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User profile for user: carolann3
carolann3 Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Activity Monitor - CPU usage is 100%

MacOS Sierra 10.12.16


I need help understanding the following information on the CPU pane.


A process that I thought I turned off yesterday has apparently been running for 13 hours, using 100% CPU.

But, the bottom of the pane apparently shows that 84% of the CPU is idle.

Furthermore, during a software update associated with the process, it showed up twice; one copy was using 200% to 400% CPU; the other was using about 35%.


Questions:

Is this process actually using 100% of my CPU?

What does it mean when it using using more than 100% CPU?

Could its using so much of the CPU cause other software that I am running to produce the beach ball (colored spinning wheel).


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Posted on May 2, 2018 9:13 AM

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User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
51,610 points

Posted on May 2, 2018 9:54 AM

carolann3 wrote:


Is this process actually using 100% of my CPU?

It sure looks like it.


What does it mean when it using using more than 100% CPU?

It means what it says. Your CPU has 4 cores, or processing units, essentially 4 CPUs. A process can do multiple things at once. It may start two or more tasks, each of which could take 100% of a single core.


Could its using so much of the CPU cause other software that I am running to produce the beach ball (colored spinning wheel).

Yes.

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User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
51,610 points

May 2, 2018 9:54 AM in response to carolann3

carolann3 wrote:


Is this process actually using 100% of my CPU?

It sure looks like it.


What does it mean when it using using more than 100% CPU?

It means what it says. Your CPU has 4 cores, or processing units, essentially 4 CPUs. A process can do multiple things at once. It may start two or more tasks, each of which could take 100% of a single core.


Could its using so much of the CPU cause other software that I am running to produce the beach ball (colored spinning wheel).

Yes.

Reply

Activity Monitor - CPU usage is 100%

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