Published on

How to use Activity Monitor to monitor system performance.

Authors
  • avatar
    Name
    how-to.digital
    Twitter

How to Use Activity Monitor to Monitor System Performance

Activity Monitor is a powerful tool available on macOS that allows you to monitor the performance of your system in real-time. Whether you want to identify resource-hungry processes, check CPU usage, monitor memory usage, or track disk activity, Activity Monitor is an essential utility for troubleshooting and optimizing your Mac. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of using Activity Monitor to monitor system performance effectively.

Table of Contents

Opening Activity Monitor

To get started, follow these steps to open Activity Monitor:

  1. Click on the Finder icon in the dock (the blue smiley face icon).
  2. Open the Applications folder.
  3. Scroll down and locate the Utilities folder.
  4. Open the Utilities folder.
  5. Within the Utilities folder, find and double-click on Activity Monitor.
  6. The Activity Monitor window will now open, displaying various performance metrics and processes.

Understanding the Activity Monitor Interface

When you open Activity Monitor, you will see a window divided into several sections:

  1. Toolbar: The toolbar contains different buttons to access system monitoring options and features.
  2. Process Table: This table displays the currently running processes, along with useful information like the process name, PID (Process ID), %CPU (Percentage of CPU usage), %MEM (Percentage of memory usage), etc.
  3. Graphs: Activity Monitor provides graphs to visualize real-time system resource utilization, including CPU usage, memory pressure, network activity, etc.
  4. Tabs: Activity Monitor provides several tabs to display detailed information on various system resources.

Monitoring CPU Usage

CPU usage is an essential metric to check the performance of your system. To monitor CPU usage using Activity Monitor:

  1. Open Activity Monitor using the steps mentioned in the previous section.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, click on the CPU tab.
  3. The CPU tab provides multiple columns with information about each process's CPU usage, including %CPU, Threads, Idle Wake Ups, etc.
  4. You can sort the processes by clicking on the column headers to identify resource-intensive processes.

Monitoring Memory Usage

Monitoring memory usage is crucial to ensure optimal performance on your Mac. To monitor memory usage:

  1. Open Activity Monitor as described in the earlier section.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, click on the Memory tab.
  3. The Memory tab provides information about the physical memory (RAM) usage, virtual memory statistics, swap usage, etc.
  4. You can also check the memory pressure graph at the bottom to understand the overall memory usage.

Tracking Disk Activity

Activity Monitor allows you to track disk activity, which can be useful to identify processes that heavily utilize disk I/O. To track disk activity:

  1. Open Activity Monitor using the steps mentioned previously.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, click on the Disk tab.
  3. The Disk tab provides information on read and write operations, data rates, and more for each disk or partition on your Mac.
  4. You can sort the processes by clicking on the column headers to find processes with high disk activity.

Viewing Network Utilization

Activity Monitor enables you to monitor network utilization to identify processes consuming network bandwidth. To view network utilization:

  1. Open Activity Monitor as discussed before.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, click on the Network tab.
  3. The Network tab displays information about network usage, including data in/out rates, total packets, connections, etc.
  4. You can sort the processes by clicking on the column headers to find processes with high network activity.

Identifying Resource-Hungry Processes

Activity Monitor allows you to identify resource-hungry processes that consume a significant portion of system resources. To identify such processes:

  1. Open Activity Monitor using the steps mentioned earlier.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, click on the CPU or Memory tab, depending on the resource you want to monitor.
  3. Sort the processes by the corresponding column to identify processes utilizing a substantial amount of CPU or memory.

Ending Processes Using Activity Monitor

If you identify processes causing issues or consuming excessive resources, you can end those processes using Activity Monitor. To end processes:

  1. Open Activity Monitor as described earlier.
  2. Select the process you want to terminate from the process table.
  3. Click on the X button in the toolbar.
  4. Confirm the process termination if prompted.

Conclusion

Activity Monitor is a powerful tool for monitoring system performance on macOS. By understanding the various sections and tabs of Activity Monitor, you can effectively monitor and optimize your Mac's CPU usage, memory usage, disk activity, and network utilization. With the ability to identify resource-hungry processes and end them if necessary, Activity Monitor allows you to troubleshoot performance issues and ensure the smooth functioning of your Mac.