CPU Utilization Is Wrong (2017)
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
brendangregg.comTechstory
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CPU UtilizationPerformance MonitoringSystem Administration
Key topics
CPU Utilization
Performance Monitoring
System Administration
The article 'CPU Utilization is Wrong' discusses the limitations and potential misinterpretations of CPU utilization metrics, with commenters sharing their understanding and related discussions on the topic.
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Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
2d
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4
54-60h
Avg / period
2.5
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 8, 2025 at 4:06 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM EDT
2d after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
4 comments in 54-60h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Sep 11, 2025 at 12:14 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04
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Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45165749Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 5:54:29 PM
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Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45110688
%CPU utilization is a lie - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45110688 - Sept 2025 (162 comments)
Also these past discussions of the OP:
CPU Utilization Is Wrong (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36580006 - July 2023 (57 comments)
CPU Utilization Is Wrong - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23827032 - July 2020 (1 comment)
CPU Utilization is Wrong - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14301739 - May 2017 (91 comments)
E.g. if I have 1 core and utilization is 3 then if I had 3 cores they would run exactly at 100%
Depends on what you're counting, among other things. (Not to mention when you took the samples being averaged).