The very best apps to help you monitor your Mac and keep it performing like it's still brand new!

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• Check My Pc Performance Online
• App To Check Mac Performance Software

Comprehensive advice on this topic can be found in the 'Performance' chapter of our book Troubleshooting Mac OS X. Optimizing Mac OS X performance RAM, RAM, and more RAM. Mac OS X loves RAM. Short of buying a new Mac or a processor upgrade, adding RAM is the best way to improve Mac OS X performance.

Macs always perform great out of the box, but over time they can start to feel slower and more sluggish. The reasons for that can seem mysterious, but often they're easy-to-fix if you can figure out what's gone wrong. That's where performance monitoring comes in! There are a lot of great performance monitoring tools for your Mac, but it can be tough sorting the really great ones from garbage. That's where iMore comes in! Here are the best apps for monitoring your Mac's performance!

iStat Menus

Even though Macs do pretty well in the power and memory management departments on their own, there are still some apps out there that contain memory leaks or other problems that can hog system resources. iStat Menus can not only alert you to performance and memory management issues but help you pinpoint the culprit.

If you want to know exactly what's using your Mac's power and resources, you want iStat Menus by Bjango.

• $16 - Download Now

gfxCardStatus

If you've got a Retina Mac, you have both integrated and discrete graphics support. Unfortunately your Mac doesn't let you choose one or the other on your own and you're at the mercy of whatever OS X decides is better. If you don't like the idea of that and don't find the stock battery shaming utility to be robust enough, gfxCard Status lets you sit in the driver's seat. Not only can you see more detailed information, you can force the system to use either discrete or integrated graphics in order to boost performance or save power.

For control of your Retina Mac's graphics, get gfxCardStatus.

App To Check Mac Performance Free

• Free - Download Now

Disk Doctor

We store a lot of information on our Macs and if you find yourself running out of room Disk Doctor can help you recapture some space. It scans your hard drive for large files you may not need such as application caches, mail attachments that are hidden deep in the system, and more. Most of the time there's tons of data on our Macs we either didn't know was there or forgot we had.

If you're running out of storage space, Disk Doctor can help you reclaim tons.

• $2.99 - Download Now

Temperature Gauge

Even though we'd like to think Macs nowadays aren't susceptible to overheating, it's still an unfortunate reality. But luckily there's Temperature Gauge which can not only monitor your CPU temps but your fan speeds. Whether you do graphics intensive tasks and just want to keep an eye on temperatures or you feel your fans are running more than they should, Temperature Gauge keeps you informed with just a glance at your menu bar.

If you want to prevent overheating before it even starts, Temperature Gauge is a must have.

• $4.99 - Download Now

Memory Clean

Memory Clean lets you monitor and clear out your Mac's memory, or RAM as most people call it. Sometimes performance intensive games and apps can hog memory and then not purge themselves from it properly. If you're experiencing slowdowns, memory is most often the culprit. Memory Clean gives you quick access to your memory's current status in just one click. From there you can handle any problems that come your way.

For better control over memory resources, Memory Clean is a must have.

• Free - Download Now

Your picks?

If you obsess over the performance of your Mac, what tools you use to keep it in tip top shape? Do you perform regular checks or only look into problems as they arise? Let me know!

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Check My Pc Performance Online

This timelapse of macOS 10.0 through 10.15 is a nostalgic wonder

App To Check Mac Performance Software

The very first version of macOS, or Mac OS X as it was known, arrived almost 20 years ago. This video takes us through every major update the Mac has seen since in one amazing timelapse.