Is there an issue with thermals when you use something like FCPX through the Inel chip while on battery?
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Battery Life on MacBook Pro 16.
- Thread starter Nikita Zelenyuk
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Is there an issue with thermals when you use something like FCPX through the Inel chip while on battery?
If such a long and well known problem it seems odd that no-one does anything about it. It also seems some people have the problem regardless of which apps they use and some have great battery life regardless which app they use. Me and a friend just bought ours (I might have to replace mine anyway due to a dead pixel), will be very interested to see if he has the same issues
Battery Life issue on MacBook Pro 16 finally solved (>11hours)
i9 2.4GHz 8core | 64GB DDR4 | 5500M 8GB | 4TB
I purchased my MBP 16 on 19.02.2020, received it on 21.02.2020 and then the testing began.
After a performance analysis with Cinebench from Maxon I was pretty excited about my new machine. This impression disappeared after my first battery testing which ended with around 2 h 14 min. One of the main reasons I bought the new Macbook was the announced long battery life. After nearly going crazy searching the web for any solution I ended up on this forum here, because many were describing the same issues. So I spent the next days reading ALL posts on this forum entry and continue doing live tests. With live test I mean: battery fully charged, being unplugged from the power supply, having several tabs on the internet browser open (always around 15), running soundcloud constantly (just muting while using youtube), brightness level on 50%, unchecked all options in Energy Saver Settings (except Automatic graphics switching). I neither trusted the built in Activity Monitor alone nor any other 3rd party app. So I documented everything by using the actual time in combination with the data from Activity Monitor.
Meanwhile I was aware of a couple things:
I want to do one final testing, because I just was reading that Safari is better optimized for Macbooks than all other browsers. I was switching to Brave, because Chrome already gave me a lot of pain while working on Windows. So I copied all URL's form the Brave tabs into Safari (18 tabs) and closed the Brave browser. Now started my final live testing as described at the beginning of my post. What happened now made my day:
I have never ever made a post on any forum before, I just took what I needed and then left. But when I am seeing how many users are confronted with the same issue regarding battery life of MBP16 and not one post contains all solution approaches in one, I thought I give it a try and share my experience which finally solved my battery life issue:
I wish you a great day.
i9 2.4GHz 8core | 64GB DDR4 | 5500M 8GB | 4TB
I purchased my MBP 16 on 19.02.2020, received it on 21.02.2020 and then the testing began.
After a performance analysis with Cinebench from Maxon I was pretty excited about my new machine. This impression disappeared after my first battery testing which ended with around 2 h 14 min. One of the main reasons I bought the new Macbook was the announced long battery life. After nearly going crazy searching the web for any solution I ended up on this forum here, because many were describing the same issues. So I spent the next days reading ALL posts on this forum entry and continue doing live tests. With live test I mean: battery fully charged, being unplugged from the power supply, having several tabs on the internet browser open (always around 15), running soundcloud constantly (just muting while using youtube), brightness level on 50%, unchecked all options in Energy Saver Settings (except Automatic graphics switching). I neither trusted the built in Activity Monitor alone nor any other 3rd party app. So I documented everything by using the actual time in combination with the data from Activity Monitor.
Meanwhile I was aware of a couple things:
- give your Macbook Pro some extra time for indexing of Spotlight
- try to avoid Chrome, because there is something going on in the background which drains a lot battery
- turn on Automatic graphics switching (Energy Saver Settings), otherwise the discrete graphic card is permanently on
- 3 x PRAM
Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.support.apple.com
- 1 x SMC
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
- 100% until 6% in 5h 46min
- 100% until 5% in 5h 40min
I want to do one final testing, because I just was reading that Safari is better optimized for Macbooks than all other browsers. I was switching to Brave, because Chrome already gave me a lot of pain while working on Windows. So I copied all URL's form the Brave tabs into Safari (18 tabs) and closed the Brave browser. Now started my final live testing as described at the beginning of my post. What happened now made my day:
- 100% until 5% in 11h 44min (27min Remaining Time)
I have never ever made a post on any forum before, I just took what I needed and then left. But when I am seeing how many users are confronted with the same issue regarding battery life of MBP16 and not one post contains all solution approaches in one, I thought I give it a try and share my experience which finally solved my battery life issue:
- PRAM reset (3 times in a row)
Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help. - SMC reset (just once)
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. - only use Safari (internet browser)
I wish you a great day.
Last edited:
I think everyone is finally realizing why PC's have bad battery life all these years. When you have more powerful hardware that Apple is finally letting get unleased in macbooks, the worse battery you will have unless you are under IDEAL conditions. Which apple does state which is basically and non use case when you have a macbook pro that is honestly powerful enough to recategorize the battery as a UPS lol
Battery Life issue on MacBook Pro 16 finally solved (>11hours)
i9 2.4GHz 8core | 64GB DDR4 | 5500M 8GB | 4TB
I purchased my MBP 16 on 19.02.2020, received it on 21.02.2020 and then the testing began.
