Linux – Understanding CPU Usage Over 100% in Top Output

linuxtop

Here is the top output which I gathered:
top output

I noticed that top is showing vlc's cpu usage is > 100%.

Can anybody please justify me why it is showing like this, whether this is a bug in top application or something else.

Best Answer

You are in a multi-core/multi-CPU environment and top is working in Irix mode. That means that your process (vlc) is performing a computation that keeps 1.2 CPUs/cores busy. That could mean 100%+20%, 60%+60%, etc.

Press 'I' (capital i, Shift+i) to switch to Solaris mode. You get the same value divided by the number of cores/CPUs.

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