MBP Retina inconsistent UI graphics / battery life

I apologize in advance for the 1,000,000th thread on this topic. I (like so many others) have noticed very inconsistent smooth/choppy graphics performance with basic UI functions of OS X 10.8.2. I have tried a number of user suggetsions to alleviate this problem including turning off dynamic switching. That seems to have only a minor improvement, and kills battery life. I'm assuming that OS X (like windows machines) scales the CPU on a notebook to improve battery life. What I have noticed, is that if you have processor intense applications running/loading, the graphics lag (ie - dock zoom) improves dramatically. Has anybody else noticed this? This would at least suggest that the current retina MBP hardware components are more than capable of producing a smooth UI experience, in contrast to what other reveiw forums have suggested. Is there a way to modify CPU throttling at least when the device is plugged in? This whole issue is not a deal-breaker for me, but it's not what I've come to expect from Apple.

Update, for some reason puting the dock on the left or right side of the screen DRAMATICALLY improves performance of both dock magnification and the genie effect. This may be a software issue.

Similar Messages

Keyboard and trackpad unresponsive on Late 2013 15" MBP Retina w/ Nvidia graphics

I just got my a new 15" retina MacBook Pro and am experiencing trackpad and keyboad unresponsiveness. The issue doesn't resolve itself with a restart. I can unblock myself by doing an SMC reset (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US) but after some arbitrary amout of time, the keyboard and trackpad become unresponsive again. I can connect a USB mouse and keyboard or bluetooth mouse and keyboard and those will work. HELP!

Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro11,3
Processor Name:          Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:          2.6 GHz
Number of Processors:          1
Total Number of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
L3 Cache:          6 MB
Memory:          16 GB
Boot ROM Version:          MBP112.0138.B02
SMC Version (system):          2.19f3

Battery LIfe in Macbook Pro 2012- complete joke

Hi All, just got a new macbook pro for xmas. It was a refurbushed one from July 2012 which comes with warranty etc etc.
Firstly am pretty annoyed as think Appple is really going downhill fast (iphone 5 have seem issues with battery but service in hk ***). The battery on this new computer has a complete life span on 2.42hours. This is with only this webpage open so thus my concern. It is just crap. That cant be right i am guessing as the website says up to 7hrs.
I timed it to take 16% of the full charged battery within 20mins using nothing but very light web browser.
I used to have a macbook pro 2010 which was great but this just seems rubbish. I live in hong kong though and find any issue you have is not recieved with the neccessary service that i am used to in my home country in Australia. They will just tell me to take it to the repair centre. Personally think this is unacceptable as why should i have to do all the leg work on there new computer which is faulty.
Is this a common problem re battery? Also am i in my rights to the peopleat the store that it simply isnt god enough and they should do the legwork rather then me having to take it to the service centre.(i brought it off the apple online store)

Yes the 2010 MBPs were the most efficient MBPs made in terms of battery life (and the 10.6 OS). I have one. The subsequent quad core/10.7 OS changed that some what with a lesser battery life span. I also have a 2011 MBP.
I would say that 2,42 hrs would be disappointing to me as well for light duty CPU loads. Now understand that Apples battery life claims are based on Ebenezer Scrooge setting. My rule of thumb that for my 'normal' use will be about 2/3s of Apples advertised times.
I do note your general satisfaction, but as a fellow user there is nothing that I can do to assist you in that area All I can do is point you to these two articles that may give some strategies where you may be able to increase the battery life:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
Ciao.

Retina MBP 2.6 only 3 hours of battery life?

My 1 week old Retina MBP 2.6 is only getting 3 hours max on battery with light surfing. When watching videos i also only get 3 hours tops. Bluetooth is off, keyboard light off, screen backlighting 50%, gfxCardstatus set to integrated only (also confirmed in energy saving settings). I run 10.7.4, all updates installed.
Is this normal? Isn´t it supposed to get at least 5 hours when browsing the web (no youtube)? Should i return it and get the 2.3 instead for more battery life?
Thanks in advance.

