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    Question About My 2011 MBP Battery Life

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by MKang25, Jul 2, 2011.

  1. MKang25

    MKang25 NBR Prisoner

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    So I just upgraded from my 2008 MBP and noticed that when I am watching a video with screen full brightness I am only getting maybe 20 minutes more battery life on my 2011 MBP compared to my 08 MBP.. Is this normal? On other tasks like web browsing and using word excel I get double what I got on my 08 MBP. I am using MPlayer OS Extended to watch videos. Granted my 08 MBP was undervolted using coolbook but still I figured Id get more than 20 minutes on the '11 compared to the '08.
     
    MKang25, Jul 2, 2011
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  2. GP-SE

    GP-SE Notebook Consultant

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    could be that the full screen video is triggering the ATi graphics instead of the built in Intel HD graphics. The ATi graphics will eat more battery.
     
    GP-SE, Jul 2, 2011
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  3. MKang25

    MKang25 NBR Prisoner

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    I am using gfXCardStatus to use integrated on battery. Could it maybe have something to do with how MPlayer utilizes CPU power and the fact that the Quad Cores i7 use up ALOT more power than the C2D?
     
    MKang25, Jul 3, 2011
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  4. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    MPlayer may not support hardware acceleration. The CPU will be used for decoding if that is the case and it consumes a lot more power than the dedicated decoding chip on the HD3000.
     
    kornchild2002, Jul 3, 2011
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  5. MKang25

    MKang25 NBR Prisoner

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    Does VLC support hardware acceleration? Would VLC, Quicktime be better than MPlayer? Also does a higher resolution screen require more battery power to run then a lower resolution screen?

    Another question is does the HD3000 and ATI 6750 support hardware acceleration I know that the previous generation cards did.
     
    MKang25, Jul 4, 2011
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  6. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    Yes, they both support hardware acceleration. In fact, Intel said that all of their notebook and desktop line of Intel HD graphics will support hardware acceleration for video decoding and I also think for video encoding (though I haven't come across software that supports it). AMD/ATI supported hardware acceleration a while back and continue to do so.

    I am not sure if VLC supports hardware acceleration or not, the same goes with QuickTime. I can tell you that my CPU usage sits at about 1-2% when I playback a 1080p h.264 MKV video in VLC (outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS5.1 to my receiver) or a 1080p h.264 mpeg-4 video with 2.0/5.1 AAC audio using QuickTime.

    Technically, a higher resolution display requires more processing power (hence more battery) but we are in a day and age when that doesn't really matter unless you are talking about displays up way beyond 1080p. Right now, even the GMA 4500MHD graphics from Intel were fine with outputting to high resolution displays without consuming mass amounts of computing cycles.

    What does your CPU sit at when you are playing back these videos? Have you tried using VLC for yourself to see what happens? Do you have bluetooth and wi-fi on when you are watching this videos? What is your screen backlight brightness set at?
     
    kornchild2002, Jul 5, 2011
    #6