5 ms·

Any idea how it affects battery usage on a laptop with an integrated GPU?

by 0x00000000 8y ago

saagarjha 8y ago
iTerm actually disables the Metal rederer while on battery by default.
- _asummers 8y ago
  I think that was the point of their question. While it's disabled by default, if it goes from 12h life to 6h, people will leave disabled. If it goes from 12h to 11.5h, people maybe would consider flipping that toggle.
  - tbrock 8y ago
    Kind of counter intuitive. Wouldn’t the GPU be more efficient at rendering graphics than the CPU? For laptop models with dedicated GPU just use the integrated one on battery but ALWAYS prefer Metal GPU rendering to software.
    - dantiberian 8y ago
      I’m guessing here but given the target of macOS this is done to prevent the GPU from being used. Many apps on macOS can do their drawing on the CPU or via the onboard Intel graphics. Metal presumably would force the GPU on, which would impact battery life.
      - tbrock 8y ago
        Except that is not how it works. Metal absolutely works with the integrated GPU.
        ripdog 8y ago
        He wasn't saying metal can render via the cpu, he was saying that macos apps in general can choose whether to use cpu or gpu rendering.
    - gnachman 8y ago
      No, it's not. Each visible pane gets its own thread, and three frames are pipelined. That means you could easily keep two cores plus your GPU going full steam (provided you have an underpowered GPU, which you almost certainly do, because you have a mac). In the legacy renderer, everything happened on the main thread so the most power it could draw was one core at 100%.
      - runeks 8y ago
        > In the legacy renderer, everything happened on the main thread so the most power it could draw was one core at 100%. We’re not talking about wattage, but energy consumption. I.e. a single core working at its max for 5 seconds uses more power than three cores working for one second. It’s a question of efficiency, not how many cores are working at once.
- aschneid 8y ago
  Has the bug been fixed where it doesn't disable? I had to track down why my Nvidia GPU was being used all the time and killing my battery. Turns out it's iTerm2 and it isn't disabling the renderer correctly.

Any idea how it affects battery usage on a laptop with an integrated GPU?

saagarjha 8y ago

iTerm actually disables the Metal rederer while on battery by default.

_asummers 8y ago
I think that was the point of their question. While it's disabled by default, if it goes from 12h life to 6h, people will leave disabled. If it goes from 12h to 11.5h, people maybe would consider flipping that toggle.
- tbrock 8y ago
  Kind of counter intuitive. Wouldn’t the GPU be more efficient at rendering graphics than the CPU? For laptop models with dedicated GPU just use the integrated one on battery but ALWAYS prefer Metal GPU rendering to software.
  - dantiberian 8y ago
    I’m guessing here but given the target of macOS this is done to prevent the GPU from being used. Many apps on macOS can do their drawing on the CPU or via the onboard Intel graphics. Metal presumably would force the GPU on, which would impact battery life.
    - tbrock 8y ago
      Except that is not how it works. Metal absolutely works with the integrated GPU.
      - ripdog 8y ago
        He wasn't saying metal can render via the cpu, he was saying that macos apps in general can choose whether to use cpu or gpu rendering.
  - gnachman 8y ago
    No, it's not. Each visible pane gets its own thread, and three frames are pipelined. That means you could easily keep two cores plus your GPU going full steam (provided you have an underpowered GPU, which you almost certainly do, because you have a mac). In the legacy renderer, everything happened on the main thread so the most power it could draw was one core at 100%.
    - runeks 8y ago
      > In the legacy renderer, everything happened on the main thread so the most power it could draw was one core at 100%. We’re not talking about wattage, but energy consumption. I.e. a single core working at its max for 5 seconds uses more power than three cores working for one second. It’s a question of efficiency, not how many cores are working at once.
aschneid 8y ago
Has the bug been fixed where it doesn't disable? I had to track down why my Nvidia GPU was being used all the time and killing my battery. Turns out it's iTerm2 and it isn't disabling the renderer correctly.