iStat Menus

iStat Menus is an advanced system monitoring application for macOS. It provides detailed real-time information about CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, sensors, battery, and weather directly in the menu bar.

★★★★★

5.0(1 ratings)

• CPU and GPU monitoring. Displays the current usage of each processor core, history graphs, load averages, uptime, and frequency. Identifies applications with the highest resource consumption. On compatible Macs, it monitors GPU processor usage, memory, temperature, and frequency. Efficiency and performance cores can be visually differentiated.
• Memory statistics. Provides data on RAM usage, memory pressure, compressed memory, swap space, and history graphs. Includes a list of apps sorted by memory consumption, allowing identification of processes affecting system performance.
• Disk activity and usage. Shows used and free space in the menu bar, along with real-time read/write activity. Offers details on all mounted volumes and monitors the S.M.A.R.T. status of hard drives to predict potential failures. Presents disk usage per application.
• Network monitoring. Monitors incoming and outgoing data traffic for all network connections. Includes historical and current bandwidth graphs, a breakdown of consumption by application, public and private IP addresses, and internet connectivity indicators. Provides detailed connection information.
• Battery and power information. Offers detailed data on the battery status of Mac laptops. The menu bar item is configurable and changes its appearance based on status (discharging, charging, full). Also shows the battery level of connected Bluetooth devices such as AirPods, Magic Mouse, or Magic Trackpad.
• System sensors. Real-time listing of all available sensors in the Mac. Monitors component temperatures, hard drive temperatures (where supported), fan speeds, CPU and GPU frequencies, voltages, current, and power consumption. Allows manual control of fan speeds.
• Fan control. Facilitates manual adjustment of system fan speeds. Allows creating custom curves where speed increases gradually based on the temperature of specific sensors. Configuration can vary based on battery status (plugged in or on battery).
• Detailed weather. Displays current weather conditions in the menu bar. The dropdown menu presents a detailed hourly forecast and a weekly overview. Includes high and low temperature, wind speed and direction, probability of precipitation, humidity, dew point, UV index, atmospheric pressure, and visibility. Supports automatic or manual location.
• Date, time, and world clock. Highly customizable clocks for the menu bar. An integrated calendar shows upcoming events. World clocks can be added with custom names (e.g., "London Office") and include detailed sunrise, sunset, and moon information for that location.
• Notification system. Configure alerts for a wide range of system events. Rules can be based on thresholds for CPU, GPU, memory, disk space, network activity, sensor status, battery, or weather conditions. Examples: alerts for public IP change, internet connection loss, or CPU usage exceeding 60% for more than 10 seconds.
• Combined mode. Combines multiple monitoring metrics into a single menu bar item, saving space. Allows choosing what information is shown in the menu bar and what information appears in the dropdown menu. Each metric retains its individual display settings.
• Visual customization. Adjust colors, fonts, element order, and themes for menus and graphs. Configure which data is visible in the menu bar and which is only in the dropdown menus. Menu bar modes include options like labels and stacked values.

iStat Menus was created by Bjango, a software development company founded by Peter Borg. The first version of iStat Menus was released in 2007. The software is written primarily in Objective-C, using macOS's Cocoa APIs. Throughout its development, the application has undergone numerous major revisions, with iStat Menus 6 being a complete rewrite featuring a redesigned interface. The development of version 6 required several years of work.

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