Mac running slow seemingly due to under utilization of available CPU cores macOS Monterey Intel i9

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Level 1

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Mac running slow seemingly due to under utilization of available CPU cores macOS Monterey Intel i9

Since upgrading to Monterey awhile ago, but even more so now with Monterey 12.6 starting apps and performing work it is very slow. Fans used to turn on when performing intensive tasks, but now they never do and the behavior is like everything is throttled back.

The picture below shows...On the left: MacBook Pro Intel 4 core (8 logical hyper threading) 2.7GHz i7 16GB RAM all SSD OS X Mavericks 10.9.5. On the right: MacBook Pro Intel 6 core (12 logical hyper threading) 2.9GHz i9 32GB RAM all SSD macOS Monterey 12.6. What you are seeing is CPU Core history during Norton Full Scan on both machines. Note that under OS X all available cores are pretty evenly utilized to max, but under macOS Monterey cores are under utilized with core #1 given most of the work. My old Mac runs faster with Mavericks than the new one with Monterey. It is like Monterey under utilizes resources whether intentionally or unintentionally making the Mac slow. Starting apps on my old Mac are instantaneous, but on the new Mac I have to wait 13 seconds for Outlook to display a screen when opening it.

Has anyone seen similar behavior? Is there a resolution? Thank you.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 2, 2022 04:15 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

66,758 points

Oct 4, 2022 01:58 PM in response to topo tip

If a laptop is seemingly running a process at 100% (especially multiple processes) yet the laptop is very slow and not getting more than luke warm, then usually it indicates a hardware issue of some sort. Power problems can prevent the CPU from running faster than idle speeds which are generally 800MHz. On rare occasions I have seen a CPU supposedly running at 2.xGHz and still run extremely slow due to some sort of hardware issue. You can check the speed the CPU is running at with the following Terminal command:

sudo  powermetrics  |  grep  -i  'system average'

You will be prompted for your admin password. Nothing will appear on the screen as you type the password (not even dots) so press the "Return" key to submit the password. The command will keep printing out the CPU speed/frequency at some interval. To terminate the command from running press Control + C.

FYI, I would recommend uninstalling Norton by following the developer's instructions. Anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, and third party security software are not needed on a Mac. These types of apps usually cause more problems than they solve since they interfere with the normal operation of macOS. macOS already has great built-in security especially when combined with users practicing safe computing habits such as outlined in this excellent article written by a respected forum contributor:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Lee_ms

Community Specialist

Oct 4, 2022 08:53 AM in response to topo tip

Hi topo tip,

Here's a resource that will be helpful If your Mac runs slowly. Regarding your fans not working properly we would recommend trying to Reset the SMC of your Mac. This can help with power related issues on your Mac. If the issue persists you can reach out for support here: Get Support

Take care.

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Answer 3

topo tip Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 4, 2022 09:55 AM in response to Lee_ms

Hello Lee_ms,

Thank you for your response. My reference about the fans is not that they are not functioning, but that my Mac no longer uses enough CPU for them to have to turn on at all. It's like macOS is not dispatching enough work to the processors. It's like it is thinking only CPU #1 is available.

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Answer 4

topo tip Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 4, 2022 01:16 PM in response to Old Toad

Hello Old Toad,

The only thing that has changed was the update to macOS Monterey, and I installed Cisco AnyConnect. I uninstalled AnyConnect and the problem persists.

This problem from my humble perspective looks like - not knowing how macOS works - a dispatcher/scheduler problem. Whatever is responsible for dispatching work on the cores is acting like there is only one core resulting in under utilization of the CPU resources. When it was new and running Mojave everything was noticeably faster compared to my old Mac. Now it is the reverse running Monterey 12.6. The way it looks to me, It isn't because it lacks CPU resources, but because it is underutilizing them.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

214,308 points

Oct 4, 2022 09:18 AM in response to topo tip

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

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Mac running slow seemingly due to under utilization of available CPU cores macOS Monterey Intel i9

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