iStat Menus - performance

[spock999]

I have just downloaded and installed iStat Menus as a 14 day trial. I am running 10.13.6 on MBPro. Main reason I am trying it is that I want a replacement for the discontinued widget iStat Pro just so that from time to time I can look at aspects of the machines performance.

I looked at Activity monitor which is just too much info. I just want a brief summary. I tried XRG and didn't think too much of it. Looking at reviews iStat Menus seemed quite good. So I have tried it.

It works OK and I was happy with the summary on the menu bar. I was very surprised this morning to find that my MBP was warm as if it had been active overnight. I close the lid and expect it to go to sleep. At first I thought it was High Sierra as I have only just upgraded but it then occurred to me that it could be iStat Menus. Further investigation clearly showed it was iStat Menus. Switching it off gave an immediate cooling down of the laptop and changing the global setting from medium to slow update frequency also gave a noticeable temperature decrease.

Has anyone else noticed this and if so are there any suggestions as to how it should be used to avoid the issue. I am not inclined to pay for something that I have to completely hamstring to prevent it doing this.

Thanks.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I've been running iStat Menus on my Macs for many years and never have found it to be a resource hog affecting CPU temps and nor has it interfered with the computer going to sleep. You might want to reset your SMC to see if the sleeping happening like it should.

 

[chscag]

Same here. I've been a registered owner of iStat Menus for many years and have never experienced it using excess resources or any overheating. By the way, if you're unhappy with iStat Menus I suggest trying out the free Macs Fan Control. It will give you a read out of temperature and fan speed. It's not as sophisticated as other utilities but it works well.

 

[MacInWin]

Actually, what spock999 is reporting is exactly why I got rid of iStat Menus. I, too, had never ending CPU hogging, with commensurate overheating, until I got rid of iStat. I know everyone says it's fine, but for me, nope. Never found a cure and about the only advice I got from the iStat folks was "reinstall," which immediately led to CPU hogging and overheat again.

iStat is gone.

 

[chscag]

Very odd indeed; two reports of the same thing. Obviously, something about Jake's machine and that of member "spock999" which is not compatible with the way iStat Menus is deriving its readouts. I have not used iStat Menus on a portable Mac as all of my experience with it has been on three successive iMacs.

As I indicated to the OP, Macs Fan Control is not very sophisticated with readouts but it should suffice if he only needs CPU temperature and fan speed. There are other utilities in addition but off hand I don't remember what they are.

 

[pm-r]

iStat is gone.

+1!!

Ditto, as Bob says, I also got rid of my iStat Menus.app even though I wasn't experiencing such extreme resource use, and I'm also an advocate of Macs Fan Control.app.




- Patrick
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[spock999]

I have been active on my MBP even if not on the forum. I still believe that iStat Menus used sufficient resources to make a noticeable difference to the temperatures but other factors seem to be at play.

Despite switching off iStat, I still had the MBP warm in the morning after supposedly being "sleeping". So I reset the SMC and the NV/PRAM. That had no effect. After being completely boggled on the internet trying to understand sleep/hibernation/standby I gave up on that side of things. Looking at the energy saver set up in system preferences, I finally decided to disable the wifi and Power Nap boxes under Power Adaptor as I tend to leave the MBP connected to the power when I am not using it. That seems to have changed the temperature issue back to how it was before upgrading to High Sierra (ie it was quite cool when I picked it up after leaving it with the lid closed). I suspect it is the Power Nap setting that did it.

I must confess that I don't remember what the settings were under El Capitan but I would hope they hadn't been changed but you can't take that for granted. So I wonder if some aspect of the behaviour in this area has changed. I have now restarted iStat as I wonder whether the temperature issue was the effect of its resource usage on top of the other stuff. Time will tell and I will report back.

Thanks for your responses.

PS My MBP is the early 2013 retina 13"

 

[pm-r]

I suspect it is the Power Nap setting that did it.

Such sleuthing for the cause can be quit frustrating and time consuming, especially when so many things seem to get updated or changed so often these days.

