How to Read iStat?

[mthaker]

Hey everyone, I just got the iStat pro widget for my MacBook, but I need some tips on how to properly understand it.

Currently, my stats are:
CPU: 90% idle
Memory: 6mb Free (142mb wired, 195mb active, 145mb inactive)

Is this efficient? If there's no clear yes/no answer, how should I interpret these numbers?

Any help is always appreciated!

 

[WildCowboy]

Your CPU usage will vary a lot with lots of quick spikes up and down, depending on what you're doing. Of course, if you're doing something intensive like renderings, it will often max out for significant periods of time. But that snapshot you're showing was a lull when your processor was only under a 10% load.

Understanding memory usage starts here. Basically, you're doing okay on free RAM at the moment...what matters is free+inactive RAM. That said, you're running a bare minimum of RAM, so you will experience slowdowns as you open more applications...just not at the time of this snapshot.

 

[Swbinot]

istat

I am looking at my temperatures on the iStat, and i dont know which one is the important one to look at. any suggestions?

 

[blevins321]

I am looking at my temperatures on the iStat, and i dont know which one is the important one to look at. any suggestions?

CPU and (if you have it) GPU are the important ones. Processor and graphics card are the components that heat up the most.

And if you notice the hard drive spiking, backup your data quickly