Kernel_task average CPU?

[alenknight]

What would be the average CPU for this task? I read around about it a bit and got the whole "it's not really a task" shpiel.... I'm running an iMac 27 core i7 with 8gb ram. I run parallels win7 plus Photoshop cs5 light room and iPhoto.... All at the same time often processing in parallel.... The kernel_task goes to around 40% ..... From what I'm seeing in forums I don't need to worry unless it's past 100%.... But want to get other's view....

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi alenknight,
this is my kernel_task display, it usually stays 5% ~ 10%:

 

[sammich]

I think if you're doing things that are a little memory intensive (ie Parallels) then kernel_task will use up that bit more CPU.

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi again,
from this pict. you can see I'm running both Parallels (winXP Pro) + VMware (win7) + Firefox + RealPlayer + Preview:

 

[alenknight]

thanks !

ok, so seems normal... glad to hear...

 

[alenknight]

err... i should correct that...

i restarted my system... and it's been around 2% the whole day... still doing all that stuff....
it was at 40% before that... but i haven't restarted my system in 3 weeks.... i thought macs were supposed to be ok to run for months! my windows machine has been up for 2 months now.... granted... it's only a media server... probably all my fiddling with my mac has caused some stuff to break...

but your screenshots helped to calm me down... after my restart... seems ok...