I execute
sysctl machdep.xcpm.cpu_thermal_level
on the terminal and get a value. It is not the temperature. I would like to know what does it mean.
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1Related answer (and comments) apple.stackexchange.com/a/195937/9058. Also apple.stackexchange.com/questions/251279/…, but no answer there.– nohillside ♦Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 6:49
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3 Answers
If I had to guess, I'd say it's the amount of throttling that is slowing down your CPU to prevent it overheating under high load. See the table below - it only rises about 0 when the temp and load increase:
I use this command:
sudo powermetrics --samplers smc | perl -ne 'chomp; print "$_ " if(/:/); print "\n" if(/prochots/)'
so you can see how things change over time in a nice table - .eg.
Machine model: MacBookPro13,3 SMC version: 2.38f7 EFI version: 428.0.0 OS version: 17G14033 Boot arguments: Boot time: Fri Nov 6 07:25:45 2020 *** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:26:45 2020 +1000) (5006.45ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 68 GPU Thermal level: 26 IO Thermal level: 26 Fan: 3859 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.18 C GPU die temperature: 50.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:26:50 2020 +1000) (5004.48ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 68 GPU Thermal level: 26 IO Thermal level: 26 Fan: 3824 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.21 C GPU die temperature: 50.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:26:55 2020 +1000) (5002.27ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 26 IO Thermal level: 26 Fan: 3779 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.31 C GPU die temperature: 50.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:00 2020 +1000) (5003.69ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 25 IO Thermal level: 25 Fan: 3778 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.24 C GPU die temperature: 50.44 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:05 2020 +1000) (5002.30ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 25 IO Thermal level: 25 Fan: 3749 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.22 C GPU die temperature: 50.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
[snip]
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:15 2020 +1000) (5003.86ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 24 IO Thermal level: 24 Fan: 3708 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.25 C GPU die temperature: 50.69 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:20 2020 +1000) (5003.40ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 24 IO Thermal level: 24 Fan: 3666 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.42 C GPU die temperature: 51.12 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:25 2020 +1000) (5004.57ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 24 IO Thermal level: 24 Fan: 3652 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.58 C GPU die temperature: 50.81 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:30 2020 +1000) (5004.42ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 23 IO Thermal level: 23 Fan: 3625 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.56 C GPU die temperature: 50.62 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:35 2020 +1000) (5004.54ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 23 IO Thermal level: 23 Fan: 3611 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.55 C GPU die temperature: 50.88 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:40 2020 +1000) (5004.30ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 23 IO Thermal level: 23 Fan: 3570 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.55 C GPU die temperature: 50.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:45 2020 +1000) (5004.38ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 22 IO Thermal level: 22 Fan: 3558 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.59 C GPU die temperature: 51.19 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:50 2020 +1000) (5004.17ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 22 IO Thermal level: 22 Fan: 3536 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.73 C GPU die temperature: 51.44 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:27:55 2020 +1000) (5003.72ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 22 IO Thermal level: 22 Fan: 3520 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.45 C GPU die temperature: 51.69 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:28:00 2020 +1000) (5003.53ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 67 GPU Thermal level: 22 IO Thermal level: 22 Fan: 3503 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.65 C GPU die temperature: 51.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:28:05 2020 +1000) (5002.30ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 68 GPU Thermal level: 21 IO Thermal level: 21 Fan: 3500 rpm CPU die temperature: 52.40 C GPU die temperature: 52.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:28:10 2020 +1000) (5005.55ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 69 GPU Thermal level: 21 IO Thermal level: 21 Fan: 3482 rpm CPU die temperature: 52.45 C GPU die temperature: 51.62 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
[machine put to sleep]
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:37:56 2020 +1000) (8494.42ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 0 rpm CPU die temperature: -127.00 C GPU die temperature: 36.12 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:01 2020 +1000) (5010.59ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 139 GPU Thermal level: 37 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 0 rpm CPU die temperature: 36.59 C GPU die temperature: 39.12 C CPU Plimit: 21.85 GPU Plimit: 11.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:06 2020 +1000) (5002.27ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 102 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 0 rpm CPU die temperature: 36.80 C GPU die temperature: 40.25 C CPU Plimit: 1.15 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:11 2020 +1000) (5004.88ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1108 rpm CPU die temperature: 37.42 C GPU die temperature: 40.75 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:16 2020 +1000) (5004.08ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2002 rpm CPU die temperature: 37.71 C GPU die temperature: 41.19 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:21 2020 +1000) (5004.22ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2002 rpm CPU die temperature: 40.90 C GPU die temperature: 41.62 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:26 2020 +1000) (5004.24ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2002 rpm CPU die temperature: 40.90 C GPU die temperature: 42.