Question What tests/programs can I run to simulate battery usage and test the battery run time ?

[edo101]

Hi, I'd like to run some benchmarks/test programs to see how long the laptops I am considering last on battery power. Any recommendations? I like RealBench but for whatever reason, it hangs every now and then on my only Ryzen Laptop. It runs non stop on my Intel Laptops though. It's like after a bit of time my Ryzen laptop puts it to sleep or something and my laptop's screen goes to screensaver mode. I do have max performance as battery profile btw.

But the main question is, what apps can I use to simulate and stress the battery life and see which laptop has the best battery life ?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

You can run a continuous benchmark app like gpuz, TechPowerUp GPU-Z (v2.52.0) Download | TechPowerUp 0n the first page there is a small question mark next to the bus interface,1/4 way down page on the right, click on the question mark. It is a render test, it will put power draw on the gpu and run until you hit esc to stop it. Click the full screen box then run test.

 

[edo101]

You can run a continuous benchmark app like gpuz, TechPowerUp GPU-Z (v2.52.0) Download | TechPowerUp 0n the first page there is a small question mark next to the bus interface,1/4 way down page on the right, click on the question mark. It is a render test, it will put power draw on the gpu and run until you hit esc to stop it. Click the full screen box then run test.

What if I want to test CPU, GPU and RAM. To essentially simulate a demanding app running continuosly ?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Here is a good list of programs. 10 Best PC Stress Testing Tools for CPU, GPU, and RAM Stress Test (thepcbuild.net)

 

[USAFRet]

What if I want to test CPU, GPU and RAM. To essentially simulate a demanding app running continuosly ?

I did a test like this just yesterday.

To test battery life in real world conditions, I simply queued up a bunch of movies, and let it play.
See how long until the battery dies.

Surface Go 3, i3 CPU, 128GB NVMe, 8GB RAM....about 5.5 hours.

Today, I'll be doing it again, but with the Performance set on "Best Battery life"

 

[edo101]

I did a test like this just yesterday.

To test battery life in real world conditions, I simply queued up a bunch of movies, and let it play.
See how long until the battery dies.

Surface Go 3, i3 CPU, 128GB NVMe, 8GB RAM....about 5.5 hours.

Today, I'll be doing it again, but with the Performance set on "Best Battery life"

SO queing up multiple movies? Would that effectively simulate, CPU, MEM and GPU together?

And were these movies playing in parallel? If not, how did you queue them up? @USAFRet

 

[edo101]

Here is a good list of programs. 10 Best PC Stress Testing Tools for CPU, GPU, and RAM Stress Test (thepcbuild.net)

Just to clarfiy, I'd like to test CPU, GPU and MEM together

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Just to clarfiy, I'd like to test CPU, GPU and MEM together

Whatever one of those tests you run use the memory so the memory is being tested. Nobody runs benchmarking software all at once to test battery life. The suggestion to queue up a bunch of movies is the most realistic. Movies use everything, the CPU, the GPU and the ram.

 

[USAFRet]

SO queing up multiple movies? Would that effectively simulate, CPU, MEM and GPU together?

And were these movies playing in parallel? If not, how did you queue them up? @USAFRet

I put them in a VLC playlist.
Playing one after the other, full screen. 1080p.
Or, you could open multiple VLC windows.

Currently, on 'best battery', it is at 32% battery left after 4 hrs, 50 mins.
Yes, it uses the whole system.

That movie playing is pretty much actual PC use. Which is the only thing that really counts.
Some contrived benchmark test is only applicable to that 'test', or to compare multiple systems run with the same test conditions.

 

[edo101]

Whatever one of those tests you run use the memory so the memory is being tested. Nobody runs benchmarking software all at once to test battery life. The suggestion to queue up a bunch of movies is the most realistic. Movies use everything, the CPU, the GPU and the ram.

The is to test how long the laptops could las @Mandark

 

[Deleted member 14196]

The is to test how long the laptops could las @Mandark

As I said, the previous suggestion holds. A bunch of movies will do fine. The whole idea is to pick something realistic running those benchmarks isn’t realistic use so you’ll have nothing to compare it to.

 

[USAFRet]

The is to test how long the laptops could las @Mandark

Testing using some unrealistic tool, or testing in what you might actually be doing?

 

[edo101]

As I said, the previous suggestion holds. A bunch of movies will do fine. The whole idea is to pick something realistic running those benchmarks isn’t realistic use so you’ll have nothing to compare it to.

But what if I want to do photoshop? Or play a video game? Movies woulnd't be accurate to how system would handle it no? Photshop and a video game is more demanding than movies no?

@Mandark @USAFRet

 

[Deleted member 14196]

The only way to test is to play the actual games you’re going to play and see how long it lasts. How else do you think you’re going to test this thing in a somehow meaningful way? If it’s Photoshop or a game, then do that and just use it for hours and see how long it lasts. running a bunch of benchmarks on it isn’t going to tell you how long it’s going to last in Photoshop or playing a certain game

 

[USAFRet]

But what if I want to do photoshop? Or play a video game? Movies woulnd't be accurate to how system would handle it no? Photshop and a video game is more demanding than movies no?

@Mandark @USAFRet

Since you seem to want to compare two different laptops for overall battery longevity, a similar workload on both would seem to do the trick.

A playlist of the same videos on both would seem to give an indication of battery length, for comparing multiple systems.

Photoshop may or may not be more battery intensive than movies.
Games probably are.

But a consistent use across the multiple systems is a good indicator for comparison.

