How to get the highest CPU performance in Maverick

Question

I am currently doing many analyses in parallel using 10.9.2 on a 2013 MPB and came accross a problem that costs me a lot of time. I started another discussion yesterday, there it was not sure whether it is a software problem or operating system problem. Here I present my experience that makes me sure that it is an operating system related problem. Let me note also that otherwise I am very happy about 10.9&#x27;s performance.I noticed that Maverick is controlling the priority of the processes running my analyses, these processes being slowed down it costs me considerable amount of time. I would like to know how to boost the CPU performance of my computer and finish these analyses as soon as possible.In a normal situation these process takes up about 90-100% of the CPU load, fans are turning full speed and this is good. I noticed the problem, when I log in as another user without logging out from the account where the analyses are running, leaving the processes on the background, and then coming back to the analysis account, I notice that the processes are slowed down. If I had 5 analysis procecesses, only 1 of them is working full speed. And the remaining 4 never come back to full speed as they were before I logged out.Maverick has complex complex mechanisms wrt power management and efficiency, and I am doubting that it changes the priority of these processes considering a normal user profile. However my aim is to get most of my computer 😟 My question is how could I boost the performance of this computer without letting the operating system slowing down processes that are not supposed to be slowed down....

arthur · Answer

It would help to give us more information. Etresoft: EtreCheck is a free app developed by one of the contributors to this forum which will generate a system report on your computer. If you can paste the report here we can take a look and see what might be the problem.

Ralph Landry1 · Answer

You are seeing the normal way a computer operates...the cpu can only do so many things simultaneously dependng on the number of cores it has.  You say you are using close to 100% of the cpu with the processes you are starting and then trying to login as another user...and that means starting another set of processes for an already fully loaded cpu.  Something has to slow down for that to happen.There is a way to partition time, or time share you might want to call it, but that is not recommended unless you know a great deal about the Unix operating system.  Mac OS X is a version of Unix.  That system has a means by which you can determine and set priorities for process, called setting the nice value for each process.  Do not do that unless you first get a book on Unix and fully understand what you are doing be altering the predetermined values set by Mac OS X as you can cause conflicts do that.The Mac OS X system is setup to optimize the use of the cpu cores.  If you are trying to use more time slices than available, something MUST slow down.  The system will run fastest when  you just let the program run you have started and not interrupt things by using resources already committed.  If you really must do that, it would be better to get a different model with more cpu cores.  Since you do not say which cpu you have, if it is a dual core, you would do better with a quad core.  If a quad core, then you are reaching the limits of the MacBook Pro and may need to look into something like a Mac Pro which is really designed to handle these very heavy compute-intensive problems.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

I completely agree with your explanations. And previously I used different versions of Unix operating systems. Here on maverick, I tried "renice", using first 0 and then -20 as the priority number, but it had no impact!The exact command I used is the follwoingsudo renice -20 -p 8149where 8149 is the process id. This had absolutely no effect at all... I also tried to slow down the single analysis process which is somehow running at full speed, this didn&#x27;t work neither.What is puzlling me right now, I cannot get back my analysis processes to a higher priority even after coming back to the account where these analyses are running... Basically there is nothing else running behind... The other account is loged out... Before I switched accounts these processes were running at full speed and the fans were noisy. Right now, it is all silent and of course the only alternative I have is to restart the analyses from scratch again, hoping that Mavericks will give them full power next time.here is the info:Hardware Information:          MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,3          1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores          16 GB RAMVideo Information:          Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1024 MB          NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2048 MBSystem Software:          OS X 10.9.2 (13C64) - Uptime: 0 days 22:53:14Disk Information:          APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0 : (500.28 GB)                    EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                     Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.42 GB (245.67 GB free)                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 650 MB USB Information:          Western Digital My Passport 0748 2 TB                    feargen2 (disk3s1) /Volumes/feargen2: 2 TB (1.16 TB free)          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader           Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad           Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub                     Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller           Western Digital My Passport 0748 2 TB                    EFI (disk1s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                     disk1s2 (disk1s2) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 2 TB                     Boot OS X (disk1s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 134.2 MB FireWire Information:Thunderbolt Information:          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus                    Apple Inc. Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet AdapterConfiguration files:          /etc/hosts - Count: 61Kernel Extensions:          com.nvidia.CUDA          (1.1.0)Startup Items:          CUDA: Path: /System/Library/StartupItems/CUDALaunch Daemons:          [System] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist 3rd-Party support linkLaunch Agents:          [System] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] jp.co.canon.CUPSPS2.BG.plist 3rd-Party support link          [System] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist 3rd-Party support linkUser Launch Agents:          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support linkUser Login Items:          iTunesHelper          DegreesInternet Plug-ins:          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 12.0.0.44 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3          Flash Player: Version: 12.0.0.44 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9          o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.2.4.18058 3rd-Party support link          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link          googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.2.4.18058 3rd-Party support link          Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20913.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! UpdateSafari Extensions:          feedly: Version: 16.0.521          autocomplete: Version: 1.0          clea.nr Videos: Version: 5.0          Zotero Connector: Version: 4.0.8          AdBlock: Version: 2.6.18          Alexa Site Info: Version: 1.0Audio Plug-ins:          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9iTunes Plug-ins:          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.93rd Party Preference Panes:          CUDA Preferences  3rd-Party support link          Flash Player  3rd-Party support linkOld Applications:          NoneTime Machine:          Skip System Files: NO          Mobile backups: OFF          Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off          Volumes being backed up:                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 465.12 GB Disk used: 236.32 GB                    feargen2: Disk size: 2  Disk used: 783.46 GB          Destinations:                    My Passport [Local] (Last used)                    Total size: 2                      Total number of backups: 18                     Oldest backup: 2014-01-07 08:48:12 +0000                     Last backup: 2014-03-31 14:16:50 +0000                     Size of backup disk: Too small                              Backup size 2  &lt; (Disk used 1019.78 GB X 3)          Time Machine details may not be accurate.          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.Top Processes by CPU:               5%          WindowServer               2%          mds               2%          Terminal               1%          Activity Monitor               0%          EtreCheckTop Processes by Memory:          705 MB          MATLAB_maci64          541 MB          Safari          475 MB          WindowServer          262 MB          mds_stores          197 MB          FinderVirtual Memory Information:          123 MB          Free RAM          7.12 GB          Active RAM          7.00 GB          Inactive RAM          1.48 GB          Wired RAM          117.39 GB          Page-ins          52 MB          Page-outs

