High CPU usage can lead to a number of problems on your Mac. If left unchecked, you may experience app crashes, frequent jittery interfaces with a spinning beach ball, overheating, reduced battery life, and worse—kernel panic. This tutorial shows you how to identify processes that are using excessive CPU and fix them.
Identify processes that consume excessive CPU
Basically, a Mac user should be aware of the different types of processes. Features and generalities of using Activity MonitorTo view the processes that consume the highest CPU percentage:
- turn on Activity Monitor Click on the tab CPU.
- Click column head Once to sort in descending order.
- Choose “Window → CPU History”.
- Open a window CPU register New ones that show user and system load on each kernel over time.
- You should also note whether a particular process is an application or system-based. Application-based processes have an icon next to their name and are associated with your user account, in which case, "rahulsaigal".
- Those processes that do not have a symbol next to their name and are owned by "root" Belong to the system.
The CPU tab highlights some important metrics.
- CPU percentage is the percentage of total processor capacity that a process consumes, e.g., processor power.
- CPU time is the length of time a process has been active since it was last started.
- Idle Wake Ups is the number of times the process has woken up from sleep.
For Apple Silicon Macs, you'll understand how Icestorm (or Efficient) and Firestorm (or Performance) cores behave. Most system-based operations (Spotlight indexing, Time Machine backups) use E cores. Applications and related user processes run on either E or P cores, with a preference toward P cores.
Manage CPU-hungry apps on your Mac
When an application consumes excessive CPU power, it may crash or stop responding to user input. Your best option is to force quit. Press Cmd + Option + Esc to open the Force Quit dialog box.
A frozen app appears in red and is labeled "Not Responding." Select the app and click "Force Quit." If you're dealing with an app that doesn't respond to the Force Quit method or fails to open Activity Monitor,
The web browser is based on a multi-process architecture. It houses all logical functions in separate processes: the main process (the browser), the GPU process, and a dedicated process for each tab and extension.
To see this in practice, press Shift + Esc to open Chrome Task Manager and check its CPU + Memory usage.
By nature, a browser will use excessive CPU if you open multiple tabs displaying high-resolution images and videos. Once you close the tab or delete unused extensions, CPU usage will be reduced.
Fix high CPU usage for Kernel task
The kernel loads the macOS core and core drivers. "kernel_task" is the process that displays important kernel metrics. Its primary purpose is to regulate CPU temperature by making the processor less available to processes.
In other words, if your CPU is running hot, the kernel will activate to cool your Mac. However, in response, the CPU load for "kernel_task" increases. High CPU usage may indicate clogged slots, faulty temperature sensors, corrupted third-party kernel extensions, or incompatible hardware/peripherals.
On Intel Macs, you can:
- Re Set SMC (System Management Controller)It fixes a variety of issues on your Mac, including: Wi-Fi difficulties and disconnections And trackpad issues.
- remove kernel extension Third-party. To see the installed kernel extension, run System Information (About This Mac -> System Report) and go to “Program -> Extension Name.” Click on a column Obtained from To see the loaded kext above.
- The process works “kernel_task” Efficient on Apple Silicon Macs due to the architectural change (system on a chip) along with core hardening and wide-ranging core management (different cores run at different frequencies).
The SMC is missing, and there's no need to manually reset the NVRAM. Shutting down and restarting your Mac can resolve most of your issues. However, certain workflows or factors can still trigger a kernel panic. In this case, you should consult Apple Support.
Reduce WindowServer CPU usage
The primary role of the WindowServer is to draw and manage windows on the screen. Without it, there's no graphical user interface (GUI) to interact with, and you can't control them. It leverages the built-in GPU to manage transparency, UI composition, and fast window rendering.
By default, it consumes Windows Server of 10% To 30% It's a common problem with your CPU and rarely causes any problems. If you're experiencing high CPU usage, try these fixes.
- Quit your apps gradually and monitor their CPU usage. Restart your Mac and monitor CPU usage. Once you identify the culprit, send a detailed log to the developer.
The WindowServer process is also responsible for managing multiple displays and even controlling their behavior. If CPU usage remains high, follow these steps:
- turn off Screen sharing And separate spaces For your screen.
- Remove clutter from your desktop, as macOS considers every icon on the desktop as a window and burdens WindowServer even more.
Reduce CPU usage with Bird Process
“bird” is the backend process for iCloud This is activated when you start backing up files to iCloud Drive. When your files are synced, CPU usage should be reduced. High CPU usage indicates that some files are corrupted, and iCloud cannot sync them.
At the same time, you should be aware of the "cloud" aspect of CloudKit. Third-party apps can use CloudKit to transfer data between apps and iCloud containers. Apple also uses CloudKit to sync your desktop files and documents with other devices.
To solve this problem, we will temporarily disable iCloud to prevent the “bird” process from syncing files again.
- Open System Preferences and click Apple ID.
- Click "ICloud" Uncheck “iCloud Drive”. When you do this, click Keep a copy To create a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home folder.
- Locate “iCloud Drive” Once again to reactivate the process “bird” Recheck CPU usage in Activity Monitor. You'll need to manually move all your files to iCloud Drive.
Block CPU usage for Spotlight indexing
“mds” and “mdworker_shared” are part of Spotlight and consist of two components: “mds” stands for Metadata Server, which manages your index to give you fast search results, and “mdworker” stands for Metadata Server Worker, which does all the work needed to index your files.
These two processes run in the background and maintain indexed metadata databases for each attached local folder. They never consume excessive CPU processing power unless you're copying files, for example, from an external hard drive to your new Mac.
You can prevent indexing of certain folders or volumes to reduce CPU load. Go to System Preferences -> Spotlight and click the Privacy tab.
- To add new items, click the “Add (+)” Select your item from the browser dialog. All Spotlight settings are applied immediately, and macOS deletes any indexed databases from this folder.
- To rebuild the index, click the button. Remove (-) at the bottom of the list.
Advice: Read our guide about Spotlight app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Can I monitor CPU usage in the menu bar?
The answer: Activity Monitor doesn't allow you to pin selective statistics to the menu bar. You can enable "Monitor → Show CPU Usage or History," but it opens a new window. However, we suggest you try these menu bar apps for Mac that will display full details of your CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, and more.
Stats It is a macOS system display for the menu bar and supports 10.13 High Sierra or later. iGlance It is a customizable system monitoring menu bar that displays details such as CPU usage as a graph; reads CPU temperature; monitors fan speed, memory usage, and network usage; and more.
Q2: Are there better tools than Activity Monitor?
The answer: Yes, but it's a terminal command called "top." Launch Terminal and type "top -u" to sort processes by CPU usage. Otherwise, you'll get details on the status of the processes, the number of page faults, the total number of incoming pages, the process's memory usage, and more.
If you're using Homebrew for Mac, you can install htop View CPU usage percentage, process status, priority, CPU time, and more. You can sort processes and track the absolute path of processes.
Q3: Can malware on your system over-consume CPU?
The answer: Yes. This can happen if unwanted crypto-mining malware is running on your Mac. Check the LaunchDaemon folder and note any unknown configuration files. We also recommend running a full scan using Malwarebytes for Mac.
