# plottypus self-cost measurements (perf-smoke, M5 Pro, macOS 27)

Canonical: https://plottypus.com/data/plottypus-self-cost

Last updated: 2026-09-24

[data](https://plottypus.com/data) · CC BY 4.0 · v1.0

CPU, energy, redraws, wakeups and memory of plottypus, btop 1.4.7 and macmon 0.8.2 at 160x45, medians of three 20 s runs, with the load on the machine for each set.

about

## What this is

What plottypus costs to leave open in a terminal, and what btop 1.4.7 and macmon 0.8.2 cost on the same machine, measured with perf-smoke: each tool runs under a pseudo-terminal at 160x45 with a fresh config, a 5 s warm-up and a 20 s window, three times, and the median of each metric is reported with its range. Metrics include CPU as a percentage of one core, the kernel's per-task energy estimate in watts, draws and idle draws per second, wakeups, syscalls, context switches, RSS, memory footprint, first frame and snapshot period. Machine: MacBook Pro Mac17,8 (Apple M5 Pro), macOS 27.0, AC power. Each row carries the 1-minute load average and a load class: "light" rows (load 1.2 to 3.8 on 18 CPUs, other builds running) come from the documented runs of 2026-09-23; "saturated" rows (load 56 to 143) are a re-run of the shipped 1.0.0 binary and the two competitors on 2026-09-24. The figures the site prints (about 1.5% of one core at 500 ms, about 1.0% at 1 s, about 0.007 W) are the light-load "perf-pass" rows.

Captured 2026-09-23 to 2026-09-24. Method: perf-smoke: pty at 160x45, 5 s warm-up, 20 s window, median of 3 runs; proc\_pid\_rusage RUSAGE\_INFO\_V6 (CPU time, ri\_energy\_nj, wakeups, footprint); Synchronized-update markers (ESC[?2026h) counted as draws. Full notes: [README.md](https://plottypus.com/data/plottypus-self-cost/README.md).

Used by: [/](https://plottypus.com/).

files

## Files

| File | Rows | Size | SHA-256 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [self-cost.csv](https://plottypus.com/data/plottypus-self-cost/self-cost.csv) One row per set, tool, interval, condition and metric: median and range. | 240 | 54.5 KB | `f91a2e65c67586cc71e5eefd4eab260353bbf329d06bf3910559ebd14bf6ad62` |

columns

## Variables

- **`cpu_pct` (% of one core)**: User plus system CPU time over the window.
- **`energy_w` (W)**: Kernel per-task energy estimate (ri\_energy\_nj) over wall time.
- **`idle_draws_per_s` (per second)**: Frames that changed nothing on screen.
- **`wakeups_per_s` (per second)**: Interrupt wakeups of the process.
- **`rss_mb` (MB)**: Resident memory at the end of the window.

licence

## Cite and reuse

Licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse it anywhere, with credit.

```
Sheth, L. (2026). plottypus self-cost measurements (perf-smoke, M5 Pro, macOS 27) (Version 1.0) [Data set]. plottypus.com. https://plottypus.com/data/plottypus-self-cost
```