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CPU

Activity Monitor: meanings and misleadings

How to interpret various measurements reported in Activity Monitor, from % CPU to Energy Impact, and how they can be compared across different Macs.

August 13, 2022 Macs, Technology

Don’t trust Activity Monitor on M1 Macs

Using CPU % or Energy values in Activity Monitor appears to show that running code on E cores is less efficient than on P cores. Don’t believe a word of it.

May 2, 2022 Macs, Technology

Explainer: Benchmarks

Select a test, time it, and compare the result with those from other systems. Choose whether to use a synthetic or application benchmark, and don’t forget your confirmation bias.

April 16, 2022 Macs, Technology

Explainer: Parallel computing

It delivers detailed weather forecasts for days in advance, and real-time manipulation of elaborate textured 3D models. But more mundane tasks may not get any quicker.

March 12, 2022 Macs, Technology

Making sense of M1 memory use

How can you tell how much memory is being used by the GPU when both CPU and GPU use Unified Memory? Does it matter anyway?

March 1, 2022 Macs, Technology

Last Week on My Mac: CPU %

Current CPU % given in Activity Monitor can be misleading and has limited value for M1 models. Here’s how to improve it.

February 27, 2022 Macs, Technology

CPU percentage is misleading on M1 Macs

In Activity Monitor, % CPU isn’t on a scale of 0-100. In M1 Macs, it also makes no distinction between E and P cores, nor does it allow for their changing frequency.

February 24, 2022 Macs, Technology

WindowServer is hungry for memory on M1 Macs

Each additional Safari window increases WindowServer’s memory use by 1.7 MB on an Intel Mac, but 50 MB on an M1 Mac – thirty times more.

February 22, 2022 Macs, Technology

M1 Pro First Impressions: 2 Core management and CPU performance

T T Read More

The P cores in the M1 Pro/Max CPU are managed in two groups of four, sparing load on the second group, and distributing it unevenly within each group. Its two E cores outperform the four in the M1 too.

November 4, 2021 Macs, Technology

Explainer: Unified memory

How does unified memory make Apple Silicon Macs faster? Why can’t you add your own memory? How much do you need?

October 23, 2021 Macs, Technology

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