arthur · Answer

Seems like there&#x27;s a lot missing from your Etrecheck report. If there&#x27;s more, could you paste the whole thing.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

jep

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

before:and after I logged out and logged in back, please notice how MATLAB processes have all but one very low percentages.

Ralph Landry1 · Answer

Great to see that you are familitar with Unix system commands and have tried that already...but it is troubling that you are not able to return the PID to the original priority and resume the loading pattern.  That is going to take some head scratching as it should have returned you to the prior state.You do seem to have a really high Page-ins amount...but that isn&#x27;t a problem area if you are reading a lot of data from storage...and does not explain the process priority issue.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

High Page-ins is normal for the type of analysis I am doing....Could it be that the renice&#x27;ing might take some time to make its effect noticeable? Or would I need to renice also the parent process? I am not sure if renice&#x27;ing in 10.9 would rquire something additional in comparison to other unix systems?

Ralph Landry1 · Answer

I have not used renice, I always use nice --PID to raise the priority...which must be run as root, or via sudo with Mac OS X...the double minus should raise the priority of the process.  That has always taken effect as soon as the current time slice ends.

Ralph Landry1 · Answer

OK, that is an acceptable way under Mac OS X, using sudo renice -20 PID to get the highest priority...but still do not see why it is not working for you.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

to use nice, I would need to restart the analyses 😟...so here is the experiment for documentation purporses:before renice, MATLAB process is pretty low on the list sorted by % CPU:after I issue the following command:sudo renice -20 7920well no need to upload it, the situation is the same 😟, I would expect the PID 7920 to be listed higher on the list.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

renice has no effect on the priorityps -l | grep MATLAB | grep nodesktop :501  8149  8118     4006   0  27 -20  4264936 1198480 -      SN+                 0 ttys002  323:32.92 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop501  9517  9453     4006   0  63 -20  3573648 511536 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys004   20:01.89 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop501  9663  9632     4006   0  28 -20  3564532 499584 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys006   21:36.85 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop501  5100  5069     4006   0  63 -20  3767792 680916 -      R&lt;+                 0 ttys009  1191:04.06 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop501  7920  6066     4006   0  28 -20  3582860 508100 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys010  268:33.55 /Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktopBOLD numbers are the priority values, and as expected there are 2 high and 3 low values, reflecting the ordering in the activity monitor... However the number on the right is the NICE value, which reflect the renice command I issued, so Renicing has an effect but not on the priority...

SilverSkyRat · Answer

If your "matlab" processes don&#x27;t need a GUI or networking, you could try restarting in single user mode and drive everything manually via the shell.

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

can please some moderator delete this post and the one where I am starting with "renice has no effect on the priority", it is just wrong what I have written, and while correcting the  server got updated I lost all the text 😟

Kamikaze2000 · Answer

ganglion:~ xxxx$ ps -l | grep MATLAB | grep nodesktop  501  8149  8118     4006   0  63 -20  3647456 587080 -      R&lt;+                 0 ttys002  343:56.31 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop  501  9517  9453     4006   0  63 -20  3635548 572540 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys004   23:19.90 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop  501  9663  9632     4006   0  63 -20  3630976 567772 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys006   24:45.83 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop  501  5100  5069     4006   0  28 -20  3767792 680444 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys009  1242:29.47 /Applications//MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_maci64 -nodesktop  501  7920  6066     4006   0  63 -20  3582860 507576 -      S&lt;+                 0 ttys010  273:41.41 /Applications/_onat/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/../../Contents/MacOS/MATLAB_ma ci64 -nodesktopBold and undertitled fonts represents the Priority and Nice values. Renice command changes these numbers as expected, but unfortunately this doesn&#x27;t lead processes to use more resources...