The best way to find the reason behind a laggy or slow Mac is to check its performance. But, how will you check your MacBook performance? This guide will explore two ways to do that: the Activity Monitor and the Apple Diagnostics tool.
2 Ways To Check MacBook Performance
Activity Monitor lets you get real-time insights into your Mac’s software, like RAM, CPU, and GPU. On the other hand, Apple Diagnostics offers a comprehensive hardware check. Besides examining your Mac, these tools provide solutions to any possible issues. The following guide covers more about how to check MacBook performance. So, let’s get started!
How To Check MacBook Performance With Activity Monitor?
Activity Monitor is the best solution if you want to check the system performance of your Mac. It’s a built-in application that gives you a real-time update of your Mac’s software. This includes your Mac’s hard drive, RAM, processor, network usage, etc.
Let’s see how to check MacBook performance using Activity Monitor in the following step-by-step tutorial.
- Click Finder on your dock to open a Finder window.
- Navigate to the Applications folder.
- Find Utilities.
- Launch Activity Monitor.
Inside the Activity Monitor window, you’ll see several tabs at the top. This includes CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network.
5 Steps to Check MacBook Performance through Activity Monitor
Here, each tab shows the current state of your Mac’s hard drive, RAM, processor, network usage, etc.
- First, select the CPU tab (it might be selected already by default). Here, you’ll see a list of processes and applications sorted by CPU usage. You can also click the % CPU column to sort the list in descending order. This will help you quickly identify any resource-intensive processes. So you can get an idea of what is causing your Mac to run slowly.
- Next, the Memory tab shows you the RAM usage of each process. You can use this data to identify applications or processes that take a lot of memory on your Mac.
- In the Energy tab, you can see how much energy your Mac uses overall. It also shows the energy usage of each open application. Also, look for the Preventing Sleep column, which shows apps keeping your Mac from going into sleep mode. Try closing a few applications to save energy on your Mac when it is not in use.
- After that, the Disk tab overviews your Mac’s hard drive activity. You can see the read and write speeds and the data each process transfers.
- The Network tab displays network usage, including data sent and received by each application or process. This can be useful for troubleshooting network-related issues on your Mac.
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How To Check MacBook Performance With Apple Diagnostics?
The Apple Diagnostic tool, or Apple Hardware Test, is a comprehensive check for Macs to evaluate system performance. You can run the tool to inspect internal hardware and find any problems with your Mac.
In the following step-by-step guide, let’s see how to check MacBook performance with the Apple Diagnostic tool.
Step 1: Prepare Your Mac
The first step is to prepare your Mac for the test. You can do this by following these steps:
- Close all applications and shut down your Mac.
- Disconnect external devices except for the keyboard, mouse, Ethernet connection (if any), display, and AC power.
- Place your Mac on a stable surface with good ventilation.
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Step 2: Determine your Mac’s processor and run the tool
Before we move to how to check MacBook performance, you should first determine your device’s processor. Each processor’s Mac has a different method to run the tool.
Here is a quick guide for Silicon and Intel processor Macs.
For Apple Silicon Macs:
This is how to check MacBook performance for Apple Silicon Macs:
- Turn on your Mac and press and hold the power button.
- Release the Power button when the startup options window appears. It will show a gear icon labeled Options.
- Press Command + D on the keyboard to start the Apple Diagnostic tool.
For Intel Processor Macs:
Here’s how to check MacBook performance for Intel processor Macs:
- Press the Power button and Turn on your Mac.
- Immediately press and hold the D key on the keyboard. Keep holding it for a few seconds.
- Release the D key when your Mac starts up. It will display a progress bar that indicates that the tool has started.
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Step 3: View the test results
It takes some time for the tool to run completely. You can check the progress bar to complete, indicating the test is finished.
After that, you will receive a detailed report on your Mac’s internal hardware performance. Along with it, you will also find possible solutions to any identified issues.
Step 4: End or repeat the test
If you want to repeat the diagnostic test, select Run the test again on the screen. Alternatively, you can also press Command + R to start the test again.
If not, you can end the test and restart your Mac. Select the Restart button or press R on the keyboard to do that.
Lastly, to shut down your Mac, select the Shut Down option or press S on the keyboard.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why Should I Check My Mac’s Performance?
What is the Easiest Way to Check My Mac’s Performance?
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Conclusion
Hopefully, now you know how to check MacBook performance. Frequently doing this is suitable for ensuring it works fine. Activity Monitor and the Apple Diagnostic tool are the two best yet easy ways to check your Mac’s performance.
The Activity Monitor allows you to monitor software usage and troubleshoot issues. Apple Diagnostics provides a thorough hardware check. So, using these tools, you can identify problems making your Mac lag and fix them appropriately.
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