# Vitals now shows the Neural Engine and lets you customize how it looks

By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Oct 10, 2026. Topics: Product Update.
Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals-neural-engine-customization

> Vitals has a new Neural Engine tab that shows how hard it is working and which apps are using it, and a Customize page for colors, fonts and spacing.

I shipped a big update to **[Vitals](https://vitalsmac.com)** this week. It adds two things: a tab for the Neural Engine, and a page where you can change how Vitals looks.

If you missed the launch, Vitals is an Activity Monitor alternative for Mac. It groups every process under the app it belongs to, so you see about 60 apps instead of 1,000 processes. I wrote about [why I built it](https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals) when it came out.

## The Neural Engine tab

Every Mac with Apple silicon has a Neural Engine. It does the work behind dictation, photo search, transcription and other AI that runs on your Mac. More apps use it every month, and Activity Monitor does not show it.

Vitals now has a tab for it. It shows:

- How hard the Neural Engine is working right now
- Which apps are using it
- A chart of the last minutes

You can also put it in the menu bar and on the Overview. If an app keeps the Neural Engine busy for 20 minutes, Vitals tells you.

## The Customize page

Until now Vitals looked one way, the way I like it. Now you can change it at **Settings → Customize**. A preview at the top changes as you choose, so you see the result right away.

- **Chart colors.** Vitals' own colors, Monochrome, or Accessible, a set that stays easy to tell apart with color blindness.
- **Font for the numbers.** Rounded, San Francisco, SF Mono, New York, or any font on your Mac, from light to bold.
- **Spacing.** Compact brings the cards and rows closer together, so more fits on one screen.
- **Chart length.** The last 5, 15 or 30 minutes.
- **Float on Top.** The Vitals window stays above your other windows while you work.

Exported pictures follow your choices. They use your font, and they can be light, dark or transparent, with or without the Vitals icon and name.

## Menu bar readings that turn red

This one is small, and I use it all day. Turn on **Show Readings in Red Under Strain** in **Settings → Layout → Menu Bar**. A reading in the menu bar then turns red while it is under strain: CPU or GPU at 90%, memory under pressure, a nearly full disk, a hot Mac. You only need to look when something is red.

## How to get it

All of this is in Vitals 1.5 and later. There is a [page for this release](https://vitalsmac.com/changelog/1.5) with pictures of the new tab and the Customize page.

The update is free for everyone who owns Vitals. Vitals offers it the next time it checks for updates. New to Vitals? [Get it for Mac](https://vitalsmac.com/#pricing).

If you want a color, a font or a setting that is not there, [email me](mailto:hi@vitalsmac.com).