Dear all,
I am one of the many that every time I need to buy a new Mac notebook fall in the loop of 13 vs 15 debate.
This time I went for the 15. I really love the added screen real estate and don't mind the extra bulk. The thing that always made me get away from it was the kick in of the AMD GPU when an external viewing device is attached. Battery goes form a good 10hours to merely 4...
Nevertheless this is not that kind of thread. This is an ask for help from the ones who have a 15 inch machine, don't mind the year.
Here is what I found using iStat menus. When booting Intel GPU is on, Radeon high side is 0.00W as expected. If I connect an external monitor the AMD kicks in as expected and boosts power usage by 10~12W visible on Radeon High Side. Not good, but expected. Now if I disconnect the monitor Intel GPU is used, but Radeon high side remains at 3.3~3.6w consumption (I found out that this is more or less the power AMD draws when using only internal panel). Activity monitor does not register a single process that needs dedicated graphics.
I believe this to be a software bug, but as you can see I need your help to confirm if this is the case for you too. I have 10.14.2, no beta installed.
A remark: if I switch graphics cards through system preferences, when the machine gets back to Intel GPU the Radeon high side registers 0.00W after a while. But, this is without any external monitor ever being connected to the machine after the last reboot.
A reboot fixes the issue, running on Intel GPU again with Radeon high side registering 0.00W and obtaining more than 10hours battery life.
Best regards,
Paulo Neves
I am one of the many that every time I need to buy a new Mac notebook fall in the loop of 13 vs 15 debate.
This time I went for the 15. I really love the added screen real estate and don't mind the extra bulk. The thing that always made me get away from it was the kick in of the AMD GPU when an external viewing device is attached. Battery goes form a good 10hours to merely 4...
Nevertheless this is not that kind of thread. This is an ask for help from the ones who have a 15 inch machine, don't mind the year.
Here is what I found using iStat menus. When booting Intel GPU is on, Radeon high side is 0.00W as expected. If I connect an external monitor the AMD kicks in as expected and boosts power usage by 10~12W visible on Radeon High Side. Not good, but expected. Now if I disconnect the monitor Intel GPU is used, but Radeon high side remains at 3.3~3.6w consumption (I found out that this is more or less the power AMD draws when using only internal panel). Activity monitor does not register a single process that needs dedicated graphics.
I believe this to be a software bug, but as you can see I need your help to confirm if this is the case for you too. I have 10.14.2, no beta installed.
A remark: if I switch graphics cards through system preferences, when the machine gets back to Intel GPU the Radeon high side registers 0.00W after a while. But, this is without any external monitor ever being connected to the machine after the last reboot.
A reboot fixes the issue, running on Intel GPU again with Radeon high side registering 0.00W and obtaining more than 10hours battery life.
Best regards,
Paulo Neves
