# Controling Your Virtual Machine's CPU & Memory Usage

While working with a virtual machine, you may need to check how much memory and CPU time of your Mac it is currently using. If the virtual machine is consuming too much and your running Mac applications become slow, you can easily reduce the [number of CPUs](/landing/pdfm-ug/v19-en-us/parallels-desktop-for-mac-19-users-guide/advanced-topics/working-with-virtual-machines/changing-the-number-of-virtual-cpus-allocated-to-a-virtual-machine.md) and [amount of memory](/landing/pdfm-ug/v19-en-us/parallels-desktop-for-mac-19-users-guide/use-windows-on-your-mac/optimizing-performance/allocating-specific-amount-of-memory-to-windows.md) assigned to the virtual machine.

To check the current CPU and memory usage, choose **Window** > **Show Resource Monitor**:

<figure><img src="/files/LmefBCsZHr3HIual5ThR" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** you may notice that the amount of memory consumed by a virtual machine is higher than the amount of memory allocated to this virtual machine on the [**CPU & Memory**](/landing/pdfm-ug/v19-en-us/parallels-desktop-for-mac-19-users-guide/parallels-desktop-preferences-and-virtual-machine-settings/virtual-machine-settings/hardware-settings/cpu-and-memory-settings.md) tab. It's normal; the resource monitor shows the memory consumption of all virtual machine processes.
{% endhint %}


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