[CentOS] NIC interrupts and packets per second ratio, how to calculate? There must be some way...

[Alex Flex]

Hello again guys,

Iam trying to asses the best hardware for a machine that procceses a 
high number of packets per second on its NIC. THe only way I can achieve 
this without guesses is If iam able to understand or test what the 
number of interrupts available per core and how to translate that to PPS 
capabilities.

So far ive been testing an Core I5 CPU  and was able to achieve up to 
400k packets (small syn packets) in a single core (2.8Ghz i think..) 
untill the point where 100% was reported to serve as hardware 
interrupts, yet what is the math behind this?

In any case, i find this rather low and confused as I know for a fact 
that small home routers even on gigabit have specs that detail they can 
do packet forwarding at rates up to 1.4 million pps and iam sure there 
CPU is no where as powerfull as a 2.8Ghz Core I5 core.

Any orientation is much appreciated.

Alex