Bug: Logos draining battery on MacBook Pro by requiring High Performance GPU

I purchased a new MacBook Pro last week, moved everything over and noticed my battery was draining faster than my 2009 MacBook Pro even though I was using the exact same programs. Every time I checked the battery icon, I noticed that Logos was listed as "Apps Using Significant Energy."

For example, here is a screenshot. At the time I took this screenshot, I hadn't touched Logos in hours. It was not indexing. It was on a different desktop from the one I was using. I was working on a Numbers spreadsheet and at the same time playing a John Piper sermon on Youtube. With all that going, the only app "using significant energy" was Logos.

I looked around a bit in Activity Monitor to see what the problem was and then I noticed this:

I'm guessing this is why Logos is draining my battery so fast. Logos is the only process running on my computer that, for some reason, is requiring the high performance GPU. Even my playback of a youtube video doesn't require the GPU. My old MacBook Pro only had the integrated GPU so this would explain why Logos 7 wasn't draining the battery as fast on that laptop. However, the new one has an upgraded discreet GPU which apparently Logos is requiring for some reason even though no other app on my laptop is.

It would be awesome if this could be fixed. With Logos even running in the background I can just watch my battery drop and it would really slow my workflow down to have to quit Logos and reopen it constantly just to keep it from running in the background and draining battery...

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Jonathan Bradley

I don't know all of the details, but I know consumer reports did not give the new MacBook Pros their blessing/highest rating because of a battery life issue. You might want to look that up.

Samuel

I don't know all of the details, but I know consumer reports did not give the new MacBook Pros their blessing/highest rating because of a battery life issue. You might want to look that up.

Yes, I'm familiar with that. Most of that was fixed was the latest release of MacOS Sierra. The problem I posted is a problem specific to Logos that's causing Logos to drain the battery very quickly. Without Logos running, I get pretty decent battery life out of the computer.

Philana R. Crouch

I purchased a new MacBook Pro last week, moved everything over and noticed my battery was draining faster than my 2009 MacBook Pro even though I was using the exact same programs. Every time I checked the battery icon, I noticed that Logos was listed as "Apps Using Significant Energy."

For example, here is a screenshot. At the time I took this screenshot, I hadn't touched Logos in hours. It was not indexing. It was on a different desktop from the one I was using. I was working on a Numbers spreadsheet and at the same time playing a John Piper sermon on Youtube. With all that going, the only app "using significant energy" was Logos.

I looked around a bit in Activity Monitor to see what the problem was and then I noticed this:

I'm guessing this is why Logos is draining my battery so fast. Logos is the only process running on my computer that, for some reason, is requiring the high performance GPU. Even my playback of a youtube video doesn't require the GPU. My old MacBook Pro only had the integrated GPU so this would explain why Logos 7 wasn't draining the battery as fast on that laptop. However, the new one has an upgraded discreet GPU which apparently Logos is requiring for some reason even though no other app on my laptop is.

It would be awesome if this could be fixed. With Logos even running in the background I can just watch my battery drop and it would really slow my workflow down to have to quit Logos and reopen it constantly just to keep it from running in the background and draining battery...

Samuel,

Can you reproduce this and upload logs? Also was Logos doing anything in the background (i.e. indexing). What type of tasks were you doing? This will help in trying to see what is going on.

Samuel

Samuel,

Can you reproduce this and upload logs? Also was Logos doing anything in the background (i.e. indexing). What type of tasks were you doing? This will help in trying to see what is going on.

I've attached logs files. To reproduce the error:

1. Start Logos 7.

2. Open Activity Manager and check the "energy" tab and you will see that Logos is set to "Requires High Perf GPU"

Logos is requiring the higher performance (and high battery drain) GPU without me even doing anything in Logos.

6521.logos-logs.zip

Samuel

I wanted to leave a note for anyone else searching for this issue that I've noticed this week it is resolved. I'm not sure if it was a Logos update, but Logos is no longer requiring the High Performance GPU on my machine and the battery is not draining as fast as a result.

Josh Boldman

I'm still having this issue, and I'm using a Late 2013 15" MBP. Any suggestions?

Michael McLane

I can confirm, as I did in another thread on this same issue, that Logos eats through the power on the 2016 MacBook Pro. The 7.4 RC-1 is requiring the discrete, high performance gpu. It cuts my cuts my charge life in half.

