TechX

Archive

Everything published on TechX, newest first, and the complete index of every figure measured. 20 articles across 4 sections, all of it produced on one machine.

The four section pages are the better route if you know what you are looking for: each states what belongs in it and what does not, and lists its own articles with their headline figures. This page exists for the two things a section page cannot show. The first is the whole corpus at once, in publication order, which is the only way to see how the coverage has actually developed rather than how it is organised. The second is the measurement index below, which is the only place every number this site has produced appears together with its run count.

That index is worth more than it might look. A figure on this site is never published alone: it carries the label of what was measured, how many runs it came from, and the spread between those runs where they differed. Collecting them in one table makes it possible to see at a glance which claims rest on a single observation and which rest on repeated measurement, without opening twenty articles to find out. Where a run count is 1, the article describes the figure as an observation rather than a measurement, and that distinction is deliberate.

Every figure here came off the same MacBook Pro with an Apple M4 Pro and 24 GB unified memory, running macOS 26.3.1 (build 25D771280a). One machine is a real constraint and it is the reason this archive is small. It is also the reason the numbers in it can be compared with each other: when a figure changes between two articles, the change is in the software or the method, not in an unlisted difference between test units. The full method and its limitations are on the how we test page.

20 articles
40 measurements indexed
5 Guides
5 Fixes

Published between 22 May 2026 and 3 August 2026. Articles are dated by when the testing was done, not by when the page was last touched; where a figure has been re-tested on a newer OS build, the article carries both stamps.

2026

Every measurement

Each figure with the number of runs behind it. A run count of 1 marks a value that can only be observed once, such as a build number or a cycle count, and those are described as observations rather than measurements in the articles themselves.

Figure What Runs Spread Article
0.52 s Snapshot 3 Build a memory measurement you can actually compare week to week
5.8× Free drift 2 Build a memory measurement you can actually compare week to week
2.58 GB Swap used 2 Build a memory measurement you can actually compare week to week
2.58:1 Compression 2 This 24 GB Mac is holding 17 GB of data in 6.6 GB of RAM
10.44 GiB RAM recovered 2 This 24 GB Mac is holding 17 GB of data in 6.6 GB of RAM
2.58 GB Swap in use 2 This 24 GB Mac is holding 17 GB of data in 6.6 GB of RAM
876 MB Unused 2 This 24 GB Mac is holding 17 GB of data in 6.6 GB of RAM
124 GNU exit code 1 command not found: timeout
3.02× QoS penalty 6 The same code ran 3x slower because macOS put it on the wrong cores
0.865 s Default QoS 3 ±0.005 s The same code ran 3x slower because macOS put it on the wrong cores
2.61 s Background QoS 3 ±0.23 s The same code ran 3x slower because macOS put it on the wrong cores
L2 asymmetry 1 The 14 cores in an M4 Pro are not 14 of the same thing
3 Clusters 1 The 14 cores in an M4 Pro are not 14 of the same thing
14 Hardware threads 1 The 14 cores in an M4 Pro are not 14 of the same thing
2 Shell words 1 sed: unescaped newline inside substitute pattern
0.29 s Profile time 3 Read your Mac's full hardware profile in 0.29 seconds
2 Core types 1 Read your Mac's full hardware profile in 0.29 seconds
0.00 s Clone time 3 APFS copied a 2 GiB file in under 10 ms and used no disk space
1.05 s Copy time 1 APFS copied a 2 GiB file in under 10 ms and used no disk space
0 MiB Clone cost 3 APFS copied a 2 GiB file in under 10 ms and used no disk space
2047 MiB Copy cost 1 APFS copied a 2 GiB file in under 10 ms and used no disk space
17 backupd code 2 tmutil: No destinations configured, and backupd error 17
0 Destinations 2 tmutil: No destinations configured, and backupd error 17
30.60 ms Idle latency 3 ±0.19 ms My connection idles at 30 ms and collapses to 662 ms under load
640 ms Loaded uplink 3 ±38 ms My connection idles at 30 ms and collapses to 662 ms under load
21× Collapse 3 My connection idles at 30 ms and collapses to 662 ms under load
40.70 Mbps Downlink 3 ±1.03 Mbps My connection idles at 30 ms and collapses to 662 ms under load
35.93 s Full audit 3 ±0.40 s Find where your disk space went, without installing a cleaner app
0.17 s Volume check 1 Find where your disk space went, without installing a cleaner app
350 GB Home folder 3 Find where your disk space went, without installing a cleaner app
0 Unprivileged flags 1 powermetrics must be invoked as the superuser
52 TCC rows read 1 Full Disk Access does not make you root, and the difference is measurable
0710 Spotlight mode 1 Full Disk Access does not make you root, and the difference is measurable
91.49% Raw gauge 3 macOS says my battery is at 94%. The gauge inside it says 91.49%.
94% Settings shows 3 macOS says my battery is at 94%. The gauge inside it says 91.49%.
2.43 pt The gap 3 macOS says my battery is at 94%. The gauge inside it says 91.49%.
190 Cycles 1 macOS says my battery is at 94%. The gauge inside it says 91.49%.
30.60 ms Idle latency 3 ±0.19 ms Measure your connection properly with a tool already on your Mac
213 ms Loaded spread 3 Measure your connection properly with a tool already on your Mac
40.70 Mbps Downlink 3 ±1.03 Mbps Measure your connection properly with a tool already on your Mac