It boggles my mind that newer OS versions and "Updates" don't always just keep improving things, but too often they goof things up or good great useful features get dropped or left out or just forgotten about, and it seems to be happening more and more lately.

End of my Sunday am rant… but hey, I've got the rest of the day still left.




- Patrick
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[spock999]

Picking up my MBP this morning confirmed that the new energy saver settings had worked and that it was back to being cool rather than warm. Pleased with that!!

I have done a bit more checking this morning of iStat Menus. Now that the MBP is cooler, I cannot notice the temperature difference with running iStat at different update frequencies. I have set it up with a limited number of options - no weather, no battery stats and no time - with the menubar stuff combined and the basic graphs. Based on its own CPU stats for the different update frequencies, CPU usage is: Slow about 1.4%, Medium 1.8% and Fast up to 2.8%. So that seems OK to me especially as the slow update frequency covers my requirement satisfactorily.

I will run the trial through the remaining days but it looks like I will buy. I am not sure whether I am better with the £10 version from the App Store or whether to buy it direct. I am not completely sure of the differences but I am not interested in the weather.

 

[pm-r]

I will run the trial through the remaining days but it looks like I will buy. I am not sure whether I am better with the £10 version from the App Store or whether to buy it direct. I am not completely sure of the differences but I am not interested in the weather.

I tend to purchase directly from the developer when possible, (Apple's got enough money!!),but the other thing to look out for between the two versions is whether some feature has been removed from the Apple Store version that seems to happen sometimes.

I also usually check various user sites or some reviews, even realizing that trolls like to hang out on such sites.

Try here and your App store:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25230/istat-menus




- Patrick
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- Patrick
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[Maria Kate]

So far, I have no problems encountered in using iStat Menus on my mac. Maybe your mac is full of files and apps that slows down processing speeds, which causes overheating. Try resetting your SMC to control the fan speed for greater cooling. If the temperatures does not fall, run an Apple Hardware Test. I hope this will benefit you.

 

[chscag]

I will run the trial through the remaining days but it looks like I will buy. I am not sure whether I am better with the £10 version from the App Store or whether to buy it direct. I am not completely sure of the differences but I am not interested in the weather.

Buy it from the Mac App Store. The developer's version which is more expensive is filled with fluff in my opinion. I found that I only used a small portion of what stats are available. Like who needs the weather, time, and other stuff already available from other apps for free. And stay away from the macupdate site if possible if you don't want adware included with your download.

 

[pm-r]

And stay away from the macupdate site if possible if you don't want adware included with your download.

AFAIK, the macupdate site stopped that practice several years ago now. I think it was also when they were testing their "macupdate.app" and most Mac software doesn't usually need an additional software installer.

Some, not me, like the convenience of their "Desktop" commercial software. Neither do I recommend it or its use as a lot of Mac software has its own updaters builtin these days.




- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

I wasn't using the app when they sent me crapware. They are now banned, and will stay that way. YMMV.

 

[pm-r]

I wasn't using the app when they sent me crapware

And I wan't using anything different either when I got some very nasty nastys included with some downloads I got from https://sourceforge.net a few years ago, and that really surprised me.

But I have more protection available these days just to check, and I don't have to ban them.

To each their own I guess and the nasty stuff can be lurking almost everywhere and one does need to be cautious.




- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

Well, it is just that I don't NEED macupdate. I can get the apps I want from the Mac App Store, or the developer directly, and not take the risk. Aggregators like macupdate had a reason to exist 10 years ago, but today they are no longer needed or useful. So, why go there and take the risk?

 

[pm-r]

or the developer directly,

+1, I agree and my first choice also if and when possible.




- Patrick
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[ferrarr]

Sometimes I use MacUpdate to find the developers site, just saying.

 

[Slydude]

That's about all I use it for now. And even then not very often.

I used to use it far more often when I was downloading software more often. K'd check once to twice a week just to see what was out. If I checked kess iften it took too long to go through the list. I had pretty much stopped doing that by the time they had the issue adding stuff to the downloads.

 

[chscag]

Hey Sly:

How does "Gatekeeper" operate in Mojave? Rumor is that it's more final (can't be changed) than from High Sierra.