Questions about activity monitor and speeding up computer

[Danjags]

Hi, I’m having some issues with Mac running slowly and trying to troubleshoot with activity monitor, Could you please help?



I frequently find the VTDecoderXPCService, WindowServer, and kernel_task are taking up alot of resources, even though I don’t know what they are and am not intentionally using any of them. Pic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrjxcryl0lojm1o/Screenshot 2018-07-25 10.43.51.png?dl=0


I’ve tried quitting them and force quitting them many time (and this may offer temporary relief) but I always find that they come back again at some point.


1. What are these things that are taking up my resources, are these being caused by my audio/video applications like OBS, Resolume Avenue, Camera Settings, Ableton Live, Astropad, etc? Or something else? What could be the cause or how can I figure out?


2. And most importantly stop the computer resources from being used so much?


Also, four general questions:


A) What exactly does it mean to be using up 439.9% of CPU? How is that even possible? Especially considering that the next applications are also taking up 100.8% and 75.7% and so on…. shouldn't it max at 100%? If not, why?


B) Idle is 3.45%. Does this mean that my computer is at 96.55% capacity? If so, what is a good % capacity to stay at that won’t slow the computer down?


C) Are there any other metrics that I should pay attention to when trying to speed up computer? I see many metrics like threads, CPU time, processes etc and also see more information on different tabs. I don’t know what most of them mean…


D) Are there any other tools that i should use in addition to activity monitor to help speed up computer?



Thanks!

 

[Satcomer]

Look up YASU!

 

[Danjags]

Look up YASU!

Thank you. It's primarily used to clean files/caches etc? Does it make a big difference? Can't find much info/reviews about it

 

[Lovely K]

Try freeing up disk space on your computer. You can delete duplicate and junk files, uninstall unused programs and store data on an external disk drive or in your cloud storage. Also, disable startup programs to make your computer boot faster. Some of these programs are needed, while others may just be unnecessarily wasting your system resources. Hope this info helps you.

 

[Satcomer]

Thank you. It's primarily used to clean files/caches etc? Does it make a big difference? Can't find much info/reviews about it

It use AppleScript that’s built in to delete Internet caches, run daily, weekly and monthly scripts you would have do manually via the Terminal! All you have to do is run the program and all it’s routines and do that about 3months to make sure your Internet cache might get out of hand. Take my word when it will help keep you lean and mean!