Window workflow on Apple Silicon Macs with Rectangle

Performance on Apple Silicon

Rectangle App is a native Apple Silicon application. On M1, M2, M3, and M4 Macs it runs with virtually zero CPU overhead — a System Monitor check on an idle Mac shows Rectangle consuming less than 0.1% CPU. The app initialises in under a second and responds to shortcut triggers instantly.

Snapping with Rectangle on an M3 Mac feels noticeably more immediate than on equivalent Intel machines, thanks to the faster GPU and display compositing pipeline.

Native vs Rosetta

Rectangle has been a universal binary (native ARM + Intel) since shortly after the M1 launch. If you check Activity Monitor, it will show "Apple" under Architecture for Rectangle App on any Apple Silicon Mac — no Rosetta translation layer.

Some older window managers still run under Rosetta on Apple Silicon Macs. This adds a small delay to shortcut response and increases memory usage. One of the practical reasons to choose Rectangle over legacy alternatives is that it's been Silicon-native from the start.

Apple Silicon tips

ProMotion displays (M3 MacBook Pro and above) run at up to 120 Hz. Window snapping animations on these displays are smooth with Rectangle — you can see each frame of the window resizing to its target position. If you find animations distracting, Rectangle Preferences has a toggle to reduce motion.

On MacBook Pro with the notch (M1 Pro and later), Rectangle respects the safe area around the notch and snaps windows below it correctly.

Frequently asked questions