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:31 2020 +1000) (5005.88ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 42.08 C GPU die temperature: 42.62 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:36 2020 +1000) (5004.54ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1994 rpm CPU die temperature: 42.41 C GPU die temperature: 43.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:41 2020 +1000) (5005.49ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2004 rpm CPU die temperature: 42.59 C GPU die temperature: 43.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:46 2020 +1000) (5005.43ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2004 rpm CPU die temperature: 43.45 C GPU die temperature: 44.12 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:51 2020 +1000) (5004.69ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1994 rpm CPU die temperature: 43.55 C GPU die temperature: 44.19 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 08:38:56 2020 +1000) (5003.70ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1996 rpm CPU die temperature: 43.67 C GPU die temperature: 44.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:20 2020 +1000) (7062.97ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 0 rpm CPU die temperature: -127.00 C GPU die temperature: 32.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:25 2020 +1000) (5012.81ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 0 rpm CPU die temperature: 46.99 C GPU die temperature: 37.62 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:30 2020 +1000) (5001.55ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2012 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.02 C GPU die temperature: 42.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:35 2020 +1000) (5002.29ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1995 rpm CPU die temperature: 49.77 C GPU die temperature: 42.81 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:40 2020 +1000) (5003.18ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2010 rpm CPU die temperature: 49.15 C GPU die temperature: 43.69 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:45 2020 +1000) (5003.16ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1999 rpm CPU die temperature: 48.98 C GPU die temperature: 45.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:50 2020 +1000) (5002.97ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 49.20 C GPU die temperature: 46.19 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:07:55 2020 +1000) (5001.68ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 49.99 C GPU die temperature: 47.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:00 2020 +1000) (5003.87ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 49.90 C GPU die temperature: 47.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:05 2020 +1000) (5003.60ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.89 C GPU die temperature: 48.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:10 2020 +1000) (5003.10ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.74 C GPU die temperature: 48.88 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:15 2020 +1000) (5003.57ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2003 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.30 C GPU die temperature: 48.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:20 2020 +1000) (5003.56ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 51.17 C GPU die temperature: 48.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:25 2020 +1000) (5004.55ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2004 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.74 C GPU die temperature: 48.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:30 2020 +1000) (5003.58ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1996 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.54 C GPU die temperature: 48.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:35 2020 +1000) (5003.09ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1996 rpm CPU die temperature: 50.41 C GPU die temperature: 48.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:40 2020 +1000) (5004.64ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2003 rpm CPU die temperature: 55.09 C GPU die temperature: 49.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:45 2020 +1000) (5002.16ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1997 rpm CPU die temperature: 65.11 C GPU die temperature: 54.19 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:50 2020 +1000) (5002.50ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1997 rpm CPU die temperature: 65.80 C GPU die temperature: 57.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:08:55 2020 +1000) (5002.94ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1997 rpm CPU die temperature: 67.19 C GPU die temperature: 61.06 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:00 2020 +1000) (5002.48ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1999 rpm CPU die temperature: 69.30 C GPU die temperature: 62.44 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:05 2020 +1000) (5002.78ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 70.67 C GPU die temperature: 64.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:10 2020 +1000) (5001.97ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 72.59 C GPU die temperature: 66.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:15 2020 +1000) (5002.59ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 72.23 C GPU die temperature: 67.38 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:20 2020 +1000) (5003.38ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2002 rpm CPU die temperature: 72.20 C GPU die temperature: 68.81 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:25 2020 +1000) (5003.35ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2004 rpm CPU die temperature: 72.11 C GPU die temperature: 69.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:30 2020 +1000) (5002.05ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2004 rpm CPU die temperature: 74.95 C GPU die temperature: 70.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:35 2020 +1000) (5003.78ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2003 rpm CPU die temperature: 74.37 C GPU die temperature: 69.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:40 2020 +1000) (5003.31ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1997 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.85 C GPU die temperature: 68.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:45 2020 +1000) (5002.98ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 0 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1998 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.87 C GPU die temperature: 69.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:50 2020 +1000) (5004.02ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 4 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1998 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.93 C GPU die temperature: 69.