth in the chrome browser if you don't believe me.

There is no way to deactivate the dgpu without losing some features of your macbook because of the way apple has designed it. This is why I wrote gswitch to try to force the integrated gpu as much as possible.

Of course I would love it if my application could help you guys out but I don't have the ability to test it on the 16".

Hi! I tried your app but my Macbook16 still switches to dGPU when i open e.g. photoshop or illustrator (activity monitor says so). Before discovering this threat i tried the command sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 … but it didnt help eather. Do you have an idea why this aint work on my Macbook16? Thanks!

 

[CodySchrank]

Hi! I tried your app but my Macbook16 still switches to dGPU when i open e.g. photoshop or illustrator (activity monitor says so). Before discovering this threat i tried the command sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0 … but it didnt help eather. Do you have an idea why this aint work on my Macbook16? Thanks!

The activity monitor is not a reliable way to determine which gpu is being used. What graphics card does gSwitch say your computer is using when you open those applications? And if you try to force integrated does it switch to your integrated gpu?

 

[sharik2009]

Hello folks! I joined the MBP 16 Team 7 days ago. My battery life is doing good so far. I get 6,5h to 8,5h in my mixed usage of browsing, streaming, bluetooth, watching YouTube Videos mostly on Chrome, WhatsApp and iMessage. My fans are never getting loud only when I do intense tasks like Final Cut or gaming. I can even watch a 8k Video on Chrome and my fans will chill out Overall heat consumption is great again. It's always cool only gets hot while doing something hard which is quite normal. I switched from my 2014 MBP and so far so great! Here is my estimated time while using safari with 4 tabs open and streaming music while connected to bluetooth. (Basemodel i7 with 16gb RAM)

 

[polygon99]

The activity monitor is not a reliable way to determine which gpu is being used. What graphics card does gSwitch say your computer is using when you open those applications? And if you try to force integrated does it switch to your integrated gpu?

When i use a adobe app like photoshop, illustrator or indesign activity monitor says these apps use dGPU. but today i noticed, when i dissable dGPU my external monitor wont work - so maybe as you mention the activity monitor just tells bollocks

 

[LeeRoyld]

My MBP 16 (i7/16GB/512GB) battery is totally horrible. I just do some web browsing using Chrome and do some work on Adobe XD. I'm getting about 3 hours of use only while Adobe XD is not a heavy app at all. It simply just doesn't meet my expectations. Really disappointed!!

 

[robvas]

My MBP 16 (i7/16GB/512GB) battery is totally horrible. I just do some web browsing using Chrome and do some work on Adobe XD. I'm getting about 3 hours of use only while Adobe XD is not a heavy app at all. It simply just doesn't meet my expectations. Really disappointed!! View attachment 904330

Sounds about right

 

[ctjack]

I just do some web browsing using Chrome and do some work on Adobe XD.

You are getting it wrong. If Apple says 11 hours on their website, it doesn't surely mean that your use case will also get 11 hours of battery life.
For example, playing 1080P video test. It is always much greater battery saving, if you watch 1080P, which is on your SSD and running it with built-in player.
But, playing 1080P video with Chrome(Difference 1) in youtube with wifi (difference 2) is just another thing, which adds up 2 extra processes to handle.
Also the brightness is a key factor in a judgement. They usually test it at 150 nit brightness, which is truly dark image in almost all cases, except the night with no lamp in the bed movie watching. Also movie has to be somewhat bright to be viewable at 150 nits. Otherwise you won't see anything with 150 nits on the movies like Matrix, Harry Potter 3, Dark Knight and etc.
Third, Adobe XD is a third party app. Ok lets imagine: you have to move some tables at your workplace, because someone told you so. This is an extra job for you, because you were not supposed to do that but asked. On the other hand, you do move stuff in your own house and it is not considered as a job, because it is your own property and interests.
This way Adobe is external app which doesn't belong to Apple. Considering how awful optimization with Premiere, we can tell that it is not optimized at all. So you running an Adobe XD is equal to someone running COD: Modern Warfare in Windows under Bootcamp.
But if you use Safari, Notes and any built-in application, you will be good to go for 11 hours.
========================
When you buy a car, it also has some stated fuel efficiency. But that is calculated using 1 average driver at 160 pounds(80 kg), cruising at a speed of 56 mph and using special reference gas.
So if you are able to replicate this, you will get the promised mileage.
But if you are riding with a family, which weight more than 160 pounds in sum, running at off road or highway above 60 mph, and if your truck is fully loaded, you can't expect promised mileage from the prospect.

 

[LeeRoyld]

You are getting it wrong. If Apple says 11 hours on their website, it doesn't surely mean that your use case will also get 11 hours of battery life.
For example, playing 1080P video test. It is always much greater battery saving, if you watch 1080P, which is on your SSD and running it with built-in player.
But, playing 1080P video with Chrome(Difference 1) in youtube with wifi (difference 2) is just another thing, which adds up 2 extra processes to handle.
Also the brightness is a key factor in a judgement. They usually test it at 150 nit brightness, which is truly dark image in almost all cases, except the night with no lamp in the bed movie watching. Also movie has to be somewhat bright to be viewable at 150 nits. Otherwise you won't see anything with 150 nits on the movies like Matrix, Harry Potter 3, Dark Knight and etc.
Third, Adobe XD is a third party app. Ok lets imagine: you have to move some tables at your workplace, because someone told you so. This is an extra job for you, because you were not supposed to do that but asked. On the other hand, you do move stuff in your own house and it is not considered as a job, because it is your own property and interests.
This way Adobe is external app which doesn't belong to Apple. Considering how awful optimization with Premiere, we can tell that it is not optimized at all. So you running an Adobe XD is equal to someone running COD: Modern Warfare in Windows under Bootcamp.
But if you use Safari, Notes and any built-in application, you will be good to go for 11 hours.
========================
When you buy a car, it also has some stated fuel efficiency. But that is calculated using 1 average driver at 160 pounds(80 kg), cruising at a speed of 56 mph and using special reference gas.
So if you are able to replicate this, you will get the promised mileage.
But if you are riding with a family, which weight more than 160 pounds in sum, running at off road or highway above 60 mph, and if your truck is fully loaded, you can't expect promised mileage from the prospect.

Thank you for your explanation. But I expected something better than this. My friend runs the same usage as mine (browsing chrome and adobe XD) on his MBP 13" 2018 model, but he gets about 5-7 hours. I wonder if there's something wrong on my model.

 

[ctjack]

My friend runs the same usage as mine (browsing chrome and adobe XD) on his MBP 13" 2018 model, but he gets about 5-7 hours. I wonder if there's something wrong on my model.

Historically it has been this way every time. You could always get more hours out of MBP 13 while doing the same non-intensive tasks. And MBP Air even outperforms in hours all of the other Macbook Pros.
Because MBP 13 2018 has 28W TDP CPU, and MBP 16 has 45W CPU.
So Ford Focus and Ford Explorer can get you to the same point almost equally, but SUV will consume more gas. That is the story.
===============
I have noticed from your screenshot, that your discrete graphics stuck at high performance. That is the main battery drainer here. So you have to investigate, which app enables it and uses constantly. And look for 3rd party apps to switch manually between iGPU and dGPU.

 

[iMacDragon]

For maximum battery life you can set machine to only ever use igpu on battery with pmset, and only allow dgpu when plugged into power, if that's an acceptable compromise.