How to check a Chromebook’s specs, CPU usage, and more

Unless you’re a frequent ChromeOS user, determining the specs of a Chromebook in the hand can be difficult. Many Chromebook users are content to just use the computers for web browsing, so don’t often need to check things like processor model or memory usage. As a result, this information can appear somewhat buried.

But sometimes you want to know how much RAM a Chromebook is using, what CPU it has, and if it’s maxing out its cores, or how much memory is left. Whether you’re troubleshooting a slower Chromebook, teaching someone about their ChromeOS device, wondering if a Chromebook might support Steam, or just want to get to know a Chromebook better, here are the easiest ways to look at a Chromebook’s basic hardware specs .

How to Check Chromebook CPU Usage

When a Chromebook is running slowly, it can be helpful to check CPU usage to see how hard the processor is working and which apps are using it the most.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to go to the Diagnostics page in Settings. You can easily find it by typing “diagnostics” in the ChromeOS search bar and opening the settings pane that appears. There you will see a live graph showing the CPU usage as well as the temperature and the current speed.

You can also check CPU usage by going to ChromeOS Task Manager. To access Task Manager, press Search + Esc.

If you forgot this keyboard shortcut, you can also get to Task Manager from Google Chrome by clicking the three dots in the top right corner and then going to More Tools -> Task Manager.

Task Manager has a large amount of device information, including CPU usage, memory and network information.

How to enable Hyper-Threading in a Chromebook

Not all Chromebooks come with a Hyper-Threading-capable Intel CPU, but even if yours does, there’s a good chance the feature is disabled by default. Google began disabling Intel Hyper-Threading on Chromebooks by default in 2019 over concerns about microarchitectural data sampling (MDS) vulnerabilities. “When Chrome processes are attacked, this sensitive data can include website content as well as passwords, credit card numbers or cookies. The vulnerabilities can also be exploited to read host memory from a virtual machine or to read an Android app’s privileged process memory (e.g. Keymaster),” a Google Chromium page Conditions. By May 2019, Google stated that it was not aware of any active MDS exploits. The full description of the security risk from Google can be found here here.

If you’ve determined it’s worth the risk involved (and if the Chromebook is a work machine, within your IT department’s guidelines), you can enable Hyper-Threading on a Chromebook’s supported Intel processor as follows:

First, make sure you’re running Chrome OS 74 or later.

Next, type “chrome://flags#scheduler-configuration” into the Chromebook’s Chrome browser and press Enter.

A window will appear with “Scheduler Configurator” at the top. There you can enable or disable Hyper-Threading or restore the default settings.

After changing the setting, you must restart the Chromebook for it to take effect.

Google’s Chromium page also states that IT executives can set an organization’s hyper-threading policy using the company’s SchedulerConfiguration policy.

How to enable GPU rasterization on a Chromebook

Your Chromebook’s CPU likely has GPU rasterization disabled, which shifts some of the computer’s workload from the CPU to the GPU to free up CPU resources. According to PC reviews and news site Laptop, Google does this to extend battery life.

If you’d rather risk shorter battery life for GPU rasterization, type “chrome://flags” into the Chromebook’s Chrome browser and press Enter.

On the page that appears, search for “GPU screening” (you can search in the bar at the top of the page).

There you can toggle GPU rasterization on and off, or reset the feature to default settings.

What CPU does my Chromebook have?

If you’re troubleshooting a ChromeOS device for a non-tech savvy family member or friend and ask them about the device’s processor, chances are you’ll get a blank stare.

There are two options we like to use to check a Chromebook’s CPU. One of the easiest ways to do this is by going to the Diagnostics page in Settings, which we’ve already discussed. Again, the quickest way to get to the diagnostics page is to type “diagnostics” in the ChromeOS search bar and open the settings pane that appears.

Alternatively, you can go to Settings -> About ChromeOS -> Diagnostics. You’ll then get a page with the Chromebook’s processor information, including the CPU model name and thread count.

Another way to get a Chromebook’s CPU name is to type “chrome://system” in the Chrome browser’s address bar and then press Enter. You will see a page that looks like this:

Scroll down alphabetically until you find cpuinfo. From there, click the “Expand…” button. After that, you can see the Chromebook’s processor name and other information like cache size.

How to Check Chromebook RAM Usage

You can also check the current memory usage by going to Task Manager. Again, the quickest way to bring this up is to press Search + Esc. You can use the task manager to view the memory usage of each process, and there are options to view the information of other components, such as: B. GPU memory.

Because of their browser-based nature, it’s easy for tabs to stack up on Chromebooks. If you’re troubleshooting a Chromebook tab hoarder, or are one yourself, you might consider a browser extension that manages Chrome tabs to save storage space, such as Chromebook tab hoarders one tab, Recommended by Laptop, locks unused browser tabs and provides a list of blocked sites for easy retrieval. There are also The big braces, which we see recommended by Ars readers and can automatically suspend tabs after a set time. Of course, make sure you review apps thoroughly before installing them on a computer.

How much RAM does my Chromebook have?

Our favorite way to check a Chromebook’s total RAM (and how much is left) is to visit the diagnostics page. The quickest way to do this is to type “diagnostics” into ChromeOS’s search bar, and then click “Diagnostics” on the page that appears. There below you will see RAM information.

What kind of storage does my Chromebook have?

As with any laptop, Chromebook storage varies, and options ranging from a PCIe 4.0 SSD to eMMC storage are common in modern Chromebooks.

If you want to get to know Chromebook storage a little more personally, we recommend going to the About System page. To get back to About System, just type “chrome://system/” in Chrome’s address bar and press Enter.

After the page loads, scroll down to “storage_info” and click “Expand…”.

Here you can find more storage details such as storage model name and maximum capacity.

How much storage space does my Chromebook have?

While some Chromebook users may rely primarily on Google Cloud for their files, there are good reasons to store documents, photos, and other data on the device, and you may also want storage information before downloading the next app.

Storage space is one of the easiest pieces of information to find on a Chromebook, but in case you’re having trouble, here’s the easiest way to find out how much storage space a Chromebook in question has.

Click the Chromebook’s search button to bring up the ChromeOS search bar, then type “storage.” An option called “Storage Management” will appear. Click on it.

Alternatively, you can go to Settings -> Device -> Storage Management.

Once you’re in the Storage Management section of ChromeOS Settings, you’ll see how much storage space the Chromebook is using and how much is left. This page also breaks down storage usage by type.

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