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The Processors Window

To open the Processors window, select the menu item Window > Show Processors or press the key combination ⌘ + 6.

The Processors window shows detailed data on energy and power measurement for the computer’s processor chip. In addition to the individual power values, the window also lists data on utilization, used clock frequencies and sleep states, as well as other technical information. The presentation differs depending on whether an Intel processor or Apple processor is used.

Computers with Intel processors

The first line of the window indicates the official designation of the processor and its nominal clock frequency. The availability of logical cores (threads), physical cores and their distribution onto chip packages is also mentioned. Further information on these terms can be found in the chapter Power Overview window.

The upper section also contains the following data:

Processor overview on a Mac with Intel processor
Processor overview on a Mac with Intel processor

The lower part of the window is divided into subsections, which list the measured values for the individual CPU cores, as well as for the entire chip package:

The values for processor activity and its C-states are also listed separately for each core. In addition, the effective frequency is given again for each thread, i.e. a logical processor of this core.

The section Duty cycles per second indicates, divided into active and idle, how long a logical processor was or was not busy, by indicating this via a bar chart that compares the respective typical times of residency relative to each other. The times are listed on a logarithmic scale in microseconds. For example, if a bar with 50% height for “active” is specified at “< 32 μs”, this means that half of the jobs executed have occupied this logical processor for a period of less than 32 microseconds, but greater than 16 microseconds.

Computers with Apple Silicon

The first line of the window indicates the official designation of the processor and its nominal clock frequency. The availability of efficiency cores, performance cores, GPU cores and the grouping into clusters is also listed. Further information on these terms can be found in the chapter Power Overview window.

The upper section also contains the following data:

Processor overview on a Mac with Apple Silicon
Processor overview on a Mac with Apple Silicon

Apple does not provide the “instructions” readings for all combinations of processor models and operating system versions. In such cases, the corresponding fields won’t be shown in the window.

The lower part of the window is divided into sections for each cluster. It also indicates which processor core is located in which cluster.

Each cluster is presented via a box titled with Apple’s official abbreviation, for example P0 for the first cluster with performance cores. In addition, the aforementioned readings for retired instructions, instructions per clock cycle and power are indicated for this cluster. The following data is listed for the cluster and also for each processor core in this cluster:

For each processor core, Apple’s code name is also mentioned, which characterizes the technology and instruction set of this processor.

Some Apple Silicon processors support a feature where all processor cores of an entire cluster are shut down in idle mode to save energy and to avoid heat. If such a cluster is detected, the additional indicator Switched off will be shown in the upper part of the respective cluster box. It shows the ratio of time per measurement time where the cluster was powered down.