What is a high load average?
it is important to determine whether the load is cpu-bound (processes waiting for cpu resources), ram-bound (high ram usage that has moved into swap) or I/O-bound (processes fighting for disk or network I/O)
for instance, if you run an application that generates a high number of simultaneous threads at different points, and all of these threads are launched at once, you might see your load spike to 20,40 or higher as they all compete for system resources.
Typically systems seem to be more responsive when under cpu-bound load than under I/O-bound load. a system that runs out of ram resources often appear to have I/O-bound load, since once the system starts using swap storage on the disk, it can consume disk resources and cause a downward spiral as processes slow to a halt.
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