How to find out the processor model on Mac and Macbooks?

Question

the "About This Mac" won't show, and the "More Info..." won't show...

this thread talks about system_profiler but it is not on this macbook with Snow Leopard:

http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=43422

can it be found out?

Answer 1

System Profiler.app is located in /Applications/Utilities/. You can get there by pressing Cmd-Shift-U in Finder.

If it's not there, someone with administrator access to your machine messed up your system. Reinstall Mac OS X (or try to use Pacifist to restore System Profiler.app from your Mac OS X DVD).

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system_profiler is the command-line equivalent (or System Profiler.app might be the GUI application to this CLI program). You need to enter system_profiler at a command prompt in Terminal.app. If you're only interested in your CPU and model, enter

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

Output looks something like this:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
  Processor Name: Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed: 2,66 GHz
  Number Of Processors: 1
  Total Number Of Cores: 2
  L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
  L3 Cache: 4 MB
  Memory: 4 GB
  Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
  Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B0C
  SMC Version (system): 1.58f16
  Serial Number (system): W80253LDAGZ
  Hardware UUID: 598781DD-929A-1337-F00D-EF19A1B625F8
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
      State: Enabled

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An alternative to using the System Profiler is Mactracker, an application containing a database of all Mac models made so far. If you know your model (e.g. "Macbook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)" and your order number (e.g. "MC373LL/A") you can find out your processor (M 620 with 2.66GHz for the example).

Answer 2

You can find the full model number with the following command:

sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string

This will return something like:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2760QM CPU @ 2.40GHz

(found here: http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/15/get-cpu-info-via-command-line-in-mac-os-x/)

Answer 3

I didn't find any way to check it with software, but on this site: http://www.everymac.com you can find more details than system profiler provides (including cpu model)

Answer 4

Adding to @AlexT's answer,

open http://www.google.com/?q=$(sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string | awk '{FS=" " ; print $2 "+" $3 "+" $4}')+site:ark.intel.com