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Battery and graphic performance

Brass Contributor

Hey there,


Ever since I found out that while using Edge, my fans would not kick in and while using Chrome they did kick in, I switched to Edge. I got even more convinced when I realized Edge uses less battery.


However, when using the new Edge based on Chromium, I noticed my fans kick in quite quickly. Almost the same as with Chrome.

Is there a way around this? Or will this be changed with future updates?

 

Best,

Eeuhm

14 Replies

@Eeuhm 

 

It does seem like new Edge uses significantly more battery.  I even with so far as to turn off "run in the background" as a way to retain some battery life.  I'm using a Surface Go where I'm already stretching to make it through a busy day. 

best response confirmed by Eeuhm (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Am curious on what kind of specs you have?

For me personally Chrome / EdgeChromium doesn't have working hw accelerated video (Intel HD 3000) and I tend to use EdgeHTML for streaming because it is much more fluid.
Haven't tested the browser on a Surface Pro 5 yet but I mainly stick to EdgeHTML for surfing.

"In one test that is a multi-layer map, EdgeHTML renders all the layers instantly at once, and with EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers paint in, with transparent images in upper layers requiring an additional redraw each layer beneath it. Then when scrolling the map, EdgeHTML is instant and the map looks like a single image, where in EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers redraw with each shift."

"As a colleague referenced, Chromium uses a document/display model, where IE9-EdgeHTML use a compile/execute model, and the feel is very different, with Chromium feeling more like IE8 than the last 10 years of IE. (Sadly)"

From what I understand EdgeHTML/Spartan renders pages in a much more efficient manner whilst also having a lighter footprint and better optimised hardware acceleration.
This is really noticable on older hardware.

Sincerely hope that the Edge dev team manages to make improvements to the hardware acceleration and rendering of sites/pdf docs.

Thank you @Eeuhm, I will let the performance team know about your concerns with the battery cost and cooling needs. Do you notice this behavior all of the time, or only on certain sites?
Elliot

@Eeuhm 

 

I've been testing it on a 2017 surfrace pro with 4gb RAM and core m3 CPU and the chrome based Edge is much worse in terms of battery/resource management. Not sure if they can get it to the same level as edgeHTML but I surely hope so because most of the surface line won't be as competitive when it comes to battery life. 

 

The touch input is not the best either. 

 

Good luck to the team ! 

Hey,
Thanks for the detailed response.
My laptop has decent specs (i7 8550u, 16GB of ram).
The problem therefore occurs when a lot of tabs are opened whilst simultaneously working in Word documents. This is not the case while using the original Edge.
Again thanks for the reply :)
Hey Elliot,
The problem occurs when working in Word. On the original Edge apx 5 tabs could be opened before the fans would kick in. With the new edge, the fans kick in when the browser is opened (one tab)

@Eeuhm I was not planning on commenting on this issue at this point because MS has touted Edge Classic's low resource use (and hence lower battery drain) and better video performance vis a vis Chrome as a selling point in the past, so I assume that MS will make a point of improving Edge Chromium as much as it can to use less resources and improve video performance before release.

 

I'm using Edge Dev as my primary browser (sole browser for all practical purposes) on three computers: (1) Dell XPS 8920, i7 processor, AMD Radeon 580, 16gb RAM, two 500gb SSD primary drives and a 2tb backup drive, Dell P2717H monitor at 1920x1080 resolution; (2) Dell Latitude 7180 laptop, i5 processor, Intel 620 graphics, 8gb RAM, 128gb SSD drive, 12.5" screen at 1366x768 resolution; and (3) Dell Inspiron 3185 laptop, AMD 9420e processor, AMD R5 graphics, 4gb RAM, 128gb SSD, 11" screen at 166x768 resolution.

 

My browser startup opens 8 tabs on the 8920, four on the 7280 and one on the 3185. The 8920 runs 24x7, and daily browser use about 3-5 hours depending on the day. I use the 7280 for an hour or so at night, almost all of it browsing. I use the 3185 two days a week at a railroad museum where I volunteer, on/suspend from to time time over a 6-hour period. I have not noticed any difference in fan operation on the 8920, but I wouldn't expect to given the specs on that computer. I have noticed that battery use is higher on the 7280 (dropping from 8-10 hours down to 8-9) and the 3185 (where I now have to keep an eye on my use to make it through the day with anything left).

