High CPU Usage — Is This Normal?

Tags: performance, cpu, monitoring, hosting

7DTD will spike a single core hard during AI-heavy moments. Moderate to high usage is expected; constant 100% on one core needs tuning.

What is normal

• Idle or low pop: 10–30% on one core, light use on others.
• Horde night: one core can peg near 100% briefly; overall CPU may look modest if other cores are idle.

When to worry

• The main core is pinned at 100% even with few players and no hordes.
• TPS drops and rubber-banding appear alongside the peg.

Fixes

• Lower MaxSpawnedZombies, view distance, and blood moon counts incrementally.
• Move the server to a higher-clock CPU or reduce other services on the same host.
• Ensure the server isn’t thermal throttling; check temps and power limits.
• Remove noisy mods that spam the log or add heavy AI.

Monitoring tips

• Track per-core usage, not just total CPU.
• Correlate spikes with log timestamps (saves, chunk loads, horde events) before changing settings.