News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacBook Air. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by TulliusCicero on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @12:50AM (#40424263)
I don't understand why battery life in gaming laptops is so incredibly shit even when doing non-gaming tasks. I thought a while back Intel and AMD worked on hardware/software to automatically switch to integrated graphics when you don't need the discrete GPU? Did nothing come of that?

I don't expect the battery life to be as good as non-gaming laptops, of course, but I feel like it should probably last longer than like an hour and a half.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by viraptor on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @12:53AM (#40424290)
It works like that on most laptops. The GPU selection should be transparent on windows. (And can be done explicitly in Linux)

I know Linux has powertop which can measure energy usage per subsystem. Not sure if windows has something like that to answer your question?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by asmor on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @01:01AM (#40424328)
Been like that forever.

Usually gaming laptops prioritize their cooling systems over battery size. And don’t underestimate the high refresh rate panel likely optimized for at least 500 nits.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by masklinn on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @01:23AM (#40424474)
> And don’t underestimate the high refresh rate panel

Literally one of the reasons Apple added variable refresh rates on their pro phones: if you can vrr down, you save a ton of battery when you run the panel at 1Hz.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by achneerov on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @12:17PM (#40430440)
I’m pretty sure any MacBook Pro with ProMotion can only drop to 24hz

“the MacBook Pro’s ProMotion display can range from 24Hz to 120Hz.”

https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/19/macbook-pro-promotion-tidbits....

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Says New Surface Pro Is Faster Than 15" M3 MacB... by masklinn on Tuesday May 21, 2024 @02:12PM (#40431790)
Ah cool, didn't know that, I thought it was only in the phones and tablets.
[ Parent | on HN ]