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High RAM leading to High Battery consumption

Hi!

I bought a new MacBook Pro 13'' 2020 with 16GB ram just yesterday. I have been a Windows user all my life and quite recently shifted to MacOS. Even though I am just using Safari, the activity monitor shows a serious amount of memory usage. Around 7+ GB which is around half of the capacity, on just Safari.


Is this normal? Or is there something wrong. How should I correct this problem? There is also a huge amount of Cached files. I do not want to pay for the Cleanmymac app to regularly sweep the cached out. I would really appreciate if someone can assist me in this regard.


Thanks,

G

MacBook Pro 13″, 10.15

Posted on Jul 10, 2020 11:48 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 10, 2020 12:39 PM

Your computer performs best when connected to AC power. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work will also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, the charged state may even decline during stressful work.


When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and will perform more slowly. However, for ordinary non-stressful tasks this may not be objectionable (possibly not even noticeable.)


In general, you should ALWAYS connect AC power when it is possible to do so, and only run on batteries (which will be somewhat slower) when no AC sources are at hand. There are three micro-controllers cooperating on battery and charging issues, and your Mac will NEVER over-charge.


A charge cycle is ever-so-slightly destructive to batter longevity. When operating as designed and not using Battery Health Management, battery charge level is allowed to decline to about 92 precent level before initiating a recharge cycle to top up to about 99 percent.


--------

The latest Catalina software update for MacBook Pro with T2 chip (2016 models and later) includes a new feature called Battery Health Management. Based on you usage patterns, this widens the hysteresis to initiate a charge cycle a lower level, and stop before 99 percent.


About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support


This relaxes the set points around re-charging (based on your usage patterns) and can improve long term battery lifetimes. When active, recharging may stop short of 100 percent charged.


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11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 10, 2020 12:39 PM in response to gishouk

Your computer performs best when connected to AC power. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work will also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, the charged state may even decline during stressful work.


When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and will perform more slowly. However, for ordinary non-stressful tasks this may not be objectionable (possibly not even noticeable.)


In general, you should ALWAYS connect AC power when it is possible to do so, and only run on batteries (which will be somewhat slower) when no AC sources are at hand. There are three micro-controllers cooperating on battery and charging issues, and your Mac will NEVER over-charge.


A charge cycle is ever-so-slightly destructive to batter longevity. When operating as designed and not using Battery Health Management, battery charge level is allowed to decline to about 92 precent level before initiating a recharge cycle to top up to about 99 percent.


--------

The latest Catalina software update for MacBook Pro with T2 chip (2016 models and later) includes a new feature called Battery Health Management. Based on you usage patterns, this widens the hysteresis to initiate a charge cycle a lower level, and stop before 99 percent.


About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support


This relaxes the set points around re-charging (based on your usage patterns) and can improve long term battery lifetimes. When active, recharging may stop short of 100 percent charged.


Jul 10, 2020 12:08 PM in response to gishouk

The important metric is memory pressure. Yours graph is very low and all green. You are fine, and this will NOT cause battery problems.


"Unused RAM is wasted RAM"


CleanMyMac and its ilk will slow down your Mac, because those cached files may be referenced again, and there they are, in RAM.


When your Mac needs more RAM for other things, those cached files will be removed based on least-recently-used, and that RAM will be made available in a heartbeat.

Jul 10, 2020 12:47 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

There is also another thing that is bugging me. I bought a new Mac. I unboxed it as well. But when I went to update some of the apps like Numbers etc, it said these apps were not installed using the Apple ID currently being used. online help says this is when someone else had previously logged into apple store. which would make it an old pc and not the new one I paid a tonne of money for. am I understanding the situation correctly?

Jul 10, 2020 12:54 PM in response to gishouk

No. These are routinely NOT installed on new Macs, but new Macs are eligible for purchase for $0.


Once you create an Apple-ID, and log in to the Mac App Store with it, your purchases are yours.


You should be able to "Purchase" those Apps at no cost to you.


Try it -- and report if anything other than complete success, noting the EXACT wording of any error messages.

Jul 10, 2020 1:35 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

To solve the problem, I deleted the apps and reinstalled them. They work fine now. But is it then possible that Apple sold me a refurbished laptop instead of a new one? and that these apps were installed by the previous user? I contacted apple customer care and they said sometimes these apps are installed during the time MacOS is loaded onto your machine and that is what happened in your case too. I had my machine customised to a 16GB ram version.

High RAM leading to High Battery consumption

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