Buying a new Mac is exciting, but it can also be very confusing. For most of the Macs it sells, Apple offers a number of different configuration options, including different RAM capacities, storage sizes and disk types, and processors. For many people, it’s the last of those that’s most important. It’s arguable that processors, or CPUs, are now so powerful that they can do everything most of us need to do at a speed that is more than good enough and so choice of CPU isn’t important. But that’s not quite true, as we’ll explain below.
- The company said it will continue to support Intel-powered Mac computers for 'years to come' and still has Macs running on Intel chips in its pipeline. We still don't know much about what the.
- Intel has provided Apple with processors for its Mac lineup since 2006, a long and mutually profitable relationship. While MacBooks and iMacs lack the marquee appeal of the iPhone, Apple still.
- Intel® Power Gadget also provides a C/C Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing this power and frequency data in your program; the API is supported on Windows and Mac OS X. For more information on the API's, see: For Mac Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Mac OS X. For Windows Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Windows.
If your Mac is using an earlier version of any Mac operating system, you should install the latest Apple software updates, which can include important security updates and updates for the apps that are installed by macOS, such as Safari, Books, Messages, Mail, Music, Calendar, and Photos.
What is a processor?
Put simply, a processor is the ‘brain’ in your Mac. Until relatively recently the CPU was responsible only for taking input, executing instructions and passing on the results. Now, CPUs incorporate short-term memory of their own and, sometimes, graphics processors, or GPUs. In fact, when it comes to choosing a processor for your Mac, deciding whether to opt for one that has an on-chip graphics processor is one of the key decisions you’ll have to make. Macs that have processors with on-board GPUs tend to be less expensive than those that have separate graphics processors, but also are less capable when it comes to things like rendering 3D graphics and 4K video. To further complicate matters, new macOS features like Metal make excellent use of the hardware in GPUs, meaning the choice of graphics processor is almost as important as the choice of CPU.
What processor does my Mac have inside?
Since 2006 all Macs have used Intel processors — unlike iPhones and iPads which have Apple processors. Apple labels the Intel CPUs it uses in the Mac as Core i5 and Core i7 and differentiates them by speed in GHz. The other difference is the number of cores in the CPU and the number of CPUs in the Mac. So, roughly speaking a quad-core processor should be able to process instructions at twice the rate of a dual-core CPU. That’s not the case in the real world, as executing instructions relies on more than just the speed at which the CPU’s ‘brain’ can perform calculations (for example, it’s dependent on how quickly those instructions can be passed to and from the CPU). However, in an application optimized for multiple cores, you should notice a significant difference between CPUs with different numbers of cores.
Intel gives each generation of its processor a code name. Recent Intel CPUs have had names like Sandy Bridge, Haswell, and Skylake. Apple doesn’t use those names, or even talk publicly about which processor is in each Mac, but it’s known that the current crop of iMacs and MacBook Pros have Kaby Lake processors, which were the most recent available at the time they were released in 2017. So, if you bought it in the last year or so, your MacBook Pro processor is Kaby Lake. The slimline MacBook processor is known as Core M, designed specifically for low power mobile use. The MacBook Air and Mac mini have Haswell processors, as they were released in 2013. The Mac Pro uses a completely different family of Intel processors, designed for high-end workstations and known as Xeon. The Mac Pro, last updated in 2013, uses the Romley variant of Xeon.
What are the important features of a processor?
We’ve already talked about processors that have on-board graphics, such as Intel Iris and Iris Pro. These offer benefits such as taking up less space than discrete CPU and GPU chips and Mac’s that use them tend to be less expensive than those with separate CPU and GPU. However, they also tend to be less powerful.
The other key feature of a processor is the balance between speed and power consumption. CPUs that run faster use more energy and so generate more heat. This doesn’t just mean that fans have to run more often, it also uses more power — and if the Mac is a laptop, runs the batter down more quickly. Indeed, CPUs are often ‘throttled’ so that they don’t run at their theoretical maximum, in order to preserve battery life and reduce heat generation.
What about Turbo Boost?
Turbo Boost is a technology introduced by Intel and is designed to allow processors to run at speeds faster than those quoted on your Mac’s label in certain circumstances. Remember we said that CPUs are often throttled to prevent overheating? Turbo Boost monitors the power consumption and heat of the CPU and removes that throttle when it’s safe to do so. So, for example, a quad-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro could run as fast as 3.8GHz in the right circumstances.
Which processor should I choose?
It’s likely that if you’re buying a new Mac, you’re choice of processor will be made from the Core M, Core i5, and Core i7. Not all Mac models offer a choice of all three. The Core M, for example, is specifically designed to minimise power consumption in mobile devices and is used only in the MacBook. If you’re buying a MacBook Pro or iMac, you’ll have the choice of Core i5 or Core i7. Likewise, if you buy a MacBook Air or Mac mini, although those machines use older versions of Intel processors. And, as we said earlier, if you buy a Mac Pro, you’ll be able to choose from Xeon workstation processors with multiple cores.
