Software and Computer Systems Company, LLC

Performance Probe Header
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Version 2.2


Now Compatible with macOS 10.12, Sierra

Making performance monitoring easy for Mac systems.

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Finding performance problems and bottlenecks on a Mac system no longer needs to be a complicated task. Performance Probe makes it easy.



What is Performance Probe for Mac OS X?


Are you running out of memory when you use your system? Is there an application that's using too much CPU power? Is an application bottlenecking your I/O, slowing everything down? Is there an application that's accessing memory so often nothing else has a chance to run quickly? How can you find out?
 
One way to find out is by using Activity Monitor, which is included in the OS. We have a write up on it in our How-To section. The problem with Activity Monitor, which is a great tool, is that it needs almost a full screen to use, and load monitoring can be difficult.This is where Performance Probe comes in.
 
The new version of Performance Probe not only provides dynamically updated parameters such as memory, drive space, and VM parameters, its new heads up display, or HUD, can be used to get a quick snapshot of the top CPU and memory consumers, provide configurable load monitoring, and graphically depict drive I/O  and network loading.
 
Read the text underneath the screen captures below to see what Performance Probe is capable of!



Performance Probe
        showing memory consumption


Performance Probe has two components, the basic interface, shown on the left, and the HUD shown on the right. The HUD is translucent and can be configured to remain visible at all times or come up only when the user clicks on Performance Probe to make it the foreground application. The HUD display can continue monitoring data even when hidden, allowing the user to make it visible on demand when they want to know what's going on with their system. The HUD can get quick snapshots of memory and CPU usage, and constantly monitor system, drive, and network loading.



Basic monitoring
          with Performance Probe
The basic user interface is reasonably small, being 389 by 267 pixels. The HUD is brought up by clicking on the "Advanced Monitoring" button in the lower right corner. The rest of the information on the basic user interface can give you an overview of how heavily loaded the system is. The three bar indicators indicate how heavily the system is being hit by applications.



CPU Monitoring with
          Performance Probe

The HUD display is a tabbed display. The CPU Usage option, shown above, shows a quick snapshot of applications currently using the system by CPU power in descending order. It deliberately excludes applications that aren't active allowing you to focus on what's really consuming CPU power.



Memory Monitoring with
        Performance Probe


The Memory Usage option shown above, shows a quick snapshot of the top memory consumers using the system. You can manually update it by clicking on the "Update" button in the lower left corner.



Load testing with
        Performance Probe


The Load Monitoring option, will, once started, start monitoring and averaging load. Instead of seeing lots of processes jumping around, making it difficult to tell exactly which process is responsible for problems, this will narrow it down for you. It's fully configurable, and will remain running even if the HUD is hidden!



Displaying net drive
        activity with Performance Probe


The Drive I/O option, will, once started, start monitoring the peak or summed amounts of drive activity going on with your system. Once monitoring is enabled, you can change the graphing ranges, update frequencies, and the type of graph to display as you see fit. Monitoring will continue even if the HUD display is hidden and will expose updated information when brought to the foreground.




Network monitoring
        with Performance Probe

The Network I/O option, will, once started, start monitoring the input, output, and summed amounts of network activity. Once monitoring is enabled, you can change the graphing ranges, update frequencies, and show any or all of the I/O activity as you see fit. In the shot above, we're showing all three graphs active. As with both load monitoring and drive I/O, network monitoring will continue even if the HUD display is hidden, and will expose updated data when brought to the foreground.



An Active Icon Makes Monitoring Easy and Frees up Desktop Space


Performance Probe uses an active icon. If you minimize (iconize) the application while it’s active, the application will update the dock icon to give you a general idea of how the system is being loaded. If the system gets “hot” and starts showing too much activity, just click on the icon in the dock and view Performance Probe as well as the HUD display as needed.


Performance Probe
        Active Icons



System Requirements


Performance Probe supports MacOS® versions 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7(Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion),  10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.11 (El Capitan), and 10.12 (Sierra) on Intel platforms. Supported Intel based systems include all variants of the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac Mini.
 
Drive I/O measurements are limited to a total of 16 connected drives.
 
Performance Probe requires administrative access.


Purchasing Performance Probe


To purchase Performance Probe click on the Buy Performance Probe button below. Performance Probe can be purchased as a standalone product or bundled with Scannerz with FSE or Scannerz with FSE-Lite.
 
Prices:
          $14.95 For the Performance Probe Standalone package

          $34.95 For Scannerz with Performance Probe, Phoenix and FSE-Lite

          $44.95 For a Scannerz with Performance Probe, Phoenix and FSE combined bundle (save $9.95)







Buy Performance Probe















Mac Universal Binary Icon

Scannerz, Scannerz Lite, FSE, FSE-Lite, Performance Probe 2, Phoenix, SpotOff, and Spot-O-Meter are Mac OS X universal binaries and support both 32 and 64 bit Intel based systems using Mac OS X versions 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite),  10.11 (El Capitan), and 10.12 (Sierra). Supported Intel based systems include all variants of the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac Mini.