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Best Prices Today: TG Pro
Apple includes a variety of hidden thermometers with its Macs, and a tachometer for models with one or more fans. In normal use, you never give a second thought to how hot your performance cores get or how fast the fan runs. But we live in times of extreme temperatures, and some Macs, especially Intel models, are already getting very hot.
TG Pro provides low-level information that Apple monitors and allows you to set alerts in case values exceed what is considered safe for long-term performance. You may want the fan or fans to start earlier or faster than Apple’s default behavior, or cool down your Mac to keep it long lasting.
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You can view the current information with a long drop down system menu which you can adjust to reduce the number of entries you are less interested in. This menu bar item provides a summary that you can configure to show the highest or average temperature across all sensors, among other options. . You can also open a single application window to view a graphical display of regularly updated temperature information.
This list of temperatures includes parts of the CPU, GPU, and PSU. They are mostly on the same chip as M1 or M2, or split into several for older Intel systems. The “Check hard disk temperature using SMART” checkbox in TG Pro > Settings > Temperatures can retrieve data from external drives. I use an external SSD as a boot volume and it’s useful to know its temperature in case it starts to overheat.
You can set alerts to appear as macOS notifications (on applicable macOS versions) and further configure outgoing mail settings so that TG Pro sends you alerts by email.
The Fan section in the TG Pro settings allows you to set rules for running the fan. For example, you might want a fan to run at maximum whenever the highest temperature of any sensor reading CPU values exceeds a certain temperature. Fan control requires the installation of an auxiliary application, the status of which is displayed by TG Pro in the fan settings.
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For Intel Macs with T2 Security Chip and all M1 and M2 Macs, TG Pro cannot increase fan power without full control. Thus, the company blocks all overrides of the fan running at maximum. You can unlock this setting and select a specific fan speed. If you do this, you take the operating system’s responsibility for choosing all other situations in which to run the fan or not. It’s an interesting set of options that Tunabelly Software goes into detail about if you need to know.
TG Pro costs $20 for a one-time license fee that covers three Macs for personal use or one for business. This fee also covers all future upgrades to version 2, first released in 2014. TG Pro works with macOS 10.12 Sierra or later.
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If preventing fever on your Mac and using fan speed to help is part of your plan to keep your computer running, install TG Pro for peace of mind and more control.
Apple has dozens of thermometers and fan tachometers that TG Pro provides for monitoring and alerts.
With the Mac renaissance in recent years, we want to highlight the tools we use and which readers recommend to get the most out of macOS. Mac Gems highlights great nuggets of Mac software, applications that are highly useful, pay close attention to a limited set of problems that need to be solved, and are usually developed by an individual or a small company. Stay tuned for weekly updates and submit your suggestions to the Mac Gems Twitter feed (@mcgems).