M1 is struggling with no app running??

[I WAS the one]

Ok, what is going on? This chip is acting crazy lately.

 

[DeltaMac]

You will see other information in your Activity Monitor app, but the small number of processes showing in your screen shot are reporting activity around spotlight (variations on mds, or mdworker, etc). So, your Mac at that time is doing some processing involving the spotlight/search database.

 

[TiggrToo]

Ok, what is going on? This chip is acting crazy lately.

Do you have any newly attached External drives? Looks like your Spotlight is trying to reminded a lot of stuff.

Check the Spotlight app in your System app to see if it’s attempting to index folders that are otherwise high activity.

 

[rmgbenschop]

Is this constantly or on a specific time like cold boot?

I have the same "issue" on my M1 Mac but only after cold boot. The processes mds and mdworker uses the two efficiency cores for the full 100% for a couple of minutes and then it stops.
I have accepted this as it does not affect the performance and batterytime of my Mac.

 

[I WAS the one]

Do you have any newly attached External drives? Looks like your Spotlight is trying to reminded a lot of stuff.

Check the Spotlight app in your System app to see if it’s attempting to index folders that are otherwise high activity.

Now that you mentioned it, I add one ssd of 1TB to use Time Machine. Do you think Time machine is bad for a Mac M1?