VDS dedicated cores explained
The phrase dedicated cores appears on almost every VDS plan, yet it is rarely explained. Here is what it means in plain language.
Shared vCPUs
On a typical VPS, the host may give out more virtual CPUs than there are physical cores, assuming not everyone is busy at once. This is called overcommitting. It works well until neighbours get busy and you wait for CPU time. That waiting is sometimes called steal time.
Dedicated cores
With dedicated cores, the CPU capacity assigned to you is reserved for your server. Other customers should not take it. The result is more predictable performance, which is why games, databases and latency-sensitive apps like it.
Things worth knowing
- A vCPU may be a thread rather than a full physical core, depending on the provider
- Dedicated does not mean the same as a bare metal server
- Clock speed still matters, since one fast core beats several slow ones for many games
See it on your own server
- nproc shows how many vCPUs you have
- lscpu shows the CPU model, threads and speed
- top or htop shows a field named st, which is steal time
- vmstat 1 also shows st in its last column
A steal value that stays above a few percent suggests the CPU is being shared. Near zero is healthy.
Test performance simply
- sysbench cpu run after sudo apt install sysbench gives a rough benchmark
- Run it at different times of day and compare
- Large swings point to contention
Matching cores to workloads
- Game servers: favour strong single-core speed
- Databases: steady cores and enough RAM
- Web apps: several cores help with parallel requests
- Build jobs: more cores shorten the time
Tabi Cloud notes
Ask us in a Discord ticket about the exact CPU setup of a plan before ordering, so you know what you get. We run 24/7 uptime, include DDoS protection on all plans, and let you change plans any time.
Commands vary by distribution, so adjust them if needed.