Display

The Display settings control how PeakHour looks and how often it updates.

Main Window

The Main Window list sets which sections the main window shows, and in which order.

• Select or clear the checkbox of a section to show it or hide it.
• Drag a section by its handle to move it.
• Restore Defaults shows every section again, in the default order: Usage Monitor, Internet Dashboard, Advisor, Monitors.

Each change shows in the main window at once. You can make the same changes from the menu of a section header. See Customize the main window.

A section whose feature is off is dim, with a note such as Usage Monitor is off or Needs the Internet Dashboard. Click the link beside the note to open the settings of that feature. The Advisor row shows only on macOS 26 and later.

Your layout syncs with iCloud.

Refresh & Units

Setting	Description
Refresh Interval	How often PeakHour polls each monitor for new data. More frequent polling uses more resources on your Mac and on the monitored devices.
Bandwidth Units	The units used to display throughput throughout PeakHour — bits per second (Kbit/s, Mbit/s, Gbit/s) or bytes per second (KByte/s, MByte/s, GByte/s).

Monitors

Setting	Description
Summary Bar	Whether the summary (current readings) appears above or below the graph.
Graph Smoothing	Applies a rolling average to smooth out irregularities. Higher settings make the graph smoother but slower to reflect changes; lower settings make it more responsive but more jagged.
Fuel Gauges	Displays a bar behind the bandwidth numbers showing the current speed relative to the device’s maximum bandwidth, when that’s known.

Monitor Layout

Choose how monitors are arranged in the main window.

• Single Column — all monitors in one full-width column; the window can be resized to any width.
• Multi Column — monitors laid out in a grid at a fixed width, so you can fit several per row. The window snaps to multiples of that width.

Setting	Description
Column Width (Multi Column)	The fixed width of each monitor card.
Graph Height	The height of monitors that show a graph. Summary-only monitors aren’t affected.

Tip

You can also resize a monitor card directly — drag its right edge to change the width, or its bottom edge to change the height.

Bandwidth Colors

The colors used for Download and Upload traffic on Bandwidth Monitor graphs. A bandwidth monitor can have its own colors instead: turn on Custom Colors in its settings. See Bandwidth Monitor → Colors.

Latency Colors

The colors used to indicate latency on Latency Monitor graphs, blended as a gradient between them:

Color	Meaning
Normal	Good latency — at or near a monitor’s measured minimum.
Slight Congestion	Mild congestion.
Heavy Congestion	Significant congestion.
Packet Loss	The color of the packet-loss line in the History view, which shows the percentage of packets lost in each period. It isn’t shown on the live monitor graph.

Click Reset Colors… to restore the defaults.

Congestion Thresholds

How much latency above a monitor’s measured minimum counts as congestion:

Setting	Description
Slight Congestion	Additional latency above the minimum before the connection is considered slightly congested (default 75 ms).
Heavy Congestion	Additional latency above the Slight Congestion level before it’s considered heavily congested (default 125 ms, so 200 ms above the minimum).

Click Reset Thresholds… to restore the defaults. Each monitor’s minimum-latency baseline is set on its own Latency Monitor settings. Each Internet site uses these thresholds against its own minimum.

Interface

Setting	Description
Appearance	System follows the macOS appearance (System Settings → Appearance), or force Light or Dark.
Smooth Scrolling	Slides the graph sideways smoothly using Core Animation. Uses more of your Mac’s resources.
Enable Vibrancy	The ‘frosted glass’ effect that lets colors behind the window bleed through — affects monitors and History windows.

Note

Changing Appearance or Enable Vibrancy requires restarting PeakHour. Vibrancy uses more resources to render, so turn it off to optimise battery or performance.