Dashboard Widgets running all the time?

I found a great widget that shows my cpu usage, ram usage, uptime, number of cyces etc. Isat pro.

My question is do these widgets run only when I hit F12 or click on dashboard. If they run all the time in the background d they use many resources? I'm wondering if I should turn the monitoring ones off when I am gaming.

 

Well, you can see how much memory the widgets are using in Activity Monitor. If you are bothered by the 10MB of RAM used by each widget, then feel free to either shut down the dashboard or remove the widget from the dashboard.
And no, they do not use CPU unless you are viewing the dashboard.

 

Of course, if you really like that sysmon widget, perhaps you would like to have it permanently on your desktop.

 

Inconcievable...good pick tedj

 

They do take up some resources all of the time. In fact, I had to drastically trim the number of widgets I was using because it was getting a little ridiculous. I would not really worry about it until you start noticing a slow down.

 

ok. I found out how much memory they are using and turned off the ones I don't have a use for much. The dictionary widget that does NOT need the internet is one of the best apps ever for a writer! Thank you apple

 

widgets only use cpu/gpu time when dashboard is up. however, they will use some real ram all them time when dashboard has been opened. The catch is, every widget uses insane amounts of virtual memory. this is where they can be performance killers more. I have a stop dashboard widget so that i can get the memory back from them when playing games, and other high cpu uses.