What do "Load Average" Numbers in Terminal Mean?

Discussion in 'macOS' started by eXan, Sep 27, 2006.

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  1. eXan, Sep 27, 2006

    eXan macrumors 601

    eXan

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    Russia
    #1
    Hey there. I usually run the "uptime" command in Terminal to check how many days my Mac has been on, but it also shows 3 strange numbers and I dont seem to understand them Those numbers are "load averages:" and currently they look like this:

    uptime
    22:25 up 1 day, 12:20, 2 users, load averages: 3.02 3.14 2.46

    Can somebody explain how these numbers work?

    Thanks :)
     
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  2. Mitthrawnuruodo, Sep 27, 2006

    Mitthrawnuruodo Moderator emeritus

    Mitthrawnuruodo

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    #2
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  3. iMeowbot, Sep 27, 2006

    iMeowbot macrumors G3

    iMeowbot

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    #3
    On Unix-like systems, the load is the number of processes waiting for CPU time at any given moment (the running process is counted too). The three numbers are weighted averages of the load over the past 1, 5 and 15 minutes.
     
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  4. eXan, Sep 27, 2006

    eXan thread starter macrumors 601

    eXan

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    #4
    Thank you guys :)
     
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  5. Echo toxin, Sep 27, 2006

    Echo toxin macrumors newbie

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    Aug 13, 2006
    #5
    From what I can gather, the load figures represent how much of a CPU is required. For instance, if your load is under 1.0, then your single CPU is handling the work well. If you are above 1.0 and don't have dual-core then you've got a bottleneck at that time. So on my Mac mini for example, a load less than 2.0 is fine.

    If your load is on 3+ and you only have a single-core, single-CPU then it is quite overloaded.
     
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