Imac 2020 - Kernel Task using 980% of CPU

Kernel Task handles everything.

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Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

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Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

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DanielH98 wrote:

lately my Imac 2020 with 3,8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB, RAM 64 GB is not handling simple editng with BRAW files or even when I try to play WoW Classic... I used to have to run it in low graphics settings to squeeze 60 fps, but now regardless of settings I am constantly getting 1 fps - 3 fps.

Fans run loud, even for entire day sometimes. At first Gemini suggested I am experiencing thermal throttling

which hampers the performance, but my CPU temp is around 60C at rest, and around 76C under load.

Who is Gemini? They are partially correct.

But whenever kernel task spikes up to CPU usage 900 - 1000%, I pretty much can't do anything. Temps look fine tho.

I cannot figure out why is the Kernel Task spiking so much and I don't really know what to do at this point.

It's not strictly a thermal issue. Any kind of hardware fault anywhere in the system can cause this problem. The only time I experienced it was when I was using a 3rd party display dongle from Amazon. Removing the dongle fixed the problem. Replaced it with a genuine Apple dongle and never saw the problem again.

But I'm only relating this story to show how this can be a hardware fault anywhere in the system. I'm not saying it is specifically a dongle problem. In your case, it could be a logic board failure. Or an external hard drive. Or the internal hard drive. Or the battery. Or the power supply. But it's most definitely a hardware fault.