You can sort the list of apps based on the highest or lowest numbers by clicking on the heading of each column. Each column for CPU shows a useful result, but the stats for CPU percentage are the most helpful for app troubleshooting. The utility starts by showing every running app and process based on CPU resources. To open this tool from Finder, click the Go menu, browse to Utilities, and then launch Activity Monitor in the window that appears. And if a specific app is unresponsive and can’t be shut down the traditional way, you can force it to close. Whatever the problem, one tool that can help is Activity Monitor.īuilt into macOS, Activity Monitor shows you a list of all running apps and processes and reveals the biggest hogs based on CPU, memory, energy use, disk use, and network bandwidth. An app may even freeze or become unresponsive to the point that you can’t close it the usual way. A lone app can bump into performance issues, slowing down not just itself but your entire computer.
And the culprit may be a single application.
Sometimes your Mac may not run as smoothly or as quickly as you expect.