John Goodman

This might be helpful?

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1734/_index.html

It outlines how to ensure the integrated graphics is used instead of the discreet graphics.

I would certainly appreciate the extra battery life.

Philana R. Crouch

Are you doing anything else in Logos, and had you used it a lot that same day. It will stay in the Battery menu even if Logos has been only running in the background for several hours.

When the app is running in the background what is left open? A specific layout or the homepage.

Michael McLane

Are you doing anything else in Logos, and had you used it a lot that same day. It will stay in the Battery menu even if Logos has been only running in the background for several hours.

When the app is running in the background where is open to? A specific layout or the homepage.

Here is a link to my comment in another thread on this topic that may answer some of those questions:

http://community.logos.com/forums/p/134435/873609.aspx#873609

Philana R. Crouch

Here is a link to my comment in another thread on this topic that may answer some of those questions:

http://community.logos.com/forums/p/134435/873609.aspx#873609

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the added info, we are looking into this.

Michael McLane

This is still not fixed in 7.4 RC-1.

Though, I did not really expect it to be fixed so quickly.

But, sooner is better.

Philana R. Crouch

It would be awesome if this could be fixed. With Logos even running in the background I can just watch my battery drop and it would really slow my workflow down to have to quit Logos and reopen it constantly just to keep it from running in the background and draining battery...

Samuel, this should be improved in 7.6 SR-1.

Samuel

Samuel, this should be improved in 7.6 SR-1.

That's great news - I look forward to the update.

Patrick Lacson

I just upgraded to

Logos Bible Software 7.6 SR-1

7.6.0.0037

I still see 'Requires High Perf GPU' in my Activity Monitor for the Logos always set to 'Yes'

LimJK

For the time being, this is my workaround:

Do not start Logos with the Home Page, which triggers switch to discrete GPU.

I start with a blank Layout
or Start with a Layouts that do not trigger the GPU switch (I find most of my layouts do not trigger the switch)

Patrick Lacson

Thank you LimJK! I reduced my layouts and wow, Logos 7 is finally not use the high performance GPU! Hopefully this will take my new MacBook Pro 2016 beyond 4 hours with Logos running.

Samuel

Samuel, this should be improved in 7.6 SR-1.

I just installed the new release and unfortunately it does not seem to be fixed. Just visiting the home page once triggered Logos to use the high powered GPU until I stopped it and restarted it.

Matt Preucil

It seems like there is some misinformation/understanding about what is causing increased battery drain in Logos. Please allow me to elaborate on some of the improvements that were made.

First, a note on when the OS uses the discrete graphics card:

The OS will switch to using the discrete graphics card when the OS determines a system api would be better serviced by (or require) the discrete card. This is possibly because the performance rendering to the screen might otherwise be chunky/laggy and overwork the CPU when using the integrated graphics card. "High perf" in this case refers to "performant" not "powered". The OS will not switch back to the integrated card after switching to the discrete card. We enable a setting that says, "Yes, allow the app to NOT always switch to the discrete card" (NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching). If you're technically inclined, you can read a few more details here: http://supermegaultragroovy.com/2016/12/10/auto-graphics-switching/ However, be aware that parts of the article imply Logos should be able to avoid requiring the dGPU. We have experimented with the suggestions regarding NSOpenGLPFAAllowOfflineRenderers and audited calls to IOServiceOpen. If we find a way to minimize switching to the dGPU, we will.

Second, to (hopefully) dispel myths:

Yes, the discrete card consumes more power. This should not have a significant effect on energy consumption, relatively speaking. Relative being the keyword and depending a lot on battery health, battery model, machine model, cpu, rendering tasks, other applications, etc.

Third, to elaborate on some of the changes made:

In our testing to narrow down the issue, we discovered that all web-based panels (and homepage) would drain the battery (of the test machine) 1% over 30 minutes. Except, Media Tool in the default browse mode would drain 15%. Not by coincidence, the CPU was spiked to 70% indefinitely. This lined up with other reports about CPU usage in Media Tool, and investigation resulted in discovering the bug causing this spike. Fixing the CPU usage solved the battery drain issue for the scope of when Media Tool is open in browse mode.