After a performance analysis with Cinebench from Maxon I was pretty excited about my new machine. This impression disappeared after my first battery testing which ended with around 2 h 14 min. One of the main reasons I bought the new Macbook was the announced long battery life. After nearly going crazy searching the web for any solution I ended up on this forum here, because many were describing the same issues. So I spent the next days reading ALL posts on this forum entry and continue doing live tests. With live test I mean: battery fully charged, being unplugged from the power supply, having several tabs on the internet browser open (always around 15), running soundcloud constantly (just muting while using youtube), brightness level on 50%, unchecked all options in Energy Saver Settings (except Automatic graphics switching). I neither trusted the built in Activity Monitor alone nor any other 3rd party app. So I documented everything by using the actual time in combination with the data from Activity Monitor.
Meanwhile I was aware of a couple things:
I remembered several people in here and on other forums were talking about PRAM and SMC reset, when facing this battery issue. Because I am just a user and not a IT specialist, I was not sure if this is going to harm the hardware. So after several days (because of the indexing) I called the local Apple Experts. After my description about my fast battery drain, they were a bit stumped, because they haven't met this problem yet with the new MBP16. They advised me to do the PRAM reset 3 times in a row (just to be sure) and the SMC reset once and they assured me that the resets will not harm the MacBook and its hardware at all:
- give your Macbook Pro some extra time for indexing of Spotlight
- try to avoid Chrome, because there is something going on in the background which drains a lot battery
- turn on Automatic graphics switching (Energy Saver Settings), otherwise the discrete graphic card is permanently on
Now I started to see some improvement and the next 4 tests results were around :
- 3 x PRAM
Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.- 1 x SMC
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.
Hmmm...I was kind of happy, but I was planning to use this machine for visiting my customers and doing presentations for them. I made the calculations: 8 hours would be awesome and would carry me safely through out a busy working day on the road. So I was getting ready to visit the local Apple Store and made a list of some MBP16 users which are getting these expecting long battery life: macrumor posts #92, #94, #99, #150, #151, #192, #195, #211, #230, #236
- 100% until 6% in 5h 46min
- 100% until 5% in 5h 40min
I want to do one final testing, because I just was reading that Safari is better optimized for Macbooks than all other browsers. I was switching to Brave, because Chrome already gave me a lot of pain while working on Windows. So I copied all URL's form the Brave tabs into Safari (18 tabs) and closed the Brave browser. Now started my final live testing as described at the beginning of my post. What happened now made my day:
Finally now I know, this is truly not a defective unit and Apple kept their promise - I am very pleased.
- 100% until 5% in 11h 44min (27min Remaining Time)
I have never ever made a post on any forum before, I just took what I needed and then left. But when I am seeing how many users are confronted with the same issue regarding battery life of MBP16 and not one post contains all solution approaches in one, I thought I give it a try and share my experience which finally solved my battery life issue:
Thank you to all users of this forum, who are constantly helping others.
- PRAM reset (3 times in a row)
Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.- SMC reset (just once)
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.- only use Safari (internet browser)
I wish you a great day.
Thank you for your advice. I have a brand new base Macbook Pro 16" and before resetting SMC and NVRAM a had about 3.5 hours battery life. After reset I have 5h22m.
I am a web-developer and work in PhpStorm and GoogleChrome. 5 hours - not bad but still doesn't enough :-(
So I think this pretty much explains everything.
This is the second MacBook Pro 16" I've purchased directly from apple.com. The first one, with exactly the same specs, have exactly the same issue which is battery degradation. Well, to be specific, there is a difference between the two situations: the first one took about a week to drop from 100% battery health to 89%, while the second (just received 12hrs ago), COMES with a 89% battery upon open box. I bought an AppleCare+ for $379 because the battery experience I had with my previous MacBook Pro (13" Mid-14'), but I certainly did not expect to have such issue this early, especially with the 11 hrs battery life as advertised. I already tried the triple PRAM and SMC resets method suggested above, but so far, nothing happened. Does anybody have similar experience with the 89% factory battery? Should I return this as well? :C
I had the similar issue (90% battery health out of the box). Try to uncharge your battery to 0% then charge it to 100% and keep it with power cable plugged in about two hours. Then reboot your Mac and open coconutBattery. It helped me to increase battery life from 90% to 100%.
Hi SNPR
Do you need to work on GoogleChrome? There is something wired going on with Chrome, either on Windows or Mac machines, it drains much more battery then Brave browser or Safari. I was pretty surprised when I copied all URL's from the 18 Brave browser tabs and insert it on Safari. The battery drain drastically decreased form 36 to 6.
Maybe you try to only have the tab open in GoogleChrome you really need for coding and do the rest on Safari.
Hi! Yes. Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice because of Chrome extensions and developer tools. Thank you for your advice. I will try to use Safari for non-development stuff.