There are two decisions you’re likely to have to make: i5 or i7 and dual-core or quad-core. Generally speaking, in terms of speed, a dual-core i5 is the slowest and a quad-core i7 the fastest. That, however, is not the whole story. In order to get the most from multiple cores, you’ll need to be performing tasks that really benefit from the ability to execute more instructions simultaneously. So, tasks like 3D rendering, video editing and working with large images in Photoshop will all improve noticeably with a quad-core vs a dual-core processor.
Core i7 processors have two main benefits over Core i5: larger cache and hyper-threading. The presence of a larger cache means the CPU can store more data locally and so spend less time transferring them back and forth to RAM. Hyper-threading allows the CPU to simulate additional cores. So, a quad-core i7 with hyperthreading behaves like and eight-core CPU.
The benefits of larger cache and hyperthreading are seen in scientific applications, where large calculations are performed and their results stored, as well as the 3D animation and 4K video editing.
Integrated vs discrete graphics
As we discussed earlier, some Intel processors have GPUs onboard. In some Mac ranges, such as the MacBook Pro and iMac, you’ll have the choice of a model with integrated graphics or one with a separate, or discrete, GPU. If you’re going to use your Mac primarily for playing power-hungry games, manipulating large images, or editing video or animation, you should choose a Mac with a separate GPU. On the other hand, if you’re mostly going to use it for writing, email, social media and editing your own photos, a CPU with integrated graphics, like Iris, is fine.
Can I upgrade the processor in my Mac?
That’s a flat no, sadly. There have in the past been Macs that had processors that could be upgraded, but now they’re soldered firmly in place and so your Apple CPU can’t be removed. That makes the choice you make when you buy your Mac even more important. The good news is that for most users every processor that ships with a currently available Mac, even those that haven’t been updated in several years, is absolutely fine and will run as fast as you need it to.
If I can’t upgrade the processor, how else can I speed up my Mac?
Two of the most effective ways to make your Mac go faster are to install more RAM and swap your hard drive for an SSD. Those both cost quite a bit of money, however. A much less expensive and much easier way is to get rid of the ‘junk’ files that can clog up your Mac. These are installed by applications, or by the system, or downloaded to your machine by websites. Deleting them one by one is a long and difficult process, but CleanMyMac X makes it very easy. CleanMyMac identifies files on your Mac that either serve no purpose, that you’re unlikely to need, or that are large and haven’t been opened for a while.
You can scan your Mac with one click and CleanMyMac will report back to you with the files it thinks you can delete and how much space it will save you — it can be tens of gigabytes. You can then review them and choose which to get rid of or press Delete and get rid of them all. CleanMyMac also makes it easy to uninstall apps you no longer use and removes all their associated files. You can download it free here.
Choosing a processor for your Mac can seem confusing and difficult but it’s not really. Once you’ve chosen the Mac you want, there are likely only to be a few options. And with the help of our guide, you should now know which one is right for you.
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Development Team
- Windows*: Joe Olivas, Timo Kleimola, Mark Price, Timothy McKay
- MacOS*: Patrick Konsor
Previous Contributors
- Windows*: Seung-Woo Kim, Karthik Krishnan, Vardhan Dugar, Joseph Jin-Sung Lee, Jun De Vega
Introduction
Intel® Power Gadget is a software-based power usage monitoring tool enabled for Intel® Core™ processors (from 2nd Generation up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ processors). Intel® Atom™ processors are not supported. It is supported on Windows* and macOS* and includes an application, driver, and libraries to monitor and estimate real-time processor package power information in watts using the energy counters in the processor. With this release, we are providing functionality to evaluate power information on various platforms including notebooks, desktops and servers. Windows 7* and 32-bit versions of the Intel® Power Gadget for Windows* has ceased development from 3.0.7. Starting with version 3.5 and going forward, only the 64-bit version and Windows 8* will be supported.
Background
Traditional methods to estimate power/energy usage of the processor has always been a cumbersome task that included special purpose tools or instrumentation on the platform along with third party equipment. The motivation for the tool was to assist end-users, ISV’s, OEM’s, developers, and others interested in a more precise estimation of power from a software level without any H/W instrumentation.
New Features
In version 3.0 there are additional features that include estimation of power on multi-socket systems as well as externally callable APIs to extract power information within sections of code. The multi-socket support essentially evaluates the Energy MSR on a per-socket basis and provides an estimate of power draw per socket. The API layer is a set of libraries and dlls that can be called and offers the flexibility to build the tool within code sections of an application. Latest release also includes support for Windows 10*.
