How to monitor what your Mac’s CPU is being used for?

In case you have a Mac computer, it may be that you want to have a stricter control over it , in any case you will wonder how to monitor what happens with your computer when you are not there. It is that it may be possible, that this is manipulated and you do not realize this, then supervising what is happening is an option, as for Mac we have options to be able to see what the equipment does when we do not use it.

We must bear in mind that when we are going to carry out this supervision, there are some processes that the system performs in the background. That is why we must be clear that we can get in the way with processes that are normal to be executed and we do not know that it is so; And because not only does cleaning your Mac’s hard drive improve performance , by doing this process, we can configure many things that help this as well.

Index(  )

  1. What are the normal processes that the CPU of a Mac does?
  2. How to know the applications that are using CPU in a MacOS system?
    1. Using the activity monitor
    2. With commands in the MacOS terminal
  3. What programs exist to monitor CPU usage on Mac?
  4. What are the best tips to improve CPU performance on Mac?

What are the normal processes that the CPU of a Mac does?

Normal processes can be defined as automatic processes, these processes are executed in the background, so that the operation of the system in general is executed normally. These processes should not be taken into account when monitoring, since this is what the Mac normally does.

These processes are categorized into five parts : CPU, Memory, Power, Disk, and Network . Everything that happens on the computer is made up of these parts, from what is essential to run to what we do with the programs and applications. Knowing the location of the directories on Mac is very important for this task. so we know what we are looking for

How to know the applications that are using CPU in a MacOS system?

Regarding the monitoring of the applications and how they are running, we can corroborate this in two ways; one would be using the “Activity Monitor” and the other through “commands entered into the terminal”. Any of the mentioned will be very useful, for our purpose.

From here we can determine if there are unknown programs , which are not beneficial for the system, and these require action from us and we have to take action on this detail.

Using the activity monitor

As far as this method is concerned, we can have many variables on the board, what it would be advisable to do is see how the processes act, when they are in full use, and when they are not. For this, we will use time as a reference , that is, how that process was at the time of use and how it behaved when we stopped using it.

To enter this part of the system we must enter Applications> Utilities> Activity Monitor , and in this we will get all the activity related to everything. In this way we can see what is happening and how the resources are used; In any case, we will have to know what we are looking for because the list and processes to consult are very extensive.

With commands in the MacOS terminal

With the terminal we can access tools that will allow us to delve deeper into all the processes that are running on the computer . With these we can see more details about each action that is being carried out; And it is that if there are unknown and unwanted processes, we can determine if we should eliminate or clean the Mac from viruses.

First we have commands that allow us to organize them, either CPU and Memory, “top –o cpu” and “top –o rize” respectively, each of these will show a list of the processes that are running and the resource utilization from above to the bottom. Top updates live. Now let’s see other commands that also serve this purpose.

  1. One is “ps aux” so you will see a fixed list, ie it is not in live update.
  2. Now we have “pa aux/more” used to place them in descending order.
  3. We also have “ps aux/ grep (application name)” with this we look for a specific process.

Remember that we can also find out the location of the repository of a specific application, and thus using this tool in a separate terminal, we can focus our search well.

What programs exist to monitor CPU usage on Mac?

We can also count on programs that are specifically designed for this purpose , they give us a significant contribution in terms of monitoring these actions carried out by the CPU. Although the system has its tools, by making these programs, we can have access to a more intuitive interface in case we do not have experience with the terminal or with the activity monitor.

In the Apple Store we can get the programs for this supervision, and be sure that they work perfectly, an example of these would be iStats Menus, a very complete application that will surely serve you in this case of supervision

What are the best tips to improve CPU performance on Mac?

In terms of improving the performance of your Mac, it is always very helpful to clean both Hardware and Software. As for the logical system, deleting temporary files, cookies, duplicate files, unused files and also making use of programs that are dedicated to improve performance would be a good option to improve.

 

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

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