 

The battery drain difference is nowhere near as great as the difference between Windows 10 and Linux (Linux eats batteries for lunch), but it is noticeable. I assume that MS has benchmarks available from testing between Edge Classic and Chrome, and is doing similar benchmarking on Edge Classic versus Chrome versus Edge Chromium.

 

I suspect that there isn't a lot that MS can do about higher resource use (as Von Crisp pointed out, differences between the browser engines give rise to the issue) but I appreciate the fact that the Build Team will look for ways to tweak the Edge Chromium and reduce resource use and battery drain to the extent possible.

We might. 

The reason classic edge was so effecient was because it was a UWP app. It had extra optimizaiton instructions specifically for windows. Its why the leaf icon will show up in task manager next to edge, but not chrome and its derivitives (like new edge) since those where built for wide compatiblity.

Annotation 2019-04-13 120240.png

 

Same problem. Also uses more RAM than Chrome.

@Elliot Kirk 

 

I agree with others that performance on older hardware is one of key differences Edge Chromium is lagging at now compare to Edge Classic. Both in terms of page load speed, and battery use. One of contributors is related to how ongoing Current Session backups are handled by Chromium  - saving each 15 sec. Writing to disk is one of the most battery intensive tasks. By taking number of writes back to Edge Classic level, Edge Chromium devs can accomplish notable battery backup raise and in the process preserve SSD service life, as modern browsers tend to turn huge data amounts daily.

I took my surface pro 4 off power onto battery and was just using the new Edge Chromium to browse/read some web pages. I left it for a while and came back to it had gone to sleep, couldn't get it to switch back on. I'd managed to drain the battery in 1.5 hrs and half that time it was sleeping! It's not a conclusive test by any means but does make me think these early builds of Edge Chromium are power hungry. 

 

 

edge-chromium-battery-drain.jpg

 

@Cameron Dwyer 

 

Can you post some websites you left open for awhile? And also Browser Task Manager screenshot on these sites?

@Eeuhm 

Edge is becoming more like an app as opposed to a lightweight browser so I wouldn't hold my breath until they improve it quite  bit as far as performance goes and that seems like its going to be a while 

@Elliot Kirk 

 

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 13 with an i5-6200U, 8 GB RAM, and a 500 GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD. I've also noticed somewhat higher drain on my laptop.

 

Hard to narrow down to which sites could be responsible. Maybe once privacy controls are introduced and trackers and what-not can get shut down, it'll help?

 

What I know now: switching away from Edge to another application can sometimes cause a performance hiccup, i.e., higher CPU usage. Using the Windows Task Manager & Edge Task manager, every time I switch away from Edge into any other application, the CPU usage spikes 2x-3x (from 3% to 10%).

 

Perhaps if users switch applications too often, these extra CPU cycles eat into the battery?

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Eeuhm (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Am curious on what kind of specs you have?

For me personally Chrome / EdgeChromium doesn't have working hw accelerated video (Intel HD 3000) and I tend to use EdgeHTML for streaming because it is much more fluid.
Haven't tested the browser on a Surface Pro 5 yet but I mainly stick to EdgeHTML for surfing.

"In one test that is a multi-layer map, EdgeHTML renders all the layers instantly at once, and with EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers paint in, with transparent images in upper layers requiring an additional redraw each layer beneath it. Then when scrolling the map, EdgeHTML is instant and the map looks like a single image, where in EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers redraw with each shift."

"As a colleague referenced, Chromium uses a document/display model, where IE9-EdgeHTML use a compile/execute model, and the feel is very different, with Chromium feeling more like IE8 than the last 10 years of IE. (Sadly)"

From what I understand EdgeHTML/Spartan renders pages in a much more efficient manner whilst also having a lighter footprint and better optimised hardware acceleration.
This is really noticable on older hardware.

Sincerely hope that the Edge dev team manages to make improvements to the hardware acceleration and rendering of sites/pdf docs.

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