Battery died in 4 hours macbook m3 max

Are you running :

• anti-virus software?
• so-called "cleaning" apps?
• a client-side VPN?
• Google Chrome?

I'm seeing plenty of incidents where leaving Chrome open in the background massively decreased battery runtime. And, historically, AV and "cleaning" apps have cut runtimes as much as 50% in Mac notebooks.

Google apps other than Chrome can be resource hogs too. This week I was using Safari on my Macbook Pro with MS Word open in the background. CPU temps consistently remained where they always do when on AC power, about 45°C, and with fans at minimum speed.

I needed to check a map location so opened Google Earth. Within a minute I heard the fans ramp up to 5400rpm (near the 6000 rpm max for my Macbook Pro model) and saw the temp reading was 71°C. I closed Google Earth and the temps and fan speed returned to normal within minutes. Causation was very clear.

OK. Thank you for a good follow-up.

Out of an abundance of caution, let's check workspace effects and their effect on cooling. Are the side vents and hinge areas free of obstruction? One user bought a cheap hard-case that totally blocked the side vents on his Macbook Pro. Not pretty! This shows vent locations for a different Macbook Pro version, but they are placed roughly the same on yours:

Apple's recommendations:

Keep your Mac laptop within acceptable operating temperatures - Apple Support

Ya' know, we're not Apple but your fellow end users, and we cannot pick up subtle causes very well in a setting where we can neither see nor touch your Mac. The "usual suspects" are not there in your Mac.

No, 70°C sounds high to me without the above-listed known offenders or airflow blockage. You have a valid concern but we are limited on what we can do in this text-based system. As the computer is still under the one-year warranty, I highly recommend you have Apple evaluate it in person.

malucy66 wrote:

Today I wake up and had a coding session and my Mac CPU was heating to 110C degrees and battery closed to die in3 hours since I started.

Were you spending a lot of time compiling code? If you were building a lot of code, and the compiler and linker were making good use of multiple CPU cores, that would be a rather compute-intensive activity – compared to merely browsing the Web. With all of those cores doing work at the same time, the computer would use more electrical power per minute, and drain the battery faster, than if it was doing light work.

When they did a report on the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, Anandtech concluded that

"Apple doesn’t advertise any TDP for the chips of the devices – it’s our understanding that simply doesn’t exist, and the only limitation to the power draw of the chips and laptops are simply thermals. As long as temperature is kept in check, the silicon will not throttle or not limit itself in terms of power draw."

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17024/apple-m1-max-performance-review/3

are you working at the beach? if so, you may have to limit your work sessions to shorter ones.

That computer is a battery-CAPABLE device. It is not optimized as a battery-operated device. (It is NOT an iPhone.)

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, even with the power adapter connected, the charged state may decline during stressful work.

When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and may 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 could be somewhat slower) when no AC sources are at hand. Your Mac will NEVER over-charge.