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:09:55 2020 +1000) (5003.15ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 11 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2008 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.68 C GPU die temperature: 70.06 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:00 2020 +1000) (5003.61ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 17 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2000 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.51 C GPU die temperature: 70.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:05 2020 +1000) (5002.94ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 23 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 76.65 C GPU die temperature: 70.06 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:10 2020 +1000) (5002.42ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 29 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2001 rpm CPU die temperature: 79.76 C GPU die temperature: 70.88 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:15 2020 +1000) (5003.61ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 35 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1994 rpm CPU die temperature: 80.19 C GPU die temperature: 70.06 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:20 2020 +1000) (5004.77ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 40 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2005 rpm CPU die temperature: 78.58 C GPU die temperature: 68.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:25 2020 +1000) (5004.65ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 44 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 1995 rpm CPU die temperature: 77.33 C GPU die temperature: 67.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:30 2020 +1000) (5004.56ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 47 GPU Thermal level: 0 IO Thermal level: 0 Fan: 2008 rpm CPU die temperature: 76.27 C GPU die temperature: 67.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:35 2020 +1000) (5003.22ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 51 GPU Thermal level: 1 IO Thermal level: 1 Fan: 2020 rpm CPU die temperature: 75.31 C GPU die temperature: 66.06 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:40 2020 +1000) (5002.43ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 52 GPU Thermal level: 2 IO Thermal level: 2 Fan: 2135 rpm CPU die temperature: 74.60 C GPU die temperature: 66.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:45 2020 +1000) (5003.36ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 54 GPU Thermal level: 4 IO Thermal level: 4 Fan: 2228 rpm CPU die temperature: 73.31 C GPU die temperature: 65.00 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:50 2020 +1000) (5004.67ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 55 GPU Thermal level: 5 IO Thermal level: 5 Fan: 2325 rpm CPU die temperature: 72.19 C GPU die temperature: 64.12 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:10:55 2020 +1000) (5003.39ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 56 GPU Thermal level: 6 IO Thermal level: 6 Fan: 2395 rpm CPU die temperature: 71.10 C GPU die temperature: 63.25 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:11:00 2020 +1000) (5003.39ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 57 GPU Thermal level: 7 IO Thermal level: 7 Fan: 2483 rpm CPU die temperature: 70.56 C GPU die temperature: 63.81 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:11:05 2020 +1000) (5004.68ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 58 GPU Thermal level: 8 IO Thermal level: 8 Fan: 2545 rpm CPU die temperature: 69.61 C GPU die temperature: 63.50 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:11:10 2020 +1000) (5003.87ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 59 GPU Thermal level: 9 IO Thermal level: 9 Fan: 2613 rpm CPU die temperature: 69.06 C GPU die temperature: 62.94 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:11:15 2020 +1000) (5003.25ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 60 GPU Thermal level: 10 IO Thermal level: 10 Fan: 2664 rpm CPU die temperature: 68.42 C GPU die temperature: 62.56 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
*** Sampled system activity (Fri Nov 6 09:11:20 2020 +1000) (5004.15ms elapsed) *** CPU Thermal level: 60 GPU Thermal level: 10 IO Thermal level: 10 Fan: 2724 rpm CPU die temperature: 67.69 C GPU die temperature: 62.12 C CPU Plimit: 0.00 GPU Plimit: 0.00 Number of prochots: 0
To add to the other answer, which I think is correct, I can say that the "xcpm" part stands for "XNU CPU Power Management". XNU is Apple's operating system kernel.
So definitely the value has something do with the CPU power management - which basically means throttling.
answered Nov 6, 2020 at 0:31
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If it shows 88, does it mean it's throttling or not? They definitely should've showing Celsius omg Commented Oct 11, 2021 at 9:21
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No, they should not have shown celcius. The value here is not a temperature, so it doesn't make any sense to use celcius. You can read out temperatures in other ways if you're interested in the actual temperature. Commented Oct 11, 2021 at 11:12
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There's
powermetricsbut it requires sudo to be run, which meh... Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 1:58 -
Why is it a bad thing that it requires sudo? If you want, you can easily change the program to not require sudo as such, if it is just the practical part of entering your password that you dislike. Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 6:15
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on my macbookpro 2019, i have set machdep.xcpm.cpu_thermal_level: 100 machdep.xcpm.gpu_thermal_level: 50. What does it mean? Commented Oct 14, 2021 at 10:05
I don't think cnd is right (perhaps the definition has changed). On my 2019 16" MBP the thermal level can go very high without CPU throttling:
$ sudo powermetrics --samplers smc
...
**** SMC sensors ****
CPU Thermal level: 91
GPU Thermal level: 41
IO Thermal level: 41
Fan: 4627.61 rpm
CPU die temperature: 69.19 C
GPU die temperature: 67.00 C
CPU Plimit: 0.00
GPU Plimit (Int): 0.00
Number of prochots: 0
$ pmset -g thermlog
Note: No thermal warning level has been recorded
Note: No performance warning level has been recorded
2022-07-25 09:50:04 +0100 CPU Power notify
CPU_Scheduler_Limit = 100
CPU_Available_CPUs = 16
CPU_Speed_Limit = 100
I had a brief search around the web and it seems like nobody knows but based on this comment I would guess it is essentially a measure of how much heat the OS estimates that your CPU/GPU is generating. That's not the same as how hot it is.
/* Thermal Level Warning Key
* Indicates the thermal constraints placed on the system. This value may
* cause clients to action to consume fewer system resources.
That said, mine is 90 and it's almost idle so maybe it's not that. I guess an easy way to check is to make a plot of temperature, CPU usage and "CPU Thermal level" and then run a benchmark or whatever. See if the "CPU Thermal load" comes down quicker than the temperature.
