Starcraft 2 drains my battery with adapter plugged in!

[voltare]

Hey Guys. I've been playing Starcraft 2. I played first in Leopard but the performance was no good unless graphics were set to low. Even then, it was only just playable. So I switched to XP. Gameplay on medium graphics is great in XP. I've noticed that even though my Macbbok Pro is plugged in to the wall, it drains the battery. Last night I played so long that the computer shut down after the battery ran out of juice. Anyone know what's going on here?

Specs: Macbook Pro 2.4, 256MB 9600GT, 2GB of ram (I have 4GB coming in the mail.) Leopard fully updated. Windows XP fully updated. I am plugged into the wall, not a surge protector.

Anybody else having this issue? The weird thing is I've played plenty of other games with no problems.

 

[voltare]

This has been resolved. Turns out I was using a macbook power adapter.

 

[KELVIEE]

This has been resolved. Turns out I was using a macbook power adapter.

hey i also play starcraft. what do you mean you were using the macbook power adapter? aren't you supposed to use it? how'd you resolve it? also, after resolving it, does the battery remain at 100% at all times? thanks a lot.

 

[MurderousMoppet]

he means he was using an adapter for a macbook not a macbook pro. the MBPs have a larger, more powerful adapter.

 

[KELVIEE]

he means he was using an adapter for a macbook not a macbook pro. the MBPs have a larger, more powerful adapter.

so if i were to use a macbook pro charger for the macbook pro, would i be able to sustain a 100% battery life, even if i was playing for hours? also, would this damage the battery? thanks for replying btw

 

[Morticus]

I know the thread starter found resolution using the correct power adaptor, but I am experiencing battery drain when playing StarCraft 2 while connected to mains power using the correct adaptor for my MacBook Pro. After 2 or 3 hours of playing, the battery will be down to 90%. Fans are running flat out during gameplay. I thought I was imagining it...

All graphic options are set to maximum - so the MBP is working hard!

 

[KELVIEE]

I know the thread starter found resolution using the correct power adaptor, but I am experiencing battery drain when playing StarCraft 2 while connected to mains power using the correct adaptor for my MacBook Pro. After 2 or 3 hours of playing, the battery will be down to 90%. Fans are running flat out during gameplay. I thought I was imagining it...

All graphic options are set to maximum - so the MBP is working hard!

i plan to use it on low or medium settings at max because when there are much larger and intense battles, i want the best possible game instead of lagging. so do you think i will be able to sustain the 100% or close at least battery life when playing?

 

[Erasmus]

Power supply provides 85W. Under full load, 15"+ 2011 MBP draws 90+W. Battery provides the difference.

Perfectly normal.

 

[KELVIEE]

Power supply provides 85W. Under full load, 15"+ 2011 MBP draws 90+W. Battery provides the difference.

Perfectly normal.

but that's under full load, right? let's say i play the game with low/medium settings, would that result in the battery remaining at or close to 100% unlike playing on ultra settings? just curious and much appreciated for the responses in this forum

 

[Erasmus]

but that's under full load, right? let's say i play the game with low/medium settings, would that result in the battery remaining at or close to 100% unlike playing on ultra settings? just curious and much appreciated for the responses in this forum

No. If you play in BootCamp, you could undervolt your GPU. Otherwise playing at a lower quality will just make the GPU pump out more frames per second, instead of working less.

Considering you can play for probably over 24 hours before your battery is drained, why does it matter? If your computer shuts down, take it as a sign you really should go to bed.

 

[Dweez]

this has been resolved. Turns out i was using a macbook power adapter.

d'oh!

 

[KELVIEE]

No. If you play in BootCamp, you could undervolt your GPU. Otherwise playing at a lower quality will just make the GPU pump out more frames per second, instead of working less.

Considering you can play for probably over 24 hours before your battery is drained, why does it matter? If your computer shuts down, take it as a sign you really should go to bed.

i read an article saying that if you leave a macbook pro plugged for a long period of time, say a week, it will charge to 100% and then stop until reaching 95% and continue the process of charging to 100% again it repeats this process to not damage the battery. wouldn't letting the battery drain, like when playing starcraft, damage the battery? and would also count as a single cycle if it did die?

