[beagle3]

I understand that very well. But non of the standard tools that manage CPU understand that, and most people don't either.

If I had a nickel for every time I had to explain why "You are at 50% CPU now, but you can't actually run twice as many processes on this machine and get the same runtime", I'd be able to buy a large frapuccino or two at starbucks.

Perhaps I'm uninformed though - is there a tool like htop, which would give me an idea of how close am I to maxing out a CPU?

[pertymcpert]

No there isn’t. But if you understand it I don’t get why you think 20% isn’t a good performance boost, especially considering the rate of return for power and area in silicon.

[beagle3]

Because many people believe it is a 100% improvement, plan/budget accordingly, and then look for help.

As far as silicon/power it is nice, but IIRC (I am not involved in purchasing anymore) it used to cost over 50% in USD for those 20% in performance when you non-HT parts were common.

[pertymcpert]

What a strange way to measure the benefits of a performance optimization: "how people will perceive it and then ask me for help".

[beagle3]

You ignored the price issue, which was measurable and real, but also:

It (used to be) my job. Does "because people fall for deceptive marketing, waste money, and then waste my time trying to salvage their reputation" sound better?