There have been reports of problems with various models experiencing low battery life after installing Mountain Lion but as you're still using Lion, you should be getting at least 7 hours on battery for light web surfing (not a lot of YouTube videos, etc.).
My suggestion would be to take the machine into your local Apple Store and let them deal with the problem. Before that you can download the free "Battery Health" from the App Store which lets you see your battery health in real-time, as opposed to always having to go into your System Report. There's no reason that you should be getting less than 7+ hours of battery life.
Clinton

MBP 15" Retina Battery Life Problems

Hello all!
I recently got the highest end MBP 15" Retina and it runs AMAZINGLY fast, but the only problem I'm having with is the battery life.
For example, right now, at 100% charge, the predicted time is 4 hours and 35 minutes, but it's plummeting very quickly; I don't think I'll get more than 1 or 2 hours.
On the website, the average predicted battery life is almost 8 hours. I understand that the numbers on Apple's website may not be exact, but I feel like getting a quarter or even half of the advertised battery life suggests there is something wrong as well? o-o
I'm not doing anything intensive on my computer either; just simple web browsing and chatting on Skype.
I've searched the internet for solutions, and I've already tried resetting PRAM AND NVRAM settings, I've turned off Bluetooth, and checked off all of the Power Saver settings in Preferences.
My battery's condition is "Normal" since I recently purchased it.
I'm curious if anyone has a solution to this problem? (To give an idea of how fast the battery is draining, I started writing this post with 100% battery, and now it's at 98% several minutes later)
If anyone has any advice, it'd be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advanced!

puzzledsean wrote:
I'm not doing anything intensive on my computer either; just simple web browsing and chatting on Skype.
Skype is one of the most resource hungry application that one may use. It will drain the battery very quickly. When using it, connect your MBP to the power adapter.
Read the Apple hype regarding battery run time. The operative term is 'UP TO' not will achieve 8 hours run time. In the 'real world' conditions, battery run time will be determined by the number and type of applications you are using. If you are just text editing, you may very well get 8 hours from from the battery, but certainly not with Skype games or video.
Ciao.

Battery life on brand new 13" retina MBP disappointing

Waited a long time to buy the Haswell retina 13" MBP with improved battery life ('9 hrs wireless web'). So far I'm only managing 5 hrs max. And all I do is browse the web and some text editing. Anyone else disappointed? Not sure if I should go have it looked at or if I just fell for another marketing spin. I imagine being told even 2 hours is still 'up to 9 hours'. Grr.

I've actually noticed this problem. Sometimes I'll have 10-12 hours and then suddenly it'll drop to five. I'll turn off wi-fi, bluetooth, set the brightness to two or three and close all programs, and barely see any change.
Last night I did some investigating and found that the kernal_task was eating up CPU cycles, running at 100-110% non-stop. I restarted the machine and the kernal_task went back to normal and stayed there for a while, and my battery life showed HUGE improvements. I think it might actually be related to the keyboard/trackpad issue others have seen because I've noticed (anecdotally) that the decrease in battery life usually follows the unresponsive spell.
I'm planning to test and document this weekend so that I can report it to Apple. I'd suggest that you look at the Activity Monitor for the kernal_task when you're getting poor battery life and see what percentage it's running at. I suspect you'll see it's high. When it's running normally, I get crazy good battery life. If you find it is, take screen shots and report it to Apple. Runaway kernal_task is not a new probelm with a new OS. It's been reported in most of the other major releases.

Mbp retina display battery life issues

When i bought my laptop, the battery life was around 7 hours. now its barely 3 or 4.
I have tried to enter:
cd ~/Library/Preferences/
rm com.apple.desktop.plist
killall Dock
this works sometimes, but other times it does not. Frankly, The issue of battery life should be one of apples first priorities.They promise us amazing battery life, and they dont even fix it in an update. If anyone has any advice, please help me. If an apple employee is reading this shame on you and please deal with the problem in OSX 10.8.4, or a minor update for retina display. I was told this is only a problem with mountain lion users.

