Turbostat

turbostat is a Linux command-line utility that prints various measurements, including numerous per-CPU measurements. This article provides an introduction to using it.

Note: The power profiling overview is worth reading at this point if you haven’t already. It may make parts of this document easier to understand.

Invocation

turbostat must be invoked as the super-user:

sudo turbostat

If you get an error saying "turbostat: no /dev/cpu/0/msr", you need to run the following command:

sudo modprobe msr

The output is as follows:

    Core     CPU Avg_MHz   %Busy Bzy_MHz TSC_MHz     SMI  CPU%c1  CPU%c3  CPU%c6  CPU%c7 CoreTmp  PkgTmp Pkg%pc2 Pkg%pc3 Pkg%pc6 Pkg%pc7 PkgWatt CorWatt GFXWatt
       -       -     799   21.63    3694    3398       0   12.02    3.16    1.71   61.48      49      49    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00   22.68   15.13    1.13
       0       0     821   22.44    3657    3398       0    9.92    2.43    2.25   62.96      39      49    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00   22.68   15.13    1.13
       0       4     708   19.14    3698    3398       0   13.22
       1       1     743   20.26    3666    3398       0   21.40    4.01    1.42   52.90      49
       1       5    1206   31.98    3770    3398       0    9.69
       2       2     784   21.29    3681    3398       0   11.78    3.10    1.13   62.70      40
       2       6     782   21.15    3698    3398       0   11.92
       3       3     702   19.14    3670    3398       0    8.39    3.09    2.03   67.36      39
       3       7     648   17.67    3667    3398       0    9.85

The man page has good explanations of what each column measures. The various “Watt” measurements come from the Intel RAPL MSRs.

If you run with the -S option you get a smaller range of measurements that fit on a single line, like the following:

 Avg_MHz   %Busy Bzy_MHz TSC_MHz     SMI  CPU%c1  CPU%c3  CPU%c6  CPU%c7 CoreTmp  PkgTmp Pkg%pc2 Pkg%pc3 Pkg%pc6 Pkg%pc7 PkgWatt CorWatt GFXWatt
    3614   97.83    3694    3399       0    2.17    0.00    0.00    0.00      77      77    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00   67.50   57.77    0.46