iTunes CPU load when idle
 

I believe that most of the CPU time taken by iTunes when it is "idle" is taken up in drawing the song status in the grey oval at the top. Note that there is very little CPU used if you click on a Playlist but don't start to play any songs. It is only after playing a song and then pausing it that there is significant "idle" CPU load. So if you are really that concerned about the (on my system) 3% CPU load from an "idle" iTunes, just click on a playlist after pausing playback.

Jacques, I assume you were joking about iTunes slowing things down since I don't think you will normally notice a 20% decrease in available CPU. (iTunes playing a song without visualizer takes up less than 20%) Sure if you stare at the CPU load numbers, you will see it, but not otherwise.

hayne,

ok. i launched iTunes and then did nothing. at the top of the iTunes window is nothing but the Apple logo - no scrolling text for song status.

in Top, i show iTunes processor usage oscilating between 0.6% and 1.8%.

(if i do pause a song, iTunes processor usage is much, much higher.)

this may seem insignificant, but i like to launch all the apps i'll be using after login and leave them running. if many of my apps averaged 1.2% CPU usage while doing nothing, i'd start having a slow machine.

(the other Apple apps, and many other well behaved apps, use 0.0% of CPU when doing nothing.)

Actually, hayne..

iTunes greediness hurts my system quite a bit. If I'm using iTunes to listen to MP3s in any fashion whatsoever - this old Bondi original iMac definitely gets hit and begins to mud the rest of my performance.

Whamb is much better at letting my computer go free, however it lacks in neary every other area really - so I don't really use it much.

On most systems (especially G4s and above) it may not even be noticable..

Jacques