Should CPU usage be restricted?

Question

I have a computation-intensive application, which needs to run on a Windows server with no other applications on it. The application is designed for horizontal scalability so that it can run on multiple servers if the input load is more. Should I be worried about the CPU usage and ensure that every time it goes over a certain threshold, I should bring in a new server and get the application running on it to spread the load? Or is it ok if the app runs continuously at 100% CPU load?

Basically are there any disadvantages of letting an app run at 100%? I understand overheating of the CPU could be an issue. Also context switching between threads of the application could cause the overall thorughput to be reduced.

Any other? Is there any guideline regarding a threshold to be set for CPU utilization?

Thanks, Yash

Rather than being worried about how you can run at 100% CPU all the time, the question should be why the application consumes that much CPU constantly? — Thorsten Dittmar, Dec 10 '12 at 15:40
http://superuser.com/questions/431309/what-is-the-impact-of-running-the-cpu-at-100-for-long-periods-at-a-time — Paul Collingwood, Dec 10 '12 at 15:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 10 '12 at 15:39

Intel (i) series i5 and i7 allow hyper-threading and turbo-boosting which makes the CPU run at 105-110% from my knowledge.

Overheating will be a problem but if you can set affinities for different cores on different times if you have a quad core 2 can run on turbo-boost while the other two cool down. Assuming you can do that.

I hope I answered your question (in a way).

Should CPU usage be restricted?

1 Answers1