Also, the voltare guy mentioned that his problem was resolved when he used the macbook pro charger. doesn't that mean he didn't experience anymore battery reduction?

 

[Erasmus]

i read an article saying that if you leave a macbook pro plugged for a long period of time, say a week, it will charge to 100% and then stop until reaching 95% and continue the process of charging to 100% again it repeats this process to not damage the battery. wouldn't letting the battery drain, like when playing starcraft, damage the battery? and would also count as a single cycle if it did die?

Contradicting logic.

Also, the voltare guy mentioned that his problem was resolved when he used the macbook pro charger. doesn't that mean he didn't experience anymore battery reduction?

Different computer. I am assuming you have a 2011 15" MBP. The OP's is 3 years old.

 

[doh123]

i read an article saying that if you leave a macbook pro plugged for a long period of time, say a week, it will charge to 100% and then stop until reaching 95% and continue the process of charging to 100% again it repeats this process to not damage the battery. wouldn't letting the battery drain, like when playing starcraft, damage the battery? and would also count as a single cycle if it did die?

Also, the voltare guy mentioned that his problem was resolved when he used the macbook pro charger. doesn't that mean he didn't experience anymore battery reduction?

the battery will only attempt to charge if it is 95% or lower... if your battery is 98% and you plug it in, it will not charge the battery. Once it drops to 95% it will start charging. This is to preserve the life of the battery.

Charge cycles are only counted on a complete basis... a full charge. It will count up partial charges into full charges... say you charge from 95% to 100% 20 times, then it will count as 1 cycle, since it hit going through 100% charging.

He is using a computer that needs a 85w power adapter, and he was using a 65w. This means it was not getting enough power when he was doing stuff, so it was taking the extra power from the battery. Plugging in a 85w adapter will fix the issue.

Most Macbook pros at max power output still need more than 85w though, so sometimes if you push your machine really hard, it'll still take a bit of power from the battery... but this is usually not noticeable. I've had my machine doing some really hard work (maxing out the machine) for several hours (was 6 or 7) and it drained 3% of my battery.

 

[KELVIEE]

the battery will only attempt to charge if it is 95% or lower... if your battery is 98% and you plug it in, it will not charge the battery. Once it drops to 95% it will start charging. This is to preserve the life of the battery.

Charge cycles are only counted on a complete basis... a full charge. It will count up partial charges into full charges... say you charge from 95% to 100% 20 times, then it will count as 1 cycle, since it hit going through 100% charging.

He is using a computer that needs a 85w power adapter, and he was using a 65w. This means it was not getting enough power when he was doing stuff, so it was taking the extra power from the battery. Plugging in a 85w adapter will fix the issue.

Most Macbook pros at max power output still need more than 85w though, so sometimes if you push your machine really hard, it'll still take a bit of power from the battery... but this is usually not noticeable. I've had my machine doing some really hard work (maxing out the machine) for several hours (was 6 or 7) and it drained 3% of my battery.

so if i were to play starcraft 2 on medium settings for let's say 4 hours nonstop using the original charger which came with the macbook pro, would the battery percentage drop past 95%? would it drop past 95% if i played longer or increased the graphics?

 

[KELVIEE]

the battery will only attempt to charge if it is 95% or lower... if your battery is 98% and you plug it in, it will not charge the battery. Once it drops to 95% it will start charging. This is to preserve the life of the battery.

Charge cycles are only counted on a complete basis... a full charge. It will count up partial charges into full charges... say you charge from 95% to 100% 20 times, then it will count as 1 cycle, since it hit going through 100% charging.

He is using a computer that needs a 85w power adapter, and he was using a 65w. This means it was not getting enough power when he was doing stuff, so it was taking the extra power from the battery. Plugging in a 85w adapter will fix the issue.

Most Macbook pros at max power output still need more than 85w though, so sometimes if you push your machine really hard, it'll still take a bit of power from the battery... but this is usually not noticeable. I've had my machine doing some really hard work (maxing out the machine) for several hours (was 6 or 7) and it drained 3% of my battery.

so is the mbp charger 85w? and the standard macbook 65w?

 

[voltare]

Hey guys. To answer your question, once I got a MBP power adapter, my battery stopped losing charge while playing games.

