"About this Mac" - incorrect info

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Curiouser & Curiouser

Recently bought a 2nd hand MacBook Pro. Looked good & with no problems.

"About this Mac" showed
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.005D.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.58f17
Serial Number (system): W80273RQAGW
Hardware UUID: 21476C6E-6E40-5585-93A1-A14F80F7EEC0
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Recently installed Temperature Monitor to look at core temperatures as I was running some batch processes 24/7 in the background.

Looking at the system info in this app. I get something quite different which is shown in the attachment "Temp Mon Sys Info.png"
ie 2 processors & 4 cores.

Sure enough, I could download 4 background tasks - one for each core shown in the Temperature Monitor info.

IE "About this Mac" is not showing the correct inormation about the installed processors. Also different info about the processor type.

Strange, to say the least.

Temp Mon Sys Info.png
 

chscag

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Nothing different. Just a different way of displaying the same information. Note that the i7 CPU has 2 cores.

Also information about your MBP from here.
 
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Thanks for replying but it looks different to me.

"About your Mac: :-
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2

System Info from Temperature Monitor

Processor Name: i486
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4

Despite "About my Mac" showing only 2 cores, I really do have 4 jobs running on 4 cores.
 
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iMac 27" 2017 32 G ram MB Pro 2012 16 G ram iPad Air ser 5 2017 iPhone 11 xs max 256.
Have you actually got 2 cores and 2 mirrored cores? In effect this would be a 4 core machine! A laptop running Windows often has 2 logical cores and 2 mirrored cores giving you a total of 4 usable cores, and would be sold as a 4 core laptop!
 

dtravis7


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Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
The Apple System info is 100% right. You only have 2 CPU cores but your CPU also has hyperthreading which has also 2 virtual cores. Some software will use all 4 but technically it's a Dual Core CPU.

my 2010 iMac with an i7 has 4 actuall CPU cores and 4 hyperthreading cores. When I do intensive work with some apps I get 800% CPU usage. Not all software will use Intels hyperthreading.

For more into on the subject google hyperthreading.


The MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.66 15-Inch (Mid-2010) is powered by a 32 nm, dual-core 2.66 GHz Intel "Core i7" I7-620M (Arrandale) processor, with dedicated 256k level 2 cache for each core and a 4 MB shared level 3 cache. This system also supports "Turbo Boost" -- which "automatically boosts the processor speed based on workload" up to 3.33 GHz for this model -- and "Hyper Threading" -- which allows the system to recognize four "virtual cores" or "threads."
 
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Again, it's down to the way Apple reports it! You actually for all intents and purposes have a 4 core system with 2 logical cores and 2 mirrored (Hyperthreaded) cores.....Windows reports this correctly as 4 usable cores, Apple is also technically correct in reporting only 2 logical (real) cores!
 
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Thanks for all your answers, very informative. Apologies for the delay in reosponding.
I still have a problem with my differing info..
I'm not running Windows, just OSX.
The system info shows just 1 processor & 2 cores - but - the monitor system shows 2 processors and 4 logical cores -- I can't find any evidence of hyperthreading.
The information picked up by the monitor system must be somewhere on the Mac and distinctly shows 2 processors - and 4 logical cores.
 

dtravis7


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Bobs URL is 100% correct. That MBP has a Single Intel i7 CPU that is Dual Core. It also has Hyper Threading but those other cores the app is reporting are NOT cores but Virtual Hyper Threading Threads. Threads are not cores. I hope that helps.

That monitor software is wrong technically. Intel Flat out states that 2.66Ghz CPU in your machine is a Dual Core CPU.
 
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Thanks for your explanations. I guess it must be the monitor misusing the word "processsor".
Thanks again
 

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