Hi Solid,
The article below will explain how to optimize the battery life on your Macbook Pro.
Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
The article is more detailed, but this section is worth noting:
Optimal Setting
You can choose to use your Apple notebook in a way that maximizes its battery life.
Energy: The Energy Saver control panel offers several settings that determine power levels for your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. Your portable knows when it’s plugged in, and runs accordingly. When on battery power, it will dim the screen and use other components sparingly. If you change this setting to maximize performance, your battery will drain more quickly.
Brightness: Dim the screen to the lowest comfortable level to achieve maximum battery life. For instance, when watching a DVD on an airplane, you may not need full brightness if all the lights are off.
AirPort Wireless: AirPort consumes power, even if you are not using its features to connect to a network. You can turn it off in its control panel to save power.
Bluetooth Wireless: Likewise, you can turn off Bluetooth to maximize your battery life, as it also consumes power when not in use.
Applications and peripherals: Disconnect peripherals and quit applications not in use. Eject CDs and DVDs if not currently accessing them.
You can also check to see the status of your battery with the information in this article:
Mac notebooks: Determining battery cycle count
I hope this information helps ....
- Judy

Poor Battery life under Bootcamp W8.1 - MBP Retina late 2013

I finally managed to get W8.1 installed under bootcamp by installing W7, upgrading to W8.0 and upgrading again to W8.1.
The battery life is pretty poor at the moment. Just simple browsing and emailing is showing 25% usgage around 1 hour. I guess this is because it's using the NVIDIA GT 750M full time, rather than the Iris Pro?
My question is... Is this something that Apple normally fixes with an update? I definately don't need the power of the GT 750M, so I'd prefer to use the Iris Pro (I'm assuming this is less power hungry!). Even if it just gave a choice, rather than automatically switching, that would be great.
Thanks

Thanks. This is the first time I've used bootcamp on a dual graphics card machine, so I wasn't aware of this 'shortcoming'. Shame, but there are worse things to worry about

2012 MBP Retina showing 25-35% drop in battery life after Mavericks update

I upgraded from Mountain Lion to Mavericks on the day the new OS X version was released, and since then my battery life has dropped by about 25% to 2.5 hours when running resource intensive applications such as video playback or photo editing, and by about 35% to about 3.5 hours when running regular applications such as email and browsing.
Now, from what I understand from Apple's aggressive marketing campaign about Mavericks' numerous added features, battery life should improve from more intelligent CPU and memory usage compared to its predecessor. Clearly, that's not been the case for me and what looks like several other users. I'm wondering if this issue has been taken note of by Apple and if a patch is in the development for release soon. Also wondering if there's an easier resolution for this issue.
My Macbook configuration is as follows.
SDS

I ran some more diagnostics on the low battery situation and found Google Chrome to be the source of a high battery drain. Chrome wasn't an apparent battery drain source since the new significant energy consuming apps feature in OS X Mavericks also lists Safari when simply browing. To ascertain the relative magnitude of the battery drain from different browsers, I had to completely switch to using one or the other. With Safari, my battery life is in the range of 5.5 to 6 hours (browsing + intermittent high intensity apps use). This is marginally better than OS X Mountain Lion, but better nevertheless.
Complaint redacted. Looking forward to the next Google Chrome release that is compatible with OS X Mavericks.
-SDS

Reduced battery life for high-end MBP 15 2011?

I just bought a new MBP 15" 2011 model (2.2 GHz), an upgrade from my previous MBP 2009 (MacBookPro5,3; Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66GHz)). I have noticed that the real world battery life is significantly worse than the previous model (3-4 hours vs. 6-7 hours). This doesn't seem due to the actual full charge capacity, since the MBP 2009 still has over 6000 mAh, whereas the new MBP 2011 shows around 7000mAh. Rather, it seems my MBP 2011 draws a lot more power from the battery than the MBP 2009. Could it be that the high-resolution matte screen is the culprit? FYI, the spec of my MBP 2011 is as follows (old specs in the parentheses):
1. 512GB SSD (256GB)
2. 8GB memory (4GB)
3. high resolution matte screen (1680x1050) (glossy standard screen)

If I remember rightly the 2009 units didn't have on the fly graphics switching?
The new ones do. That means sometimes you can be on the more powerful graphics card with out realising - this will kill your battery life. Wrote about it here for the 2010 models: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2010/4/21Early_2010_Macbook_Pro_-_Battery_LifePoor.html
There's a great piece of software that will allow you to control & see which graphics card you're on - I bet if you stick to the integrated graphics you'll see your battery life improve significantly.
You can get that here: http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus

Poor battery life and high temperatures on MacBook Pro Retina 15"