 

[KELVIEE]

Hey guys. To answer your question, once I got a MBP power adapter, my battery stopped losing charge while playing games.

so you play sc2 on ultra settings?

 

[voltare]

No. I believe I played on med/high. Ultra didn't do well in large battles...

 

[throAU]

I've noticed that while running handbrake on my MBP 15, it will drain slightly whilst on the supplied 85 watt adapter as well.

However, the drain is very slow... like... less than 5 percent per hour.

Its simply because apple supply a very marginal power adapter - it can't quite power the machine at full performance and turbo boost enabled without using battery as well.

Given that laptops are typically not designed to sit running at 100% cpu 24 hrs per day (they're single user machines, and the user sleeps) this isn't generally an issue.

 

[KELVIEE]

I've noticed that while running handbrake on my MBP 15, it will drain slightly whilst on the supplied 85 watt adapter as well.

However, the drain is very slow... like... less than 5 percent per hour.

Its simply because apple supply a very marginal power adapter - it can't quite power the machine at full performance and turbo boost enabled without using battery as well.

Given that laptops are typically not designed to sit running at 100% cpu 24 hrs per day (they're single user machines, and the user sleeps) this isn't generally an issue.

so when voltare was playing starcraft, it wasnt at full performance and therefore, didn't have battery loss while plugged in?

 

[doh123]

so if i were to play starcraft 2 on medium settings for let's say 4 hours nonstop using the original charger which came with the macbook pro, would the battery percentage drop past 95%? would it drop past 95% if i played longer or increased the graphics?

its possible, but unlikely... most likely its not going to pull that much power doing that.. you really have to be maxing out the machine. If it does start taking battery power, it will drop down below 95% before it starts trying to recharge the battery, if extra power is available. Sometimes if your pushing your machine very hard, you can be below 95% and the battery indicator will say "Not Charging" ... thats because your using so much power, there is no extra to charge the battery with.

so is the mbp charger 85w? and the standard macbook 65w?

smaller lower power Macs use 65W, the higher end ones use 85W. That means most are 65W except 15" and 17" MBP.
If you look at one of the sides of your power adapter in the gray text, it'll say at the top something like this...
85W Magsafe Power Adapter
or
65W Magsafe Power Adapter

you can look at the adapter to find out.

 

[KELVIEE]

its possible, but unlikely... most likely its not going to pull that much power doing that.. you really have to be maxing out the machine. If it does start taking battery power, it will drop down below 95% before it starts trying to recharge the battery, if extra power is available. Sometimes if your pushing your machine very hard, you can be below 95% and the battery indicator will say "Not Charging" ... thats because your using so much power, there is no extra to charge the battery with.


smaller lower power Macs use 65W, the higher end ones use 85W. That means most are 65W except 15" and 17" MBP.
If you look at one of the sides of your power adapter in the gray text, it'll say at the top something like this...
85W Magsafe Power Adapter
or
65W Magsafe Power Adapter

you can look at the adapter to find out.

lets say it drops below 95% while playing intensely. would it be damaging the battery?

 

[throAU]

so when voltare was playing starcraft, it wasnt at full performance and therefore, didn't have battery loss while plugged in?

Probably. I doubt starcraft is well threaded enough to run all 8 virtual hyperthreaded cores at 100% constantly. It is likely bottlenecked on GPU. Thus, even though the game was running as fast as it could, the mac still had a couple of cores less unused (and wasn't drawing as much power as an easily threaded task like transcoding video with handbrake does).


edit:

Your battery will get "damaged" from not being used. I wouldn't worry about it draining slightly whilst playing games or running it extremely hard.

 

[KELVIEE]

Probably. I doubt starcraft is well threaded enough to run all 8 virtual hyperthreaded cores at 100% constantly. It is likely bottlenecked on GPU. Thus, even though the game was running as fast as it could, the mac still had a couple of cores less unused (and wasn't drawing as much power as an easily threaded task like transcoding video with handbrake does).


edit:

Your battery will get "damaged" from not being used. I wouldn't worry about it draining slightly whilst playing games or running it extremely hard.

what do you mean it will get damaged from not being used? :S