If you want to keep an eye on CPU or GPU usage on your Mac, you can enable various underrecognized performance windows in Activity Monitor. These float above all other application windows, so you can check them at a glance.
To enable them, press Command + Space or click the magnifying glass icon on the menu bar to open Spotlight search. Scribe “Activity monitor” and then press Enter.
Click on “Window” at the top. In this menu, you will see options for “Uso de CPU”, “CPU history” e “GPU History”. Each of these opens a floating window that will give you real-time information.
Let's take a look at how each of these panels works.
The floating CPU usage panel
If you click “Uso de CPU” on the menu “Window” (or press Command + 2), a small window appears that includes an indicator of 10 segments for each CPU core.
Each indicator is lit based on the amount of CPU activity taking place on that particular core. As an example, if five segments are on, is using the 50 percent of that core's CPU capacity.
The CPU History Floating Panel
If you click “CPU history” on the menu “Window” (or press Command + 3), a window appears divided into several frames. Each frame corresponds to a core within the CPU and shows updates slowly, from right to left.
The height of the dots in each column corresponds to the intensity of the CPU activity on that core. Red squares represent CPU activity by system processes, while green represent CPU activity by user processes.
The floating GPU history panel
If you select “GPU History” on the menu “Window” (or press Command + 4), you will see a graph showing the usage history of the Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) on your Mac. The more active your GPU is, more blue dots will appear during each update, since the graph flows from right to left.
Regarding what exactly the blue squares represent on the graph, we are not sure (including official Apple documentation it is not clear about this). Despite this, the graph provides a rough visual estimate of how hard the graphics hardware is working.
Changing the performance window update interval
By default, each performance dashboard is updated every five seconds. If you want to change that, click View> Refresh frequency in the menu bar. In the submenu, can select “Very often (1 second)”, “Often (2 seconds)” O “Regularly (5 seconds)”.
Note that on older systems, setting graphics to update more frequently could slightly reduce overall system performance. Despite this, on most modern Macs, the effect will be negligible.
Setting a performance window to remain visible
If you want to keep one or more of the CPU or GPU performance panels on screen, can make them float above all other windows. To do it, click Window> Keep CPU windows at the top of the menu bar.
If you do not want to see the main window of the “Activity monitor”, just click on the “X” red to close it. If you want to reopen it later, just click Window> Activity Monitor from the menu bar or hit Command + 1.
Activity Monitor is so much more than most people think. If you delve into its characteristics, you can learn a lot more about how your Mac works. As an example, You can even use the Activity Monitor Dock icon as a CPU monitor!!
RELATED: How to monitor CPU usage on your Mac's Dock
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