Load Averages - Pi 3B versus Pi Zero W

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
1

I am trying to migrate my slideshow and background music player application from a 3B to the Zero W. The load averages seem to be higher than 1 for the Zero W, is that to be expected, and should it be of any concern?

From the 3B setup -

Kodi Version: 18.3
OSMC VERSION_ID=“2019.07-1”
temp=64.5’C
07:57:03 up 45 days, 11:48, 1 user, load average: 0.25, 0.32, 0.31

From the Zero W setup -

Kodi Version: 18.3
OSMC VERSION_ID=“2019.07-1”
temp=56.2’C
07:58:44 up 13:40, 1 user, load average: 1.15, 1.21, 1.20

2

The Pi Zero W has about 20% the total processing power of the 3B (1 core @ 1GHz vs. 4 cores at 1.4GHz).

If you multiply the load average of the 3B by 5, you get 1.25, 1.60, 1.55, which is in line with what you are seeing from the Pi W, so I wouldn’t be worried.