CoreDuoTemp - CPU Usage reading

[Cue]

Hey there,

I notice that CoreDuoTemp shows > 50% cpu usage though when I open the Activity monitor, all the cpu usage shown there doesn't sum up to that.

Is CoreDuoTemp bogus? Isn't the Activity Monitor showing every process? Has anyone noticed the same behaviour? What do you use to keep an eye on your cpu usage?

Thanks.

PS. That's on a Macbook CD 2.0Ghz

 

[mad jew]

I haven't noticed a discrepancy. By default, Activity Monitor will only so you My Processes but you can change that in the dropdown list at the top to All Processes or something else. However, if you were taking your value from the CPU tab down the bottom, this settings shouldn't have any effect.

Having said that, mine skips about quite a bit and it's difficult to compare the two side-by-side. Do you have them open at exactly the same time?

 

[Cue]

Yes.

I guess that since CoreDuoTemp doesn't update as often as Activity Monitor, that is why I notice a difference. (there are high peeks on AM)

 

[mad jew]

So are you still getting a significant discrepancy? I think the best time to gauge this would be under heavy load since under light load the CPU cycles flick up quite quickly for background tasks etc. If you rip a DVD/CD or something like that which will load the CPU, see whether they're both getting roughly the same readings over a little amount of time.

 

[Cue]

Yes I do. CTD seems to vary between 45%-55% while activity monitor shows a variation of 5%-65%.

I'm curious though as to what's causing this high cpu usage since on the AM when I get a peek on System CPU Usage, I don't see a process with that same percentage usage.

PS. I have to state that this is my first mac so I might be missing something here.

 

[mad jew]

Sorry mate, I dunno what it is. I'd believe Activity Monitor over CoreDuoTemp though. Just out of interest, are you running this from an administrator account?

 

[Cue]

Thanks for your concern anyway.

Well, I'm using the default account I created when I first logged in to my mac. AFAIK there is no root account on Mac OS X. Just "sudos".