I'm having never-ending problems with poor battery life and high temperatures on a MacBook Pro Retina 15"
I took it in for service and they told me it needed a new logic board and replaced it. When I asked why they were vague about the reasons, they said "it just needed one, it failed some test". I now have the computer back and it runs the same way it always did. I bought this laptop because it was supposedly capable of high end video editing in 1080P (or so Apple's website claims) and also photo editing.
"The processor, graphics, all-flash architecture, memory, and display in the 15-inch MacBook Pro give you unprecedented mobile video editing capabilities. Super-responsive flash storage delivers up to nine streams of 1080p ProRes (HQ) content for multicam editing in Final Cut Pro X,3 while the latest quad-core processors on the 15-inch MacBook Pro decode multiple streams of video, and a powerful GPU renders millions of pixels onto the screen. With flash storage that offers up to four times the performance of a traditional hard drive,1 you can even edit four streams of uncompressed 8-bit 1080p HD video, right from the internal storage on your 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.4"
However, when I'm just browsing the web and emailing it runs quite warm and battery life is quite poor. Sometimes doing those same activities I would say it gets so warm it's almost uncomfortable to have on your lap and the fans are running fast enough to become noticably noisy. I'm also driving only one screen at and a time and I heard that the MacBook Pro can supposedly do three screens.
If actually try to do something like video editing with final cut pro the laptop gets really hot, the fans are on full blast and battery life drops to only an hour or two. I think when I rendered just a 3 or 4 minute clip once I got less than hour of battery life. I will have to time again.
Anyway most people (including the sales guys) are telling me no way this is not normal. When I play with demos in the store browsing the web they are not getting warm or hot to the touch. My friend's 2013 MacBook Air is also NOT getting warm to the touch doing the same activities.
I installed iStat Pro so I could check the temperature and fan speeds. I'm seeing temperatures of 70+ on the GPU, 85+ on the GPU diode and 65+ on the CPU heatsink along with elvated fan speeds above 5K which becomes noticeably noisy. I understand that might be normal for the most processor intensive tasks but it really doesn't seem right for just light web browsing and e-mailing. (I also may have viber and skype open but that shouldn't matter). CPU usage is usually running between 2-10% as this is all happening to.
Furthermore, straight from the specs:
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
I am assume "GPU" and "GPU diode" are temp measurements on the discrenete NVIDIA video card, especially since MacBook Airs from the same and newer generatio do not have this reading. Since Apple Claims the graphics "automatically switches" it seems all the harder to believe the GPU is reaching 85+ when in theory it shouldn't even be activated. I mean, shouldn't the INtel HD Graphics 4000 be capable of simple web browsing and e-mailing? Especially with only one screen activated (be it it the internal or an external)?
What should I do here? When I asked the repair guys "OK well what is the normal operating temp range for the various sensors" they said "Sorry Apple doesn't provide that info".

Yes I have.
Just web browsing and basically doing nothing I'm hear a lot of aduible fans, I'm getting 85C+ on GPU diode, 65+ on cpu heatsink. I since installed anohter program that shows me not just the CPU heatsink but the cores and the cores are at 90C+.
Seems like a lot of heat for doing nothing. Not only that but I have these problems with no external monitor while on battery power too.
I don't know what to do. They already replaced the logic board. Others seem to get advertised battery life out of Apple products and not have products that get **** near hot enough to burn you while just web browsing or watching a movie let alone advertised tasks like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

I have a MacBook Pro 13inch 2.4GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, SD card slot, up to 10 hour battery life)bought in October 2010 in the UK. The charger has stopped working. Which model and voltage do I need please?

I have a MacBook Pro 13inch 2.4GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, SD card slot, up to 10 hour battery life) bought in October 2010. The charger has been playing up for a while now - the light going out but coming back on when I move the cable a bit - faulty connection it seems. It has now stopped working at all.
Apple UK charge a whopping £65 for a replacement - and the reviews are AWFUL for it!
I need to know which one I need - 45w, 60w and 80w are listed - can someone tell me please? If I'm going to pay this price I want to make sure I get the right one!
Also, is a genuine Apple one available on Amazon UK, does anyone know please?
Any help will be much appreciated.
Meanwhile my battery is going down.....

