> OK. I missed the 8 cores obviously. it makes sense, but
>
> Still, I feel uncomfortable with the notion itself and would rather
> think that povray is rendering at 100%, divided over 8 cores... each
> working at 100%... for me, that does not add up to 800%, only to faster
> rendering, which is why I guess this is a semantic question.

Yes, typically % is defined as % of some (obvious) maximum. Defining CPU 
load as a % of only 1 core being fully loaded seems a bit 
counter-intuitive. But so long as everyone is aware of this, and they 
know exactly how many cores are in the CPU then it shouldn't be a huge 
problem. If we didn't know there were 8 cores, 800% could mean anything.

Also, in general, when you combine percentages from various bits you 
need to sum the numerators and denominators separately, otherwise you 
get a wrong result.

eg

Bag 1 has 6 apples out of space for 10 : 6/10 = 60% full
Bag 2 has 3 apples out of space for 4  : 3/4  = 75% full

Combined there are 9 apples out of space for 14, so 64% full. NOT 135% full!

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