 

[edo101]

Since you seem to want to compare two different laptops for overall battery longevity, a similar workload on both would seem to do the trick.

A playlist of the same videos on both would seem to give an indication of battery length, for comparing multiple systems.

Photoshop may or may not be more battery intensive than movies.
Games probably are.

But a consistent use across the multiple systems is a good indicator for comparison.

Yeah I did realbench on both systems on 100% battery. But the only issue with that was that on the AMD laptop, the laptop would hang real bench every now and then and I'd have to manually start it again by clicking in the window of the bench. So I lost a couple of minutes on Realbench on one laptop. But yeah eassentailly, I am trying to find a simulating program that I can run on both that I know wil put the system under load. Tha'ts the idea. Playing a video game would require me to put time I would rather spend doing something else, on both laptops. A program I can run without needing to be on the laptop would be best. @USAFRet @Mandark

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah I did realbench on both systems on 100% battery. But the only issue with that was that on the AMD laptop, the laptop would hang real bench every now and then and I'd have to manually start it again by clicking in the window of the bench. So I lost a couple of minutes on Realbench on one laptop. But yeah eassentailly, I am trying to find a simulating program that I can run on both that I know wil put the system under load. Tha'ts the idea. Playing a video game would require me to put time I would rather spend doing something else, on both laptops. A program I can run without needing to be on the laptop would be best. @USAFRet @Mandark

Any benchmark program is not going to simulate your specific Photoshop or game use.
It can only be used as a comparison between the battery life of two different systems, under the same workload.
Just like a playlist of movies.

My 'Best battery life' test just completed on my Surface Go 3.
It ran several hours of video, totally hands off.
6 hours, 55 mins before it died.

Does that movie playing equate to your game or PS use?
No.
Neither does some artificial benchmark tool.

It was simply a comparison between 2 different laptops, with the exact same workload.

No, I do not know of any application or benchmark tool that will simulate your PS/game use exactly.

 

[edo101]

Any benchmark program is not going to simulate your specific Photoshop or game use.
It can only be used as a comparison between the battery life of two different systems, under the same workload.
Just like a playlist of movies.

My 'Best battery life' test just completed on my Surface Go 3.
It ran several hours of video, totally hands off.
6 hours, 55 mins before it died.

Does that movie playing equate to your game or PS use?
No.
Neither does some artificial benchmark tool.

It was simply a comparison between 2 different laptops, with the exact same workload.

No, I do not know of any application or benchmark tool that will simulate your PS/game use exactly.

I do understand that it won't. But I do want to see how the system handles heavier loads which I feel the videos alone won't do

 

[USAFRet]

I do understand that it won't. But I do want to see how the system handles heavier loads which I feel the videos alone won't do

How battery tests are done:
https://www.rtings.com/laptop/tests/performance/battery

Oh look..one of their test routines is exactly what I did.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

What is your original concern about battery life? The laptops should have information about the battery onboard and its average running time.

 

[edo101]

How battery tests are done:
https://www.rtings.com/laptop/tests/performance/battery

Oh look..one of their test routines is exactly what I did.

Thank you so much for that link. Funny, I looked up longest running laptops and that page never showed up on my results. That being said, I do see they do a "gaming" benchmark. To simulate heavier loads which is what I was talking about. They do both video playback and "video game" simulation via Uniengine. So my point still holds.

I have done video playback tests. Youtube with RvB playlist, and 4k videos on VLC. I was looking for something that could more heavily task my laptops

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Why don’t you start a timer and play the game that you like to play and then when you notice the battery is low check the amount of time you’ve played.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you so much for that link. Funny, I looked up longest running laptops and that page never showed up on my results. That being said, I do see they do a "gaming" benchmark. To simulate heavier loads which is what I was talking about. They do both video playback and "video game" simulation via Uniengine. So my point still holds.

I have done video playback tests. Youtube with RvB playlist, and 4k videos on VLC. I was looking for something that could more heavily task my laptops

Heavy loads is one thing.
Comparing 2 different laptops is a different thing.


But, with that site and their tests, I may have issues.
For a Microsoft Surface Go 3, they show the video playback as 3.6 hours.

I have that same laptop.
Running my video via VLC test last night, I saw 6 hours 55 mins.

Today, I'm running it again, trying to recreate their environment as closely as possible.
Airplane mode (WiFi/BT off), Best Battery life, etc.

So far, 2 hrs 35 mins, 72% battery life left.

 

[edo101]

Heavy loads is one thing.
Comparing 2 different laptops is a different thing.


But, with that site and their tests, I may have issues.
For a Microsoft Surface Go 3, they show the video playback as 3.6 hours.

I have that same laptop.
Running my video via VLC test last night, I saw 6 hours 55 mins.

Today, I'm running it again, trying to recreate their environment as closely as possible.
Airplane mode (WiFi/BT off), Best Battery life, etc.

So far, 2 hrs 35 mins, 72% battery life left.

If I run the two laptops with the same tests, why would it matter? I want to see how long each laptop runs using the same tests. Since I intend to use either one, whichever one that has better battery life

And yeah, those results can be off website by website. I got the surface laptop studio thinking it would last longer than a Yoga 9i but it didn't. I based this off of a review from a website which claims the studio lasts much longer. I'm going by what I experience now which is why I am obssessed with doing these tests. I can't trust a websites experience.

 

[edo101]

Why don’t you start a timer and play the game that you like to play and then when you notice the battery is low check the amount of time you’ve played.

Because I'd use that time doing something else. I'd rather run a test I don't have to be on my laptop for.