Rubbish.Graaf_van_Vlaanderen said:The computer load is not just determined by the CPU alone, but also by the whole system.
Although the CPU is the heart of the computer, the same machine can be heavily loaded if under relative low CPU loads. For example a file operation can bring the hard disk under heavy load.
As you can see in 'top', there is not just 'CPU' percentage but also 'system' percentage.
last pid: 76917; load averages: 0.57, 0.44, 0.32 up 136+21:00:21 04:01:57
61 processes: 1 running, 60 sleeping
CPU: [B]3.3% user,[/B] 0.0% nice, 1.5% system, 0.0% interrupt, 95.2% idle
Mem: 262M Active, 6461M Inact, 667M Wired, 211M Cache, 399M Buf, 313M Free
Swap: 8192M Total, 140K Used, 8192M Free
PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
918 root 1 44 0 26472K 7760K select 3 926:56 0.10% snmpd
17505 _sphinx 1 69 0 23132K 3112K select 0 145:00 0.00% searchd
889 root 1 44 0 10396K 2116K select 1 6:32 0.00% ntpd
801 bind 11 4 0 36172K 25324K kqread 1 3:20 0.00% named
1159 root 1 44 0 10600K 2816K select 3 3:10 0.00% sendmail
724 root 1 44 0 5644K 1032K select 2 3:03 0.00% syslogd
47187 root 1 52 0 13688K 2144K select 2 1:37 0.00% sshd
1172 root 1 8 0 6704K 1196K nanslp 2 0:41 0.00% cron
68807 root 1 44 0 85244K 6868K select 1 0:34 0.00% httpd
55433 mysql 9 44 0 458M 180M ucond 2 0:09 0.00% mysqld
1269 user1 1 44 0 8124K 1820K select 6 0:09 0.00% screen
1165 smmsp 1 20 0 10600K 2560K pause 0 0:03 0.00% sendmail
44844 www 1 4 0 87292K 11264K accept 6 0:02 0.00% httpd
44848 www 1 4 0 87292K 11196K accept 0 0:02 0.00% httpd
44852 www 1 4 0 87292K 11476K accept 0 0:02 0.00% httpd
44854 www 1 4 0 87292K 11076K accept 5 0:02 0.00% httpd
last pid: 8840; load averages: 3.59, 3.43, 3.58 up 137+04:49:17 11:50:53
126 processes: 6 running, 120 sleeping
CPU 0: 51.1% user, 0.0% nice, 14.3% system, 0.0% interrupt, 34.6% idle
CPU 1: 54.9% user, 0.0% nice, 3.8% system, 0.0% interrupt, 41.4% idle
CPU 2: 68.4% user, 0.0% nice, 13.5% system, 0.0% interrupt, 18.0% idle
CPU 3: 13.5% user, 0.0% nice, 6.8% system, 3.0% interrupt, 76.7% idle
CPU 4: 19.4% user, 0.0% nice, 6.7% system, 0.0% interrupt, 73.9% idle
CPU 5: 18.8% user, 0.0% nice, 7.5% system, 0.0% interrupt, 73.7% idle
CPU 6: 20.3% user, 0.0% nice, 3.0% system, 0.0% interrupt, 76.7% idle
CPU 7: 0.7% user, 0.0% nice, 1.5% system, 0.0% interrupt, 97.8% idle
Mem: 437M Active, 5431M Inact, 669M Wired, 291M Cache, 399M Buf, 1087M Free
Swap: 8192M Total, 140K Used, 8192M Free
PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
55433 mysql 66 44 0 533M 293M ucond 2 0:10 9.72% mysqld
918 root 1 44 0 26472K 7760K select 5 929:28 0.00% snmpd
17505 _sphinx 1 96 0 23080K 3112K select 0 147:12 0.00% searchd
889 root 1 44 0 10396K 2116K select 3 6:33 0.00% ntpd
801 bind 11 4 0 36172K 25516K kqread 3 3:21 0.00% named
1159 root 1 44 0 10600K 2816K select 2 3:10 0.00% sendmail
724 root 1 44 0 5644K 1032K select 7 3:03 0.00% syslogd
47187 root 1 44 0 13688K 2144K select 1 1:37 0.00% sshd
1172 root 1 8 0 6704K 1196K nanslp 1 0:41 0.00% cron