How to make your old MacBook battery last longer

If you loved your old MacBook, you wouldn’t expect to catch up with the latest and greatest MacBook. It’s clear that Apple silicon machines outperform 5-year-old Intel Macs. However, his aging laptop probably still has some life left in it. If your battery gets too hot and drains it too quickly, a simple hack can keep it running cooler for longer.

Your first instinct for saving battery life on your Intel-based MacBook might be to enable Low Power Mode. This setting is very useful for lowering the battery usage of your machine, but it has some issues. One is that not all Intel Macs support low power modes. macOS MontereyIf you don’t support Monterey, you obviously have no choice.

Second, we don’t really know much about how low power mode works on Macs. We can speculate that this feature will slow down performance, background tasks, data retrieval, and other resource-intensive processes, but Apple hasn’t revealed exactly how. The company is becoming more transparent about how Low Power Mode affects iPhones and iPads. For Mac, simply “Manage energy-hungry apps and processes”

It’s no exaggeration to say that Low Power Mode modifies your Mac’s performance in a number of ways to extend battery life. That’s all fine, but maybe a little overkill. Instead, it targets turbo boost, which is likely the cause of overheating and battery drain on Intel Macs.

Turbo Boost drains battery on Intel MacBook

Turbo Boost is an Intel feature designed to pack more processing power into a computer chip so it’s available when you need it. For most tasks, a Mac’s CPU is maxed out at its base speed (eg 2.7GHz). When your computer senses that you need more processing power, you can enable Turbo Boost to temporarily speed up your CPU (up to 3.6GHz, for example). In theory, this is a smart way to balance portable CPU performance with good battery life. Still, Turbo Boost only runs intermittently, but when it kicks in, it can be fatal for your Mac’s depleted battery.Also, older Intel chips can get hot, and if they get too hot, the machine’s Performance will be throttled anywaydefeating the intended purpose of turbo boost.

Personally, I value long battery life over performance, especially when using battery power.If you agree, try turbo boost switcherThis free utility allows you to turn Turbo Boost on or off at any time. That way, whether you’re writing an email or editing a video in Final Cut Pro, your Mac’s CPU won’t exceed its base clock speed. This simple change can save hours of battery life, keep your laptop cooler, and fan speeds lower. Turbo Boost Pro allows you to constantly monitor your CPU speed and temperature.

Turbo Boost Switcher claims to reduce battery usage by up to 25% and reduce CPU temperature by 20%, Citing a 2015 blog post as proofThat said, the reviews have been largely positive and I’ve had good experiences personally. It may or may not reach those high stats, intention May improve your overall MacBook experience.

The free version of the app works just fine (although it frequently asks for your Mac password), but the paid ‘Pro’ version has some more interesting perks. For example, you can enable Turbo Boost when your battery is too low, when you open certain apps, when your CPU temperature and fan speed reach certain thresholds, or when you disconnect from power. You can set the utility to automatically enable or disable. Also, Turbo Boost Switcher Pro only asks for the password once, so it might be worth the $10.

The main features are the same for both paid and free versions. Whenever you’re willing to trade potential performance gains for extended battery life, the Turbo Boost Switcher does just that. You don’t have to worry about MacOS coordinating other processes in the background.