So I got a good news! After using the method @SNPR suggested, which is to drain the battery to zero till the machine shuts itself down, and charge (overcharge) it for an extra 2hrs after 100% "fully charged", my MacBook Pro 16" was able to restore its capacity from 88% to 97%, according to iStat Menus. I haven't decided if I'm going to do that again just to try to hit that 100%, but I'll keep y'all updated if find anything new. Big shoutout to SNPR. You made my day
So... here's something else you guys can try.
I got battery health down to 97% the other day at 8 cycles. I didn't think much of it and continued using my MacBook. Then... fans went crazy after using Macs Fan Control under Bootcamp, and both the CPU and GPU seemed to report abnormal temperatures, which caused them to be constantly throttled both in Bootcamp and Mac OS. I performed 4 SMC resets before temps went back to normal.
Guess what else went back to normal?
![tnBIsNw.png]()
I never ran the battery down to 0%.
So I'd say... try performing multiple SMC resets and see if that helps your battery problems.
I got battery health down to 97% the other day at 8 cycles. I didn't think much of it and continued using my MacBook. Then... fans went crazy after using Macs Fan Control under Bootcamp, and both the CPU and GPU seemed to report abnormal temperatures, which caused them to be constantly throttled both in Bootcamp and Mac OS. I performed 4 SMC resets before temps went back to normal.
Guess what else went back to normal?
I never ran the battery down to 0%.
So I'd say... try performing multiple SMC resets and see if that helps your battery problems.
I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT.
And I've made a MacRumors account for the first time in my life to tell you all about it.
So, there's an issue currently with macOS Catalina where a "bluetoothd" process uses way more CPU than it should, probably because of bad code related to the bluetooth link policy, and when it uses CPU, it naturally impacts battery usage as well. It definitely affects people using the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse, and it's apparently affecting some people using Logitech bluetooth mice as well.
Here's a link to a related Stack Exchange question and solution that includes a workaround figured out by someone way smarter than I.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...-iobluetoothbroadcomschedulerworkaround-issue
I imagine not everyone on this thread is affected by this specific issue, but you should definitely check, because it solved my issues with the otherwise great MacBook Pro 16" battery life.
Apple seriously needs to get their **** together and actually start fixing some of these issues with Catalina.
And I've made a MacRumors account for the first time in my life to tell you all about it.
So, there's an issue currently with macOS Catalina where a "bluetoothd" process uses way more CPU than it should, probably because of bad code related to the bluetooth link policy, and when it uses CPU, it naturally impacts battery usage as well. It definitely affects people using the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse, and it's apparently affecting some people using Logitech bluetooth mice as well.
Here's a link to a related Stack Exchange question and solution that includes a workaround figured out by someone way smarter than I.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...-iobluetoothbroadcomschedulerworkaround-issue
I imagine not everyone on this thread is affected by this specific issue, but you should definitely check, because it solved my issues with the otherwise great MacBook Pro 16" battery life.
Apple seriously needs to get their **** together and actually start fixing some of these issues with Catalina.
Do you have any active Adobe background processes or something like One Drive running in the background? Ever since switching to Affinity and iCloud my battery life improved tremendously.
Hope you can sort out your issue, sometimes we have rogue background stuff going on which can cause this type of issues.
I had Kernel Panic attacks due to legacy software installed as well, removed it and it's fine now ever since
Again this is just my experience, not defending Apple or anything.. Heck I got enough problems of 20W dGPU when connected to an external monitor regardless of resolution.
I know that but a user here (SNPR) wrote on this that doing this solved its issue Battery helth from 90% to 100%... So I made the teste and I do not think that just one time to 0% can destroy battery at this point. I wonder if there is not a bug in Catalina battery health calculation...
Repeatedly, yes, a couple of times to calibrate the battery, no.
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Thanks for the interesting read.
I did turn of the graphics switching, not tried the resets as of yet.
My 'problem' is that I finish at work. Close my MB16 and go home.
Next day I open it up, battery is at 86%. So where is this 14% gone?
Also, because of Corona I work a lot with Teams and Zoom. I go from 100% to 30% in less then 2 hours.
MY 'old' MBP (Late 2013) still holds for 5-6 hours using the same software. So yes, I am underwhelmed with this battery performance. (Simplo, 34 Cycles and and 95.2% after 5 months)
Any tips?
I did turn of the graphics switching, not tried the resets as of yet.
My 'problem' is that I finish at work. Close my MB16 and go home.
Next day I open it up, battery is at 86%. So where is this 14% gone?
Also, because of Corona I work a lot with Teams and Zoom. I go from 100% to 30% in less then 2 hours.
MY 'old' MBP (Late 2013) still holds for 5-6 hours using the same software. So yes, I am underwhelmed with this battery performance. (Simplo, 34 Cycles and and 95.2% after 5 months)
Any tips?
97% you want to calibrate. ?♂️. More 0% rundown battery die faster. This is lithium battery.