Additionally, we were able to track down a bug affecting Notes split view under certain combinations of program scaling and/or window size. Fixing this eliminated another indefinite CPU spike that also would attribute to heavy battery drain.

In summary

Bugs that cause increased CPU usage will lead to battery drain. App usage that leverages multiple cores (like searching, Visual Filters that execute searches, etc) will cause increased CPU and therefore have an energy impact. It is possible that there are other existing bugs affecting CPU and battery that we have not discovered.

So, if you see the "High Perf" graphics card being used when looking at Activity Monitor, don't be alarmed, this is most likely not having a significant effect on battery lifetime. If you are still experiencing actual battery issues with Logos, specifically, check the CPU activity (%, time, wake ups, etc) and try to narrow the activity down to certain panels and view configurations.

I do want to apologize for not being able to fix the problem in Media Tool and Notes sooner. I hope that these fixes will solve the issues you have experienced.

Additionally

Consider the following screenshot of a high-level-overview of energy consumption for Logos after launching to a blank layout and then opening the homepage (which will trigger "Requires High Perf GPU"). We are always working to fix issues and improve application performance and usability. If you are experiencing issues, please report them with as many details as possible. Just, note that GPU usage is not always directly correlated with battery and performance issues.

Samuel

The OS will not switch back to the integrated card after switching to the discrete card.

The bugs still remains because the flag NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching was created by Apple to allow applications to switch back and forth. It used to be that once an application used the discrete GPU it would not go back until the application was closed. However, with the new flag Mac applications can switch back and forth. I might reboot my machine once a month to install an update and Logos is the only application I have that won't let the discrete GPU go after it's used it. Every other app switches back and forth as needed.

I'm really grateful for the CPU savings, but enabling that discrete GPU still has a pretty big battery hit at least on my machine and I almost never use features like Media Browser, etc. My workaround is to not use all of Logos' features or restart Logos if I use one of the features that triggers the GPU, but it would be awesome to have this fixed in a future release.

If I use something in Logos that triggers it to use the discrete card my battery life is maybe 4 hours on a 15" MBP. If I use the basics in Logos and don't trigger the discrete GPU I can get at least 6-7 hours of battery easily using other apps the entire time, so it is a pretty significant difference. I bet if I really tracked it it cuts the battery almost in half.

LimJK

Matt,

Thank you for working on improving the Battery drain. I am one of those who reported draining since Logos 4, so really appreciate you effort[:)] I spent 2+ hours to hopefully provide you with some additional objective data points. My Layout has 8 Logos produced Chinese Bibles, 1 ESV, 1 Program Settings.

(1) Layout Loaded WITHOUT Discrete GPU ("i" on my Menu bar)

I observed it for quite a while in a somewhat steady state, the Energy Impact: Average about 4 (actually varying from 4.0 - 4.5 during this period)

(1) Layout Loaded WITH Discrete GPU ("n" on my Menu bar)

I load the Home Page (with NO contents, so that we can have meaningful comparison) only for the purpose to trigger the GPU Switch, once done, I bring the same Layout to the foreground.

I observed it for quite a while in a somewhat steady state, the Energy Impact: average about 7 (actually varying from 4-10 during this period)

Therefore, there is some impact with Discrete GPU with my Layout.

(3) Interestingly, I observed that if I have Home Page on the foreground with zero contents, at a steady state, the Energy Impact number can be zero (which supports your point that switching to Discrete GPU does not necessary mean more Energy Impact). But, then no one in a normal scenario would load the Home Page with zero contents :-)

Hopefully, you find the observation useful for you to help us further reduced battery draining on MacBookPro. Let me know if you need additional information. Oops, I am on Logos Bible Software 7.7 Beta 3 (7.7.0.0007)

PS: How did you produced your Energy Impact Report which looks very nice [:)]

Michael McLane

It seems like there is some misinformation/understanding about what is causing increased battery drain in Logos. Please allow me to elaborate on some of the improvements that were made.

Thanks for your hard work and the great explanation. But, my real world experience has not changed.

With everything idle (not interacting with the computer) and Logos running with dGPU enabled, I get half the battery life versus Logos running without the dGPU enabled. It is not a CPU problem. There are no spikes or increases in CPU usage during this time of testing.