Breaking down CPU speed: How utilization impacts performance

This post details experiments conducted in the Large Unicorn Collider (LUC) environment to measure CPU time per request and latency percentage increases across different instance types as CPU utilization rises. It analyzes the impact of CPU frequency changes due to Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading, and proposes a method to identify an optimal CPU utilization threshold (the "Golden Ratio") by plotting CPU utilization vs. CPU time (latency) and defining an acceptable degradation limit. The post also documents the debugging and resolution of an outlier case where a disabled CPU C-state prevented optimal Turbo Boost behavior, leading to steady CPU frequencies below advertised maximums.