How many CPUs should Activity Monitor show for i7?

I can see 4 cores with Activity Monitor even when there is no activity in three. You might try something like Marcus Bresink's Hardware Monitor which will at least show temperatures recorded in each (indicating if they are working).

There may be other utilities (not sure if Menumeters can display such data).

Weird. I only see figures for 4 cores in Hardware Monitor. Perhaps I need to restart. Glad that this has solved it for you anyway.

If you double click the single cpu graph a window with 8 graphs appears to show the virtual cores.

I knew about the double click and that extra window, but it only shows 4 cores for me. Are these different from the four cores at the bottom of the main panel or do you see 8 in that larger window?

Hi Graham,

don't get confused.

The iMac i7 is a quad-core processor with Hyper-Threading resulting in 8-cores to be shown (4 real and 4 HT).

The MacBook Pro i7 you seem to have according to your signature is a dual-core processor with Hyper-Threading resulting in 4-cores to be shown (2 real and 2 HT).
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/performance.html

Regards

Stefan

Message was edited by: Fortuny

Thanks for the confirmation, Fortuny, I was actually happy with the 4, but (as you suggest) was beginning to get confused with what was displayed (or not). I was also not aware that iMac and MBP were different. Thanks for putting me straight.

Yep, can be confusing and irritating.

In the iMacs Apple uses the Desktop versions if the i5 and i7, whereas in the MBPs there are the Mobil versions of them.

Due to the heat emissions of the Desktop processors it seems at the moment that only the 27" iMacs offer enough room for an efficient heat dissipation.

Have Fun

Stefan

Indeed I am; and thanks for the useful info.

You're welcome. Glad to be of help.

Stefan