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rickeames

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2008
389
71
Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 5.44.41 PM.png
Teams and Zoom, and this is how long my battery lasted today in the office. Less than 4 hours. That's pretty ugly.
 

TSE

macrumors 601
Jun 25, 2007
4,035
3,559
St. Paul, Minnesota
Few practical things you can do right now:

1. Run Teams in Edge or Chrome if you don't already. That's what I do and my battery life has dramatically improved since doing that. And you aren't missing out on any features of the standalone app as far as I'm aware.

2. Make sure you are running Zoom optimized for Apple Silicon. It's silly, but it's actually quite easy to install the wrong version of Zoom based on their website. I actually installed the Intel version before without even noticing because their website doesn't explicitly say which one you are downloading if you are just browsing. Google "Zoom Apple Silicone" and triple check you have the right version. To know, run activity monitor and see under kind if it's "Intel" or "Apple".

3. Make sure in System Preferences, under the battery section, you have "Low Power Mode" selected. This undervolts the CPU and GPU and brings the screen refresh rate lower and I've seen an extra hour or so of battery from this.

4. Make your screen as dim as you can while still being able to perform the work. A bright screen is the #1 energy consumer.

5. Also, occasionally watch Activity Monitor and see if there are any processes running that you might not be aware of - especially Intel ones. A lot of programs contain bloatware that run in the background even when the app isn't running. Adobe for example is infamous for this.


Try these tips out and let us know how it goes.
 
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rickeames

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2008
389
71
I will give these a try -- it's just crazy how one app (and I suspect it's teams) can kill a battery. I also probably made a mistake going with Max+All the GPU's as that is, I am sure, part of the battery issue.
 

hovscorpion12

macrumors 68040
Sep 12, 2011
3,046
3,129
USA
Zoom/Team uses significant system resources. My intel MacBook Pro ran down in 3hrs. It's the apps themselves.

My recommendation is having your Mac plugged in when using Zoom/Teams.
 
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TSE

macrumors 601
Jun 25, 2007
4,035
3,559
St. Paul, Minnesota
I will give these a try -- it's just crazy how one app (and I suspect it's teams) can kill a battery. I also probably made a mistake going with Max+All the GPU's as that is, I am sure, part of the battery issue.

I have a 14" MacBook Pro with the 32-Core GPU and do all the above and get very solid battery life. Of course, as hovscorpion12 stated, these apps are terrible on system usage, but if you do the above tips, I'm sure it will get better. As a general rule of thumb, I always try to run as much as I can in my browser.
 
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