Brief Description (Windows*)
Intel® Power Gadget 3.5 consists of the following components. Set of driver and libraries which access and post process the processor energy counter to calculate the power usage in Watts, temperate in Celsius and frequency in GHz (default install directory will be ~Program FilesIntelPower Gadget 3.5). A command line version of the tool (PowerLog3.0.exe) is also included
System Requirements (Windows*)
- Windows 8*
- Windows 10*
- Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft .NET* Framework 4
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable package
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processor or later, older processors not supported
- Single socket
- Multi-socket
System Requirements (MacOS*)
- macOS* 10.11 or later
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor or later
Known Limitations / Issues
- Graphs will not appear if your processor does not have the appropriate hardware counters
- Discrete graphics cards are not supported and GPU graphs will not appear unless Intel graphics is in use
- Windows 7* supported builds are below in the Archive section
Installation / Setup (Windows*)
- Run the msi package as an administrator. Accept the UAC, if one appears
- Follow the installer prompt instructions to complete installation
- .Net Framework 4 (will automatically be downloaded from Microsoft* site if not yet installed in your system) needs Internet connection
- Microsoft* Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable Package (will automatically get installed if not yet installed)
Installation / Setup (macOS*)
Intel Widi For Mac
- Double click the downloaded DMG (Intel Power Gadget.dmg)
- Double click the package (Install Intel Power Gadget.pkg)
- Follow the installer prompt instructions to complete installation
On recent macOS versions, after installation users need to explicitly allow the Power Gadget driver to load:
- Open System Preferences, and click on 'Security and Privacy'
- Click the lock at the bottom of the page to unlock changes
- Click 'Allow' to allow system software from Intel Corporation:
- Restart your computer to apply the changes
On macOS Catalina (10.15), users may need to perform additional steps to enable the Power Gadget driver to automatically load (this is due to a bug in macOS).
- Open the Terminal application
- Enter the following command, and press Enter (requires a password to complete):
- Restart your computer to apply the changes
Usages (Windows*)
Common use of Intel® Power Gadget is to monitor energy usage of the processor
- Provides processor power (Watts), temperature (Celsius) and frequency (MHz) in real-time via graph displayed in the GUI
- Let you log the power and frequency measurements and save it in a csv format.
- Double click on the desktop shortcut and the GUI will launch
- Drag to move the GUI.
- Right click the GUI and a pop-up menu will show up allowing you to choose options or close the application. Options have the following parameters. Click “Start Log” button in the GUI to start logging. Press the same button “Stop Log” to stop logging. While it’s logging, red label “REC” will blink in the power chart area.
- You can choose to add time-stamp to the log file name or not.
- You can choose the log file name.
- You can choose to resize the GUI from 100% to 300% by dragging the slider and testing the new size with the “Apply Size” button and accept the changes by pressing “Ok”.
- Screen Update Resolution lets you change how often the GUI is updated at runtime. This may range from 50 ms to 1000 ms. (Default set to 1000 ms)
- Log Sampling Resolution lets you change the logging sampling resolution ranging from 1 ms to 1000 ms. (Default set to 100 ms)
- In a multi-socket system, you can choose which package information to display in the GUI. The log will record all package information in a csv file.
- Click 'Start Log' button in the GUI to start logging. Press the same button 'Stop Log' to stop logging. While it's logging, red label 'REC' will blink in the power chart area
Intel Power Gadget For Mac
Using Intel® Power Gadget 3.0 in a script
In order to start and stop the logging in a script, first launch the GUI as usual.
- At the beginning of the script, call 'IntelPowerGadget.exe -start' and it will trigger the logging in the GUI.
- At the end of the script, call “IntelPowerGadget.exe -stop” and it will stop the logging.
The parameters for the log are based on the options set in the GUI.
PowerLog3.0
PowerLog3.0.exe is the command line version of Intel® Power Gadget in logging power usage
Usage:
- Log power data to logfile for a period of time:
- Start a command a log power data to logfile until the command finish:
Logfile data
Logfile will include the elapsed timed, package power limit, processor frequency, GT frequency, processor temperature, average and cumulative power of the processor
- Processor Energy (Total energy of the processor) = IA Energy + GT Energy (if applicable) + Others (not measured)
- IA Energy (Energy of the CPU/processor cores)
- GT Energy (Energy of the processor graphics) – If applicable , some processors for desktops and servers don’t have it or may have use discrete graphics
Only works on 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family or newer. Atom processors not yet supported.
Use only 32-bit installer for 32-bit OS and 64-bit installer for 64-bit OS
Application may hang after running for a long period of time (just close and restart application)
Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order.
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Intel Drivers For Mac
Intel® Power Gadget also provides a C/C++ Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing this power and frequency data in your program; the API is supported on Windows and Mac OS X. For more information on the API's, see:
For Mac Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Mac OS X
For Windows Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Windows
End User License Agreement included in Windows* download
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