Thanks for that wjosten. Much appreciated.
I've read here on Apple's site that the 85W version will work, as you say, and that it would run cooler with a 13" Macbook - I have a 13" MBP of course but assume this would be the same with mine. I wonder if running cooler is a good thing (it sounds as if it is) and it would be better for me to get the 85W version than the 60W one?
Then I have to decide whether to pay the (extortionate as it seems to me, though I may be wrong) £65 from Apple (bearing in mind the rotten reviews here of the Apple product), or risk a cheaper alternative from Amazon UK, at around £20 (also with various rotten reviews)... Any suggestions? Please? :-)

Battery Life Retina

Hi everyone, I recentely bought a new mbp retina and I'm pleased to be able to be able to switch to the 1680x1050 resolution, mostly for work!
Does someone know about the impact this resolution has on the battery life? Apple doesn't say a word about it, and I read that there is an emulation work for mac os that need to be done in backgroupe in order to accomplish the "upscaling"....
Thanks!

I wouldn't think that using a 1680x1050 resolution would affect your battery in any way. If anything, using the highest res would, I believe, use more GPU power than the resolution you've chosen.
So... I wouldn't worry about it!
Clinton

Core i7 15" MBP battery life far below advertised

I'm curious what kind of battery life other 15" i7 MBP users are seeing.
Mine is just two weeks old, I calibrated the battery on the first day. Reproducing Apple's supposed "Wireless productivity" scenario, (50% brightness, optimal Energy Saver settings, surfing basic web sites with Chrome and lightweight apps), I get around 5 hours of life. The system used the onboard Intel graphics chip almost exclusively during that time.
Coconut Battery reports that max capacity for my battery is 6900 mAh, with current capacity at 98% of maximum after 10 load cycles.
5 hours is less than 60% of the "8-9 hours" so loudly advertised. So, I guess Apple earns a D- on battery life compared to what they are marketing. I'm pretty disappointed and this seems like a bait-and-switch deal.
Other Core i7 15" owners: what is your "original battery capacity" (find out with Coconut Battery), and, how much life are you getting?

Raduga,
a couple of thoughts.
Battery life really does vary very greatly depending on usage and the type of web browsing you are doing in particular can have a major impact. If, for example, you are visiting any websites which make use of "Flash" (even if they are just sites using Flash for integrated advertisements or You Tube videos etc) then the battery life will be reduced substantially. Keeping more than one or two tabs or windows open can make a big difference, too.
You can very substantially improve the situation with respect to Flash by using ClickToFlash and, if you use YouTube, by signing up for their h.264 beta program - see http://www.youtube.com/html5 and http://www.macworld.com/article/145828/2010/01/youtube_html5.html
You don't mention whether you have turned off Bluetooth. Leaving Bluetooth running when its not needed can impose a 15% to 20% penalty on battery run times in my experience.
Another thing that can have a major effect is a "back ground process" hogging cpu cycles. You can check for this using Activity Monitor (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473 for basic instructions) . Some common causes here involve hung up print jobs, virus checkers, out of date scanner "button scanners", etc. Corrupted "spotlight" databases can also cause Apples own "mdimport" processes to become very processor intensive, chewing up CPU cycles with a major effect on battery life. Similarly, corrupt or duplicated fonts can result in Apple's "fontworker" process running overtime.
Cheers
Rod

Problem with MBP Retina Display battery

So, I'm on my second MBP Retina Display. The first one had a dead pixel. However, other than the dead pixel I was pleased with the laptops condition.
I got it replaced. The new model seems to be having issues with burned in windows on the display. Also, the battery life seems to go down much quicker than
the one I had originaly.
I took my laptop into the genius bar and was told the battery was completely fine but because I used migration assistant something was draining the battery life.
A month has gone by since I cleaned out my laptop and didn't use migration assistant. The battery had been lasting longer than before. But now it's draining rather rapidly again. I don't know why.
Also, I hadn't noticed the burn in's until now.
Can someone tell me if there is a way to fix these issues? Or if I should take my laptop in again?
Thanks for the help!

0. Forget coconutBattery.
1. Doesn't seem like a lot.
2. Recommended? No. Can it hurt? No, as long as you stick to 3.
3. It is better to discharge, at least a few times per month, to about 40%.

MBP Retina inconsistent UI graphics / battery life

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