Arch Linux

couteau

Member

Registered: 2014-08-03

Posts: 1

Macbook Pro 11,3 (Late 2013) power usage

Hi All -

I recently got a macbook pro haswell with the intention of running Arch on it 100% of the time.  Unfortunately, it sucks so much power, that it is almost unusable.  I use NetworkManager for networking and the broadcom-wl driver for the network card.  In Gnome at idle with the intel GPU active, Powertop reports a discharge rate of about 35-40W.

I also tried booting into a bare minimum arch install, with a console, nvidia GPU, no network at all, no daemons other than the systemd ones, and there, it uses around 19-25W.  With the Intel GPU, it drops to around 16-22W.  These tests were done with the stock kernel, version 3.15-8 (most recent Arch stock kernel as of this writing). The readings were done with powertop 2.6.1.

I've seen other users report getting it down to around 9-10W even with the broadcom wireless adapter active, but I cannot figure out how to reduce the power draw any more than I've already done and i'm getting almost twice that.  Under OSX, it runs for 6-8 hours easily, even when being used pretty heavily.  Under Arch, it's about 2-3 tops. 

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong or how I can further cut the power usage?

xero

Member

From: ~/

Registered: 2014-04-02

Posts: 86

Website

Re: Macbook Pro 11,3 (Late 2013) power usage

i had similar issues w/ debian on my hp machine. here's some ideas to try:
1. make sure your graphic card(s) is(are) installed & configured correctly
2. install powertop and thermald and setup a good configuration
3. take a look at cpu frequency scaling and maybe dial it down a bit.

Last edited by xero (2014-08-04 14:08:14)

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