Still not getting full CPU Usage

orionetheusorionetheus
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I still don't get full CPU usage. (200%)



As I've posted before, I ran a program (one of the SETI genre) and I got my CPU usage up to 190-200% during that time......



By the way I'm on a Macbook Pro so there hence should be 200% cpu usage....since theres 2 CPU's.



Now however I look at my activity monitor, and I see 31% usage...3.50 % system, and 50 ish idle.....



Where is my extra CPU processing power.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    I still don't get your problem. You should be happy your CPU usage is low, because that saves on energy and heat.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    31% by what?
  • Reply 3 of 7
    orionetheusorionetheus Posts: 53member
    That's not the main issue, the issue is that when I NEED the extra power it doesnt exist. I cant use more than one CPU core it seems. I have Firefox and WoW open and get to 105% but beyond that...nothing even if I open up itunes...My CPU usage doesnt increase my computer just freezes.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orionetheus


    That's not the main issue, the issue is that when I NEED the extra power it doesnt exist. I cant use more than one CPU core it seems. I have Firefox and WoW open and get to 105% but beyond that...nothing even if I open up itunes...My CPU usage doesnt increase my computer just freezes.



    That's a RAM problem, not CPU. Your lack of RAM cannot be compensated with more CPU cycles.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Open Activity Monitor and check if you get a lot of pageouts when doing such stuff.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    orionetheusorionetheus Posts: 53member
    Ah so.



    Im getting new ram in 20 days or so.



    thanks!
  • Reply 7 of 7
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Enable the CPU graph in Activity Monitor and you will see that both processors are being used.



    You will not see 200% usage unless you are running something like RC5-72. This is because processes do some computation and then they ask for a resource and wait until the resource is available - disk access, memory allocation, etc.



    To see the two processors maxed out, go into Terminal and type



    yes >>/dev/null



    then open another shell and type the same thing.



    and look at the processor graphs and the CPU% in Activity monitor.



    Your assumption that "both processors aren't being used" isn't correct - if your total is 102%, the Mach kernel is balancing the threads so that each processor will be about 50% of the load, or in this case 51% load.



    type control-c to cancel it.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orionetheus


    That's not the main issue, the issue is that when I NEED the extra power it doesnt exist. I cant use more than one CPU core it seems. I have Firefox and WoW open and get to 105% but beyond that...nothing even if I open up itunes...My CPU usage doesnt increase my computer just freezes.



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